Don Henley Brought This Surprising Item On Tour With The Eagles
Superstar musicians — they are regular people like us, right? They put their pants on one leg at a time, need to eat, drink, and sleep just like us mere mortals. But they can also afford a lot of things that we can't while touring. According to NME, they did things like bring their own personal curry chef (The Darkness), lug around their own coffee machine that was way more complex than a Keurig (DZ Deathrays), and even a pinball machine (Ryan Adams). Eminem even made concert promoters build an area for his koi carp at one venue. Perhaps they liked listening to him spit verses on stage.
Some of those other items were more mundane, like the drummer for Warpaint bringing her own bags of Earl Grey tea, and a band member of the Charlatans bringing his own pair of moccasins to lounge around in after performing. That's not so unreasonable — it's all about comfort.
Those were certainly some high-end items — or people — that these band members absolutely HAD to have. It still pales in comparison to what Don Henley brought with him when he was with the Eagles on the "Hotel California" tour.
Don Henley brought his own bed?
The rock 'n' roll lifestyle can be rough. You travel from place to place and often have to be able to fall asleep in some uncomfortable places. It's all about where you can lay your heads for a night. As you get more successful, the options get better. The hotels get upgrades. The thread count on the sheets rise.
According to Purple Clover, Don Henley didn't want to deal with that. He had his own king-sized mattress and bed frame brought with him on the "Hotel California" tour so that he could get a solid night's sleep in each tour destination if he wanted to. That must have been fun for the roadies. "We have to set up the drums ... and his bed!" Have you tried to lug a king-sized mattress around? It's bulky and heavy, and it can be quite unwieldy at times, even with a special cover with handles that the group had made. They probably didn't feel they signed up for this part of the gig. Still, they did it.
Want to know the really fun part? Per Idolator, he didn't even use the bed at all! Perhaps he was generous and let a member of the roadie staff use it. Who knows. They probably would have preferred having to lug around a pinball machine or coffee maker.