Rock star and CSNY co-founder David Crosby dies

(AP)

David, the sassy rock musician who evolved from baby-faced harmony singer with the Byrds to mustachioed hippie superstar to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and (sometimes) a young, ongoing bard. Crosby died at the age of 81, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday. .

The New York Times reported that the musician died Wednesday night, based on a text message from Crosby’s sister-in-law.Several news outlets reported Crosby’s death, citing anonymous sources. Did. The Associated Press was unable to contact a representative for Crosby or his widow.

After decades of drug use, Crosby had a liver transplant in 1994 and survived diabetes, hepatitis C and heart surgery in his 70s.

Though he wrote only a handful of widely-recognized songs, the witty and always opinionated Crosby was at the forefront of the Cultural Revolution of the ’60s and ’70s. , testifying on behalf of a hairy generation in his anthem “Almost Cut My Hair” or mourning the assassination of Robert Kennedy in “Long Time Gone”.

He was the founder and central figure of the Los Angeles rock music community, later with performers such as the Eagles and Jackson Browne. He’s the sparkly-eyed hippie matriarch who was the inspiration for Dennis his Hopper long-haired stoner in “Easy Rider.” He advocated peace, but was an unrepentant outspoken who practiced personal warfare and admitted that many of the musicians he worked with no longer spoke to him.

In his 2004 memoir Chronicles: Volume One, Bob Dylan wrote, “Crosby is a colorful and unpredictable character who wears the cape of Mandrake the Magician and gets along with too many people. He had a beautiful voice and was an architect of harmony.” ”

Crosby’s drug use has left him bloated, broken and alienated. He quit his addiction in 1985 and he served a year in Texas on drug and weapons charges in 1986. The conviction was eventually overturned.

In his 1988 autobiography, Crosby wrote, “I always said I picked up a guitar as a shortcut to sex. After the first joint, I was convinced that if everyone took drugs, the war would end.” I was doing it,” he said. Gone” was co-written with Karl Gottlieb. “I was right about sex. I was wrong about drugs.”

He lived longer than expected, enjoying a creative renaissance in his 70s, issuing several solo albums while working with others, including his son James Raymond, who became a favorite songwriting partner. .

“Most people my age would have done cover records or duets on old material,” he told Rolling Stone in 2013, shortly before “Croz” was released. No. Probably going to sell 19. I don’t think my kids will dig into it, but I’m not making it for them. I have something that needs to get off.

In 2019, Crosby starred in the Cameron Crowe-produced documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name.

His solo career was a success, but his seemingly lifelong bond with Nash dissolved. Crosby took offense at Nash’s 2013 memoir “Wild Tales” (which he called capricious and unfaithful), and that Nash and Crosby agreed on his one thing, and that the two of them had a relationship. The relationship devolved into an ugly public feud. With Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States, Crosby suggested he was open to protest tours by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, but his old bandmates refused to respond.

In the mid-1960s, Crosby said, “Turn! Turn around! Turn around!” contributed. Crosby was one of the first American stars to become familiar with the Beatles and helped introduce George Harrison to Eastern music.

Due to a troubled relationship with his bandmates, Crosby was kicked out of The Byrds and joined a new group. Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s first meeting is part of The Rock’s Folklore. Nash suggested starting over. Nash’s high harmonies added a layer of magic to Stills’ rough bottoms and Crosby’s mellow middles, and a supergroup was born.

Their eponymous debut album was an immediate success and helped redefine commercial music. The songs were longer and more personal than their previous individual outputs, but they were easily relatable to audiences embracing a more open lifestyle.

Their spirited harmonies and themes of peace and love became iconic in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their version of Mitchell’s song “Woodstock” was the subject of a documentary about a 1969 rock concert at which the group made their second live appearance together. and was her boyfriend for a while (so was Nash).

Crosby sported the droopy bushy mustache that would become his signature thereafter, provided harmony and rhythm guitar, and his singing reflected his own volatile personality. They ranged from the hazy romanticism of “Guinevere” to the spirituality of “Deja Vu” to the operatic paranoia of “Almost Cut My Hair.”

Some critics panned the group as soft-headed and complacent.

“If you’re into living room rock, fireplace harmonies, and a taste of good old-fashioned social consciousness, this is your group,” reported Rolling Stone, but still rarely misses an opportunity to write about the band. was.

However, CSN soon got a name, won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and maintained its global touring efforts and brand name decades later.

The first album was a carefree and happy recording, but the second album “Deja Vu” darkened the atmosphere. The band was joined by Neil Young, who had feuded with Stills while in Buffalo Springfield and continued to do so.

Everyone in the band was in trouble: Nash and Mitchell were splitting up, as were Stills and singer Judy Collins. I lay down on the studio floor and sobbed.

Characterized by a rough and disjointed sound, the album was released in 1970 and was once again a huge commercial success. Within two years, however, the quartet disbanded, destined to continuously reunite and split up for the rest of their lives.

They worked in every combination possible — as solo artists, duos, trios, and sometimes all four together. They played in stadiums and clubs. They appeared at the Berlin Wall at the end of the Cold War in 1989 and at the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York in 2011.

In recent years, Crosby has toured frequently, commented on fellow rockstars and rated the quality of his fans’ marijuana joints, mixing affection and resentment with candid answers to questions on Twitter. loves sailing and his biggest regret, besides hard drag, was selling his 74 foot boat due to money issues. Among the songs completed on the boat was the classic “Wooden Ships,” co-written with Stills and his Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane.

Crosby was born David Van Cortlandt Crosby on August 14, 1941 in Los Angeles. His father is Oscar-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby, best known for ‘High Noon’. The family, including his mother Arif and brother Floyd Jr., later moved to Santa Barbara.

Crosby had an early exposure to classical, folk and jazz music. In his autobiography, Crosby states that as a child he harmonized with his mother singing, his father playing the mandolin, and his brother playing the guitar.

“When rock and roll came along in that era and the Elvis era was ruling America, I had no interest in it,” he recalls.

His brother taught him to play the guitar, and while still a teenager he began performing in clubs in Santa Barbara. Like many folk performers, Crosby was fascinated by The Beatles’ 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night and became a rock star. decided to become

Crosby married his longtime girlfriend Jan Dance in 1987. The couple had a son, Django, in 1995. Crosby also had a daughter, Donovan, with Debbie Donovan. Shortly after she underwent a liver transplant, Crosby reunited with her adopted son, Raymond, in 1961. Raymond, Crosby and Jeff Her Pieber later performed together in a group she called CPR.

“I regretted losing him many times,” Crosby told Raymond’s AP in 1998.

In 2000, Melissa Etheridge revealed that Crosby was the father of two children he shared with then-partner Julie Cypher. Etheridge told Rolling Stone magazine. In 2020 her one son, Beckett, passed away.

Crosby didn’t help raise the children, but said, “In due time, if they’re far away and proud of who their genetic father is, that’s great.

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Hillel Italy, AP National Writer, contributed a report from New York.