WEBVTT - From the Archives: David Crosby 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:04.480 Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. Here before we launch our next 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:08.719 season of Here's the Thing at iHeartRadio in January, I 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:12.240 thought i'd play some of my favorite shows from the archives. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.640 Next up is my interview with musician David Crosby. Crosby 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.800 is a founding member of Crosby Stills in Nash and 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.120 in adding the Why that is Neil Young created one 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.800 of the greatest quartets in music history. Here's my interview 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:28.880 with the late David Crosby. 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:59.600 And here before here before. 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:06.679 As you know, it makes me wonder. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:26.119 What's going on c SN and sometimes why. Some combination 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:30.160 of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash played together 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:35.720 for fifty years until twenty sixteen, but always Crosby. He's 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.000 the constant in some of the greatest songs of the 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:45.240 twentieth century. His composition, harmonizing and non traditional guitar tunings 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.120 helped create the sound of the sixties and seventies. It's 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.240 a sound he honed with his first big act, The Birds, 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:58.440 turning counterculture anthems like Dylan's Tambourine Man into mainstream hits. 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.880 David Crosby is famous too for his addiction to cocaine 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.240 and heroin in the nineteen eighties. It almost killed him. 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:10.280 But even in his darkest moments, Crosbie always had people 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.760 pulling him up, even some of the biggest stars of 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:14.160 the era. 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.160 All Right, I'm in the middle of my lowest point 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.400 of being a complete waste roll on hard drugs. Right, 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:26.160 it's a bitch. My phone rings Crosby. Yeah, who's this? 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:34.959 It's Townsen. I said, bullshit. He says, no, it's Townsen. Listen, 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:40.640 get off that stuff. Get the off that stuff. I 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:42.800 have to watch the four letter words, right, you can 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.040 let it rip. Heirs really good podcasting, and so he says, 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.679 you know you fucking get your shit, fucking getta you're 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:56.320 fucking up. Quit that shit in my face. Really seriously, 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:00.080 I was like, what the fuck came my number? I 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.760 still haven't deciphered how this all happened. Lord made him 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:07.359 think it would work. Everybody else had failed. Somebody put 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.240 him up to it. I'm not sure did it work? No? No, 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.400 what worked was they sent me to prison in Texas 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:14.880 for a year. 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.120 Right, that worked? So that's what That was a turning 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.560 point for you. Yeah, it got me sober and you 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.880 were largely or you were completely sober since then, I. 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.400 Was completely sober for fourteen and a half years. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.360 What happened with to prison? What year eighty four? And 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:34.560 you were how old? Forties? Yeah? 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:39.640 I was born in forty one and I was deeply addicted. 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:43.280 And the only and I already tried in you know 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:49.480 rehab places, I think four or five times failed. So 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:53.760 the prison did it? You know, junk and freebase. That 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.920 that's a prison you carry around with you. You don't 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.800 get to get out prison. You get to get out, 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.000 and I don't regret. 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:03.600 It a bit. How were you treated by the inmate 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.600 population when you were in prison? Were they kind to you? 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.760 Did they dig you and admire you? A full range 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.120 went all the way from uh. 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.960 I like your music man to uh hey, rock star? 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.680 How you doing now? Bet you wish you had some drugs, 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:19.160 don't you? 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:19.760 Hey? 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.359 Warn look over here rockstar throwing up a gia some 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:24.800 bitch oh Texas. 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:25.560 Yeah. 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.240 And they didn't give me an aspir They didn't even 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.599 have AA meetings in the prisons, in fact, nothing. 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:32.800 You had no help at all. You crawled out of there. 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.240 It was bitter. It was bitter, but I woke up 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.240 when you get out of prison. What do you do well? Like? 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:41.880 Like who comes around? You do if people come to 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:43.760 you and say, let's get back to work, or what's 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:44.320 stuff like? 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:47.000 As soon as I woke up, I started writing again. 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:49.520 I'm a hugely lucky human being. 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:51.080 Man. I have a raison. 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:56.080 Here's a fact about writing and creating and drugs. The 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.800 more drugs I did, the less I wrote. And you 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.160 can plot the two curves crossed at a certain point, 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.200 you know, And I just kept the more drugs identically 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:08.400 stopped writing. And then about two years went by, and 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.000 then I woke up in prison, remembered who I was, 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.520 and started writing again. And since then it's been a 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.640 steady increase and a steady increase in quality. 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.800 So I can only draw one conclusion. Now this is 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.320 going to sound strange, but you come from a nice family. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:26.440 Yeah, we were comforted when I got to go to 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:28.840 good schools. I had a red juncle. My dad was 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:32.960 a cinematographer and a very good one. Not a warm 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:40.120 and fuzzy guy, but technically excellent. So yeah, I thought 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.080 I wanted to be an actor. You know what's really funny, man, 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:45.680 Most of the actors I know want to be musicians 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:46.679 and all the musicians. 