Close your eyes and you can hear Don Felder’s legendary, haunting guitar introduction. You can hear Don Henley on vocals. You can hear Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner and Joe Walsh on background vocals.
You can hear Felder’s guitar solo later in the song.
You’d swear you were listening to The Eagles’ 1976 classic Hotel California, the title track to their mega-selling album.
But you’re not.
You’re listening, instead, to a flawless cover of the rock classic by Vernon’s Justin J. Moore, known for covering songs with his musical parents, Paul Moore and Melina Schein.
And, unfortunately for Moore and his audience, all you can do is listen.
Moore twice has posted his cover video to YouTube, only to have it blocked from the site by a publishing company on copyright grounds.
“They took the video down again. Major bummer,” said Moore.
Moore freelances and produces cover songs for clients, which has been earning him a living over the past year with COVID.
One client wanted Moore to rewrite Hotel California, produce and sing it for his wife who is suffering with Parkinson’s Disease.
“I wrote about how they met in India, their city and about their struggles to the tune of Hotel California,” said Moore, 20.
The couple loved the song, said Moore, who has always been a fan of the Eagles’ classic. So he decided to do his version in his bedroom. Moore plays electric, bass and acoustic guitar in the six- minute 24-second video, sings Henley’s lead vocal and provides the backing vocals, and nails Felder’s solo.
“It was something I couldn’t tear myself away from,” said Moore. “I was working 10 hours a day for four days on this.”
Moore’s cover can be heard here.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated Monday, Feb. 22, to include Moore’s video being removed from YouTube
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