“How many rock and rollers will tell you to drink water?” Don Felder joked while making his first comments following his February 13 medical emergency. “None that I know! They're always like, ‘Have some bourbon, have some vodka.’”
Felder — famous for playing a white Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck electric guitar — learned the value of drinking water after he nearly collapsed while performing on the Rock Legends Cruise. The former Eagles guitarist had just begun leading his band into a performance of the group’s classic “Tequila Sunrise” when he stopped playing and looked disoriented. His girlfriend, Jaden Osborne, noticed something was wrong and rushed onstage to assist him, before others joined and helped the guitarist leave the stage.
In a conversation with Sal Cerrincione for Heartland Radio — which included fellow legends guitarist Robin Trower and Zombies singer Colin Blunstone — Felder expounded on what happened that day.
“I have always said that I’m going to rock till I drop,” Felder says. “I didn’t know it would be in the middle of ‘Tequila Sunrise’ instead of, like, ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ or ‘Hotel California,’ or something really fun.”
The 77-year-old guitarist said he felt fine the entire day before the show. “I felt naturally my 100 percent or my 99.9 percent,” he says. “And I went onstage, and I started the introduction for ‘Tequila Sunrise.’ I stepped back from the microphone, and I just was like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute. This feels like acid.’ I just felt like I’m leaving my body.”
Felder caught the attention of Osborne, who was standing offstage and instantly noticed something was wrong. “Jaden knows every look I’ve ever made to her,” he says. “She came right out onstage, grabbed me and had to get me offstage. She saved me from one of the most embarrassing things, which would have been to fall down onstage by myself. So I owe her big time.”
The guitarist revealed that the medical team checked his vital signs and found he was dehydrated. “Thirty minutes later, I was back, making bad jokes, and everybody in the place was laughing,” he said.
Felder noted that Jaden had left the room while he was unconscious to deal with paperwork. He asked the medical team to cover him with a sheet so that she’d think he expired while she was out of the room.
“She said, ‘It’s a good thing you didn’t do that, ‘cause I would’ve killed you.’”
Guitarist Robin Trower, who was also present at the discussion, said he had suffered a similar problem with dehydration “I nearly collapsed onstage,” he said, “but managed to make it to the side — and then collapse. So yeah, it's scary.”
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