David Crosby, whose incredible harmonies with two different iconic bands propelled him to music stardom in the 1960s even though his notoriously volatile temper often soured relationships with his bandmates, has died at the age of 81, his family said .
A statement from Crosby’s wife, released to Variety magazine, confirmed the musician’s death “after a long illness” and said he died “surrounded with love by his wife and soul mate Jan and son Django”.
In a career spanning six decades, Crosby first spent three years with the Roger McGuinn-led Byrds, who scored #1 hits in the mid-1960s with Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn, Turn, Turn.
Soon after, he was joined by Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and sometimes Neil Young. Both configurations produced soft hits such as Teach Your Children, Just A Song Before I Go and Wasted On the Way, as well as passionate protest songs such as Wooden Ships, Almost Cut My Hair and Ohio.
Crosby has also released eight solo albums, starting with the acclaimed If I Could Only Remember My Name in 1971 and most recently For Free in 2021.
Crosby was a founding member of the Byrds, seen here in an undated photo in London for their UK tour. From left, Crosby, Chris Hillman, Jim McGuinn, Michael Clarke and Gene Clarke. (Keystone/Getty Images)
Crosby, more often sporting a walrus mustache, built a reputation throughout his career as one of rock’s most colorful characters, a hedonistic nexus of artists who lived and stocked in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles in the late 1960s and the beginning of the 70s of the last century.
“I couldn’t get that guy out of my mind,” Nash recalled of an early meeting at the house of Mamas and Papas’ Cass Elliott in his 2013 book Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life. “He was such a free spirit, so irreverent … the energy he exuded was incredible.”
Nash also noted that Crosby “had the best dope in Hollywood.”
Crosby told his famous friends about a young Canadian singer-songwriter he was seeing, Joni Mitchell, and dated her for a while as her career took off.
Crosby also helped found Crosby, Stills & Nash (later Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young). The band is seen here, from left, Neil Young, Graham Nash, Crosby and Stephen Stills. (Peter Morgan/Reuters)
Good luck and friction
However, he could anger his band mates with his undisciplined, cocky ways. The Byrds fired him from the band and he burned bridges with his CSNY partners towards the end of his life.
“David had become unbearable,” McGuinn said in the 2019 Cameron Crowe-directed documentary about Crosby’s life, “Remember My Name.” “He was hard to hang out with.”
Crosby admitted to having a volcanic temper and complained about burnt bridges in the same documentary.
“I still have friends, but all the guys I’ve made music with don’t even talk to me,” he said. “One of them hating me inside might just be a coincidence. But McGuinn, Nash, Neal and Steven all really dislike me, a lot.”
Crosby attends Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park in the financial district near Wall Street on November 4, 2011 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Crosby also couldn’t explain how he didn’t become another young casualty of rock ‘n’ roll, with indulgences threatening to defeat him in the 1970s and 1980s.
He was arrested numerous times for drug and weapons offenses and served time in prison until, in the 1990s, the accumulated damage to his health necessitated a liver transplant.
Pioneers of folk rock to the stage of Woodstock
Crosby was born on August 14, 1941, in Los Angeles, to a mother he described as loving and a father – Oscar-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby – whom he found distant. Not an academic, Crosby found expression on the stage, trying both acting and music.
After some earlier unsuccessful attempts to establish himself as a folk singer, Crosby met McGuinn and early Byrds songwriter Gene Clarke, with Michael Clarke and Chris Hillman also joining.
The Byrds electrified the songs of Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger along with their original material, hailing a burgeoning career as folk-rock and country-rock pioneers.
Crosby contributed the songs Ladyfriend, Why and Draft Morning to the group’s catalog, but was shown the door in 1967, shortly after angering his bandmates with an on-stage rant about the assassination of John F. Kennedy at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
He more than found his feet the following year, joining Nash of Hollies fame and Stills of the defunct Buffalo Springfield.
