In an interview with AARP, Graham Nash spoke at length about his former bandmate, David Crosby. The interview took place on February 3, shortly after Crosby’s death on January 18 at age 81.
Nash and Crosby’s first encounters happened in the late-1960s. The pair met when Crosby’s band The Byrds toured Nash’s native England, and again soon after when Nash’s band The Hollies toured Crosby’s native United States. After exiting their respective bands, Crosby and Nash connected with Stephen Stills (who left Buffalo Springfield) to form Crosby, Stills & Nash. The trio would later be joined by Stills’ former bandmate, Neil Young in forming CSNY.
Crosby and Nash recorded three albums together in the mid-1970s and the duo paired up again for a fourth record in 2004. The pair continued performing together, touring with CSN in 2014 and performing as a duo at the Seva Foundation benefit concert in 2015. However, conflicts arose between the longtime collaborators, leading to at times public feuds between the former bandmates.
In 2016, Nash revealed in an interview that his relationship with Crosby had severely deteriorated. Nash said then:
“It’s the first time I’m saying this out loud. But that’s the way it is. You asked me if there’s more to come from CSN? Well my answer is no. And that’s very sad, because we’re pretty good. But I’m not very fond of David Crosby at the moment. He’s treated me horribly for the past two years. Really, really awful.”
“For 45 years I’ve been there for him to save his fucking ass, but he treats me like I’m dirty. You can’t do that with me. Maybe for a day, as long as I think you’ll come around. But if you keep going and I keep getting nasty emails from you… Then I’m done. Fuck you.”
Nash addressed his strained relationship with Crosby when asked by AARP’s Rob Tannenbaum. Revealing Crosby recently reached out to apologize, the exchange follows:
Graham Nash: I think one of the only things that we can do, particularly me, is only try to remember the good times. Try to remember the great music that we made. I’m only going to be interested in the good times, because if I concentrate on the bad times, it gets too weird for me.
Rob Tannenbaum: By weird do you mean painful?
GN: Yes, painful. The fact is that we were getting a little closer at the end. He had sent me a voicemail saying that he wanted to talk to apologize, and could we set up a time to talk. I emailed him back and said, “Okay, call me at eleven o’clock tomorrow your time, which is two o’clock on the East Coast.” He never called, and then he was gone.
RT: How long ago was it that he contacted you?
GN: Maybe a week and a half.
RT: I wonder if he knew he was dying.
GN: You know, I’ve thought about that myself. He was a very intelligent man. I wouldn’t put it past him to know that he was actually at the very end. The truth is, Rob, we’ve been expecting David to pass for 20 years.
Shortly after Crosby’s death, Nash shared a post on social media that honored his late former collaborator. Within the message, Nash wrote, “I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years.”
Read Nash’s full interview with AARP here.
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