Tribune: Why do you grant e-mail interviews instead of phone ones? What do you think of the Internet? What kind of effect has it had on the band? Had the Internet been around in the 1970s, do you think the Eagles’ fan-base would be as large?
Henley: See previous answer. I do only e-mail interviews now because (a) I can do them on my own time, and (b) I can be more articulate — I don’t get misquoted or paraphrased as much. Replying via e-mail gives me time to think about my answers and, as mentioned above, it gives me a chance to try to answer the same old questions in a different way.
I think the Internet is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a miraculous tool for learning, communicating, creating etc., but the Information Highway is littered with rubbish. In terms of meaningful “news” content, it’s far worse than newspapers, magazines or television because it gives a worldwide forum to know-nothings. Every egotistical nitwit who thinks he has something important to say has a blog. Everybody’s an expert, now. In his book, “The Cult of the Amateur,” Andrew Keen warns that, “In today’s self-broadcasting culture, where amateurism is celebrated and anyone with an opinion, however ill-informed, can publish a blog, post a video on YouTube or change an entry in Wikipedia, the distinction between trained expert and uninformed amateur becomes dangerously blurred. When anonymous bloggers and videographers, unconstrained by professional standards, editorial filters (or copyright laws), can alter the public debate and manipulate public opinion, truth becomes a commodity to be bought, sold, packaged and reinvented.”
Since we’re an older band, I don’t believe that the Internet has had much of an impact as far as promoting our music. It has, however, had a negative impact on us in terms of piracy and all the illegal footage of our live concerts that is posted every week when we are on tour. A significant percentage of the stuff that is posted on YouTube is a violation of U.S. Copyright laws, but there is so much of it that it’s hard to police. YouTube has no filtering system, no preemptive gatekeeping mechanism, but it’s going to develop some kind of technology that will stem the ongoing infringement or else spend a lot of time in court battling thousands of copyright holders.