DON FELDER TO PLAY NAMM FOUNDATION BENEFIT CONCERT
how to read music. So, I got a kind of a free Berkelee School of Music education. [Laughs.] So, I understand how important it is to give music-making opportunities to kids who don’t have the financial ability to have access to instruments in their lives. I’ve raised five kids myself, and I have nine grandkids and two great-granddaugh- ters, and I see the correlation between music and mathematics and science. If you’re exposed to music and learn music, it helps develop your intellectual ability in the math and sciences, as well. I’m a big proponent of helping kids in any way I can — espe- cially when it comes to access to music. MI: What’s your best music store memory? DF: The very first music store that opened in Gainesville was by a guy named Buster Lipham called Lipham Music. I used to go in there every afternoon after school and sit around, and they let me play guitars and I would demonstrate for people. Finally, they made me an employee, and I also started teaching kids in that music store. One of my students early on was this kind of scrawny, bucktoothed, blonde- headed kid who just walked in one day and his name was Tommy Petty — but you probably know him better as Tom Petty. MI: Wow! That sounds like one transformative music store. Can you tease any songs you might play during the “Play it Forward” concert? DF: I have an incredible group of musi- cians — probably the best group of musi- cians available. These guys have amazing pedigrees. I have people who were in the band Chicago and played keyboards for American Idol and Mariah Carey. My guitar player performs with Kenny Chesney. It’s a pleasure for me to go out and play with these guys, and it puts my musical show at just a really peak performance level. So, by the end of the night, everybody will be dancing and rocking out to songs, like “Take It Easy,” “Life In The Fast Lane” and “Hotel California.” It’ll just be a really wonderful evening of songs and music that people know and love and have heard on the radio for 50-something years. It’ll be a fun night. MI — By Katie Kailus
Don Felder
T his September, Don Felder, a former member of The Eagles, will take the stage of the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California, for the NAMM Founda- tion’s annual “Play it Forward” benefit concert. Music Inc. spoke exclusively with Felder ahead of the event to hear his thoughts on music education, his fa- vorite music store memories and what Eagles hits he might delight the crowd with during the Sept. 12 evening concert. Music Inc.: What made you want to get involved with the NAMM Foundation? Don Felder: I’ve been going to The NAMM Show every year, and I’ve met so many wonderful people, so I have a strong alli- ance to NAMM. As for the music education portion, I grew up desperately poor on a dirt road in the Deep South. There was no music
organization. I don’t even think there was a music store in town in Gainesville, Florida, when I was first started playing. I got my first guitar by trading a handful of Cherry Bombs to the kid across the street who had a messed up acoustic guitar. I had just seen Elvis Presley on television, and I thought, “That looks pretty cool. I think I’d like to do that.” I was about nine or 10 years old at the time. It was missing some strings, so I mowed lawns and washed cars to get the money to go to the drug store where they sold Black Diamond strings. [Laughs.] I was pretty much self-taught, learning everything by ear. I couldn’t read music until I started teaching guitar in this one music school called Hillis School of Music in Gainesville. Eventually, I started teaching kids guitar at his school, and for every hour I taught, I would go sit with Paul Hillis, and he would teach me music theory and
14 I MUSIC INC. I SEPTEMBER 2024
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