While plenty of musical acts have been accused of corrupting young listeners with their lyrics for a variety of reasons over the years, a surprising “soft-rock” hit might have sparked the most concern of all.
During the so-called “Satanic panic” phase of the ’80s, when conservative critics accused bands such as Led Zeppelin of hiding devilish messages in their music, the Reverend Paul Risley of Cornerstone Church in Burlington, Wisconsin, claimed that “Hotel California” referred to the inn owned by Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, according to Far Out Magazine.
Risley went on to say that the song also mentioned the type of wine used in Satanic rituals and noted that the year 1969 was the same year The Satanic Bible was released, pointing to the line in the song: “We haven’t had this spirit here / Since 1969.”
What ‘Hotel California’ is really about
Perhaps unsurprisingly, members of the Eagles have repeatedly denied that “Hotel California” has anything to do with the devil.
During a conversation with Rob Rush for Ultimate Guitar, guitarist Don Felder revealed that most people’s interpretations of the iconic lyrics are way off the mark.
“I’ve probably heard four or five hundred explanations about what the song’s about, all of which are wrong. There’s no Satanic factor or devil-worshipping, or any weird stuff like that,” Felder said.
“It has nothing to do with any of that. Really, it’s just the song about the underbelly industry in Los Angeles, how it can be less than beautiful. There’s some important lines in that song, a little salute to Steely Dan,” he continued, adding, “They have this line in one of their songs that says, ‘Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening’ – or fighting or something – so we gave them back a salute in response to that lyric by writing something about Steely Dan. We had ‘steely knives,’ which is kind of the same thing.” (The lyric Felder referenced is in the Steely Dan song “Everything You Did.”)
While Satan isn’t a character in “Hotel California,” Felder went on to share that the tragic inspiration behind the song’s very last line was [singer-songwriter and Eagles collaborator] Jackson Browne‘s wife, “who was struggling to be an actress, constantly going to auditions and being turned down, rejected, actually wound up committing suicide because of her depression from living in L.A.”
“That’s the other ugly part of the underbelly of the industry, and the last line in the song, ‘You can never leave,’ it’s a salute to her,” Felder said.
This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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