Like a lot of musically inclined teenagers who grew up in the 1950s and '60s, Don Felder was influenced by seeing Elvis Presley on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
As luck would have it, his hometown, Gainesville, Fla., would prove to be a hotbed of talent, and Felder knew a lot of up-and-comers.
One of his first bands, The Continentals, also featured folk rocker Stephen Stills. Stills would later be replaced in the group by Bernie Leadon, who would later co-found The Eagles and bring Felder into that band.
Back in high school, however, Felder taught guitar lessons to Tom Petty and learned to play the slide guitar from Duane Allman.
That's pretty heady company.
"We were all hanging out together," Felder says.
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› What: Don Felder› When: 7 tonight› Where: Coke Stage
"It was always an honor to have lost a battle of the bands to Duane and Gregg, and we always did. They always won. Always. They were such fantastic players."
Felder says he always felt like being around such quality musicians made him want to be better, and that paid off when he left Florida for bigger cities.
"I always wanted to be as good or better than Duane. Of course, I never got there, but it was a friendly competition, and it pushed us all. When I got to places like Boston or New York, I thought, 'Wait a minute,' we can play with anybody.'"
He says he first noticed it when it went into a studio to record.
"I learned to engineer and how to make records. I could walk into a studio in LA and tell them how I wanted it miked and how I wanted it to sound. Word got around that I knew what I was doing."
He got his big break in 1973 when he was hired by a folk artist named David Blue for a tour, playing several instruments. Blue was opening for David Crosby and Graham Nash, and Felder says the headliners came to him three shows into the tour.
"Graham Nash calls and says they are sending their guitarist home," he recalls. "They want me to play for [Blue] and then for them. I went, 'Wow. OK.'"
During a break in the tour, Leadon invited him to play slide guitar on an Eagles recording, and the next day Glenn Frey invited him to join The Eagles.
"They were opening for Yes at the time, and for the life of me I don't know who thought that was a good idea, but I was jamming with Bernie, who was a great friend, and Glenn saw I was playing slide and having fun. They were recording 'Good Day in Hell.'"
Felder says he was making $1,500 a week as it was and having a good time. The Eagles were already known for internal strife, so he wasn't sure joining them was the right move. He called Nash for advice.
"He said, 'Absolutely. Call them tonight and accept.'"
Felder says he was welcomed with open arms, though it became awkward because Frey and Don Henley were pushing the group to leave behind the country roots that Leadon loved and move toward a radio-friendly pop sound.
"I was caught right in the middle," Felder says. "I loved Bernie and loved playing country music with him. Plus, people were quitting the band every day, it seemed like. There was a lot of discontent."
The shift proved popular with fans, obviously, as The Eagles went on to sell millions of records and were ranked 75th on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Felder wrote the music for one of the band's biggest hits, "Hotel California."
He was dismissed from the band in 2001 after questioning how royalties were being divided. Since then, he has recorded with dozens of other acts and had a solo career. He will perform tonight on the Coke Stage in the early headlining slot at 7 p.m.
Then he heads back out on tour with Styx and Foreigner.
"We love playing, and everybody gets along. Every couple of weeks, we rent out a bowling alley and take it over and have pizza. Everybody - drivers, crew, the bands. It's a big family."
Asked to look back at the things he's done and the people's he's met and played with, Felder says he wants to be remembered as "just a Southern boy that loved music. It's all I've ever wanted to do with my life was play music."
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.