Where I Am Now

Cass County is Don Henley's first country solo album and is named after the area where he was raised. The closing track embodies the themes of the record, which are Henley returning to his roots both personally and musically, having originally left in order to make his career happen. He explained to Ultimate Classic Rock: "There's a great quote from the poet T. S. Eliot that I've been quoting a lot lately. It says, 'We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all of our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.' I'm still trying to get to know my hometown and what it's all about, because every time I go back there, I see it through different eyes, even if only a year has elapsed. I do see it as a microcosm of America, and the world as a whole. I want to help my hometown if I can … It's a creative place for me; it's the place where I can still find peace." "I've got about a 200-acre farm there on the outskirts, and I go out there, and I can see the stars, which I can't see in the city. If you look up - one thing we don't do enough as human beings, we don't look up. We're looking down, or straight ahead. I take my kids there and make campfires. We walk through the woods. So it's a place of solace and solitude for me, where I can get some thinking done, and some writing done, and regain a sense of who I am. It's how I can re-locate myself in the present and have time to think about those things, and the circular nature of life. It's just a place of reflection, and a place where I can get perspective." "I've come to learn in my age that perspective is probably the most important - besides your health, perspective is the most important thing you can have, and it's hard to get, and it's even harder to keep. [Laughs]. Especially when you're on tour. So that's what my hometown means to me."