Sad. He was my favorite Eagle. However, he and Henley did not write “Hotel California” by themselves. The music was written by Don Felder. Without the music it’s just a poem. Felder, and his wife confirmed, that the beginning is verbatim the way Felder played it for the rest of the band. And in the beginning Frey and Henley said they didn’t think it was that good of a song.
Felder said in an interview that they had an agreement that whoever wrote most of the song got their name first in the credits. Frey and Henley moved him to third position then eventually started leaving him off all together. He sued and I think he got $40 million.
Yeah, but he stole the music from Jethro Tull. :-)