Don Henley recently sat down for an interview with The Guardian and somewhere in the conversation, things shifted to Kanye West. He went on to slam the "All Day" rapper and his potential run for president as well as his one time collaborator Frank Ocean, calling him "talentless."
During the interview, Henley opened up about a number of things including being bombarded by fans in public, going to court with his former bandmates from the Eagles and the new trend of illegally sampling music. While discussing the latter, Frank Ocean's name was thrown into the mix. The Channel Orange crooner, to Henley's displeasure, sampled "Hotel California" on his 2011 mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra.
Henley previously criticized Ocean saying, “You can’t rewrite the lyrics to somebody else’s songs, record it and put it on the internet.”
Apparently, he still shares those same feelings. “Some of these young kids have grown up in a world that doesn’t understand or respect copyright material or intellectual property,” he said, more recently. “They look at songs as interactive playthings...I didn’t think he was cool. I thought he was a talentless little prick. And I still do."
When asked if he'd feel differently if the deed had been done by an artist like Kanye West, Henley offered up an interesting response: “No, I’d be just as pissed off. I don’t like him, either.”
In recent weeks, West has rallied up quite a few supporters for his intention to run for the 2020 presidency. Henley is clearly not one of them.
“He won’t be president,” he said. “He’s either incredibly arrogant or incredibly insecure, or some combination of the two.”
In September, Henley released Cass County, his first solo album in 15 years. The album includes guest appearances by Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Jamey Johnson, Alison Krauss and Vince Gill, along with Martie Maguire and Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks and Court Yard Hounds.