I don’t know what to say except I’m heartbroken to hear about David Crosby. David was an amazing talent – such a great singer and songwriter. And a wonderful man. I have no words. Love & Mercy to David’s family and friends. Love, Brian pic.twitter.com/Hjht7LeGiv
—@BrianWilsonLive
Crosby, Stills and Nash’s 1969 debut album is one of the iconic albums of its era, with Crosby earning writing credits on Wooden Ships, Long Time Gone and Guinnevere to go along with the smash Suite: Judy Blue Eyes and Marrakesh Express .
The trio played only their second concert in front of hundreds of thousands at Woodstock in August 1969.
“We’re scared the hell out of us,” Stills said from the stage as an intro.
“Forever the catalyst, always intense”
To increase their stage presence, Young was invited and reunited with his former Springfield bandmate, Stills.
Crosby wrote the title track to the quartet’s 1970 hit Déjà Vu, which included the hits Teach Your Children, Our House and Helpless. The recording was a nerve-wracking affair for him, as his girlfriend, Christine Hinton, was killed in a car accident in September 1969.
Young recalled Crosby’s imprint on CSNY decades later in his 2012 book, Waging Heavy Peace.
“Crosby was forever the catalyst, always intense, driving us farther and farther,” Young said. “Just looking into those eyes made me want to deliver from the heart.”
RIP David Crosby
I was just listening to CSN the other night and was always blown away by his voice and sense of harmony. Huge loss RS pic.twitter.com/gA31oyB8v6
—@RonSexsmith
Crosby’s anguished wails color his contribution to Young, Ohio, released as a single just weeks after four young people were killed at Kent State University in Ohio after National Guardsmen fired indiscriminately as protesters demonstrated against US military involvement in Vietnam and Cambodia .
CSNY embarked on one of rock’s earliest stadium tours in 1974 and, without Young, recorded the well-received CSN album in 1977, featuring the top 10 hit Just A Song Before I Go.
But Crosby was soon on a downward spiral, with Timothy B. Schmidt singing the part intended for him on the 1982 single Wasted on the Way.
“When he started to dive, it was horrible to see. There was nothing we could do to stop it,” Young wrote in his 2012 book, describing an incident during an otherwise idyllic sailing excursion where Crosby felt compelled to free-base cocaine.
Crosby, left, Nash, center, and Stills perform before about 7,000 people at Kent State University as part of the 27th anniversary of the killing of four students and the wounding of nine others in an anti-war confrontation with the Ohio National University Guard on the campus of Kent, May 4, 1970 (Reuters)
Revelations, honors in the 90s
Crosby, thin and severely overweight, was sentenced to five years in prison in 1983, his lawyer unsuccessfully arguing that he was in illegal possession of a weapon for killing John Lennon three years earlier.
Crosby ended up serving seven months behind bars before moving to a prison home, saying years later that prison “saved my life,” along with his marriage to wife Jan in 1987 and subsequent recovery meetings. drugs. He would also form a relationship and professional relationship as a musician with an adult son, James, whose existence he did not know existed until the 1990s.
The Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, with Crosby, Stills and Nash receiving the same honor six years later.
“For a guy who should have been dead a few years ago, I’m doing pretty well,” Crosby said at the final ceremony.
Nash is joined at the podium by Stills, center, and Crosby at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in May 1997. (Reuters)
Meanwhile, a few years later it was revealed that Crosby was a sperm donor for two children born in the 1990s to singer Melissa Etheridge and her then-partner Julie Cypher.
CSNY released albums in 1986 and 1999 to muted reception.
The band’s 2006 Freedom of Speech tour came at a time of heightened passions surrounding the US military operation in Iraq. While most fans welcomed them, Nash later wrote in his book that it was also the first time the band “experienced people walking out of a CSNY concert” due to politics.
While Crosby has collaborated in recent years with artists such as Jason Isbell, Jonathan Wilson and John Mayer, his old friends have vowed to rejoin.
Crosby was caught publicly dissing Young’s wife, actor Daryl Hannah, who had a tumultuous end to her relationship with Crosby’s boyfriend, Jackson Browne. Nash commented in an interview soon after that Crosby had “ripped the heart out of CSN and CSNY” as a result.
He went on to benefit numerous environmental and charitable causes and lent his name to a marijuana business venture.
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