David Crosby, one of the most influential rock singers of the 1960s and ’70s with the Byrds & Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY), has died at the age of 81. Diversity reported Thursday, citing a statement from Crosby’s wife.
“After a long illness it is with great sadness that our dear David (Kroes) Crosby has passed away” Diversity The statement quoted his wife Jan Dance as saying.
Crosby’s UK-based representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. reuters,
Crosby was a founding member of two revered rock bands: the country and folk influenced Byrds, for whom he penned the hit “At Miles High,” and CSNY, who defined the spontaneous side of Woodstock generation music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of both groups.
Musically, Crosby stood out for his complex vocal harmonies, unorthodox open tunings on guitar, and incisive songwriting. His work with both the Byrds and CSN/CSNY blended rock and folk in new ways, and his music became part of the soundtrack of the hippie era.
I don’t know what to say other than I am heartbroken to hear about David Crosby. David was an incredible talent – such a great singer and songwriter. And a wonderful person,” Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson said on Twitter.
Personally, Crosby was the embodiment of the credo “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll”, and a 2014 Rolling Stone magazine article tagged him “rock’s most unlikely survivor”.
In addition to a drug addiction that eventually led to a transplant to replace a liver that had worn out over decades, his turbulent life included a serious motorcycle accident, the death of a girlfriend, and battles against hepatitis C and diabetes.
“I worry that the time I’ve got here is too short, and I’m deeply angry at myself, for 10 years at least – for the time I wasted,” Crosby told Los Angeles Times in July 2019. “I’m ashamed of that.”
Crosby reported that he fell “as low as a human being can go.” Times,
He also managed to alienate many of his famous former bandmates, for which he has often expressed remorse in recent years.
His drug habits and often abrasive personality contributed to the demise of CSNY and the members eventually stopped speaking to each other. in the 2019 documentary david crosby remember my nameHe clarified that he hoped they could work together again but admitted that the others “really dislike me, strongly.”
Crosby fathered six children – two as a sperm donor for rocker Melissa Etheridge’s partner and another who was put up for adoption at birth and until she met Crosby in his 30s. That son, James Raymond, would eventually become his musical collaborator.
“Thank you @thedavidcrosby I will miss you my friend,” Etheridge said on Twitter alongside a photo of the two of them.
Looking back on the turbulent 1960s and his life, Crosby told time magazine in 2006: “We were right about civil rights; We were right about human rights; We were right about peace being better than war… but I guess we didn’t know our butts out of a hole in the ground about drugs and it hit us hard.
Crosby was born on August 14, 1941, in Los Angeles. His father was a cinematographer who won a Golden Globe in 1952 for “High Noon”, and his mother exposed him to the folk group The Weavers and classical music.
music and women
As a teenager, Crosby found that one of his passions helped him discover another. “It (playing music) was an absolute pleasure for me,” he wrote. “I always loved it. I always will love it. And I got laid.
After living in New York’s Greenwich Village music scene, Crosby was back in California in 1963 and helped Roger McGuinn start the Byrds, whose first hit, Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” came in 1965. After “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
Crosby was kicked out of the Byrds because the band did not want to play his songs with the flashpoint “Triad”, which was about a menage, and the on-stage political rants being controversial.
Crosby and Stephen Stills, whose band Neil Young had broken up with in Buffalo Springfield, then began playing together. Graham Nash of the Hollies, who Crosby met in 1966 and became his closest collaborator and a close friend, joined them. Their debut album, “Crosby, Stills & Nash,” was a big seller in 1969 with such songs as “Marrakesh Express,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” and “Guinevere.”
They were joined by guitarist and singer/songwriter Young that year, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young came to be regarded as one of the greatest amalgams of talent in rock history.
Their second performance together was at the landmark Woodstock music festival in 1969 and his 1970 album, “Déjà Vu,” included the hits “Teach Your Children,” and “Woodstock,” and one of Crosby’s signature songs, “Almost Cut My Hair”. “
death of girlfriend
While CSNY was taking off, Crosby was in a drug-fueled downward spiral that was precipitated by the death of girlfriend Christine Hinton in a car accident in 1969.
“I had no way of dealing with it, nothing in my life had prepared me for it,” wrote Crosby, who had added cocaine and heroin to his drug repertoire.
The next decade was one of drug arrests, album releases, and stigmatization of women. “I was not monogamous – I made it clear to all concerned. I was a complete and utter pleasure monogamist,” he wrote in his autobiography.
Crosby had a daughter with a girlfriend but soon left her for Jan Dance, who moved in with him in 1978. The relationship lasted and they had a son, Django, in 1995.
Crosby introduced Dance to the free-basking method of smoking heroin and cocaine. “We went down the tubes together but we did it with our hearts connected,” he wrote.
There were several failed attempts at rehab, and Crosby developed a reputation as a bloated, helpless addict. In 1985, Nash told Rolling Stone: “I tried everything – extreme anger, extreme compassion. I’ve got 20 of his best friends in the same room with him. I’ve tried hanging out with him. I Haven’t tried hanging out with him.
Crosby beat a series of drug charges but was defeated in Texas and jailed in 1985 after being arrested with a drug pipe and gun at a club in Dallas. in the prison band during his year of incarceration.
“Playing and singing straight was an unfamiliar feeling,” he wrote. “I haven’t been on stage with a drug-free system in over 25 years.”
After his release, Crosby told People magazine that he had defeated his addictions.
“Most of the people who go with the drugs are dead,” he said. “Hard drugs will hook anyone. I don’t care who you are… I have a Ph.D. in drugs.
He was also arrested in 2004 on gun and marijuana charges in New York.
In 2014 he released “Crows”, his first solo album since 1993, but his tour to promote the record was interrupted by heart surgery in February.
He continued recording and was an active presence on Twitter, in addition to writing an advice column. Rolling stone,
In March 2021, The Guardian reported that Crosby sold recorded music and publishing rights to his entire music catalog to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group for an undisclosed sum. He was quoted as saying that the COVID-19 pandemic prevented him from playing concerts and that the widespread use of music streaming “stole my money.”