I always thought the song was about heroin addiction. You can check out anytime you like but you can’t ever leave. Lit a candle and showed me the way. Steely knives being needles.
I never heard of any of them as junkies
Cocaine booze and quaaludes
And girls....often barely legal groupies at parties in the Hills
The usual late 70s fare
These were Texan and Midwestern boys caught up in the hedonism of LA and music machine of Irving Azoff
That’s what the song is about
Henley also wrote about the death of summer of love idealism like deadhead sticker on a Cadillac
Certain kind of fool is my favorite eagles song and one last note
No Jackson Browne
No Eagles
Joe Walsh equals good guy who the girls loved for that....but he was wild
Henley was stoned/bored in a hotel room somewhere in middle America while on tour ... late night TV was on ... and he decided to write a song that reminded him of Twilight Zone ,,, or at least that’s what he now gives as the genesis of the song in radio interviews.