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:48.840 I don't want to be actors, right because no matter 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:51.839 what you're doing, you can be doing anything, and music 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:53.800 can be in your life, and therefore music will always 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:55.760 have a more powerful place in the lives of people 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:56.760 than any film or TV. 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.640 Any debatable, but I think you get to a lot 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.640 of evidence on your side there music. The way I 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:08.800 look at it, music all art can be and usually 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.919 is a lifting force. Just as war drags humanity down 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:17.200 and brings out the very worst in US, so music 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:21.000 and art lift. They're lifting force. They make things better. 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:27.680 And so I kind of think, I kind of think 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:29.840 I'm probably the luckiest guy in the world. I think 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.440 I've got probably one of the best jobs. I try 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:34.960 to acting. I'm not really good at it, you know, I. 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:36.760 Don't know why you'd want to act. If I could 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.040 do what you do, you could never you couldn't get 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:41.200 me off stage with a gun. I just would play 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:43.240 music if I could do what you do. It's fun. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.159 When I went to go see the Beatles Love, I 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.240 go to Vegas to go to see the circuslay the 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.240 Beatles Love, And what kits you in the beginning other 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:54.760 than the really kind of groovy meshing of the songs 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.120 and the kind of overdub and they did was the 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.679 idea of that all of them were born during the war, 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.800 all war babies in London, they were, and you talk 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:04.719 and talk in the opening of the show kind of 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.000 tips how that affected them and how they affected their 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.760 lives and how they viewed their country and so forth. 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:13.000 You're a war baby, you were born during the war 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:14.880 forty one, right, What was life like when you were 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:15.240 a kid. 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:19.480 I remember my dad. I remember watching my dad at 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.920 a distance at you know where Burbank Airport is used 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:27.320 to be, Douglas Field. I remember my dad climbing into 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.080 the belly of a B twenty four and flying away 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:34.560 to the war. I remember watching he went, oh yeah, 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.840 he was. They commissioned directly into what was then the 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:40.280 Army Air Corps because he had this he was already 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:42.240 an Academy Award running. 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:43.640 You know, cinema photographer. 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.560 So they put him right in the Air Corps and 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:48.480 put him in this B twenty four that didn't that 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.120 was a camera plane, that's all it was. And he 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.560 went all over the world. He went every sh he had, 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:55.080 every theater reb there was. 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.720 It was gone for how long five years. 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.120 Well, because he wasn't a bombing thing. You know, he 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:03.200 had to follow the bombers, but he wasn't bombing, so 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.400 he didn't get thirty five and out. He kept going 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.760 five years, every major theater of the war. And when 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:11.400 he came back. 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.280 What was he like? You wouldn't ever talk about it. 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:16.040 So life at home when you were a child is 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:16.560 with your mother? 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:17.920 Yeah? 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:20.040 At first, yeah, and then both of them. But my 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.240 dad just wasn't a real homebody, family guy. 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.280 He was off working. Yeah. And you go to boarding 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.080 school I did? Yeah, Kate, what was that like? 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:29.559 Huh? 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:35.280 What were you like? Were you always mischievous? Always? 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:37.480 And it got me in a shitload of trouble. 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:38.440 Why do you think that is? 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.680 I don't know, but it's definitely true. I got thrown 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.480 out of almost every school I was ever in, including Kate. 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:47.880 What was music in your life? Then? 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:53.160 Music came early and well, my mom sang in choirs. 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:57.160 My dad liked music. He could play a mantle in. 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.439 My brother played guitar. We used to interesting thing when 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.559 we were growing up in the fifties, when TV started 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:10.040 to really happen. We didn't have a TV, so we 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.920 sang folk songs out of the Fireside Book of Folk Songs, 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:14.880 and that was where it started. 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.080 Did anybody tell you then you could sing? Did they 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:17.920 say you're a good singer? 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.000 They did notice that I was singing harmony when I 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:20.360 was six. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.760 And what's the first instrument you played? Guitar? My brother 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:27.600 turned me on the guitar when you were how old? 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.840 I guess maybe ten. What's the best time you think that. 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:34.200 My son is two and a half years, it's going 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.960 to be three in June. He's obsessed with simulating playing 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.040 the guitar. He actually has a band with my wife. 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:45.360 He calls her Trista, and he's mister pants, mister pants. 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.320 He'll turn to my wife. Literally, I've got an on video. 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.120 He'll turn to my wife and goes, Trista, what are 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.640 we going to play now? He's two and a half. 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:53.480 Don't let him be a musician. We wanted to know. 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:54.840 It's terrible. 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.400 You'll never have a job. Actually let him. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:00.560 Do you think that if you didn't When you say that, 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.120 do you think if you hadn't made it as big 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.040 as you made it, you wouldn't have stuck with it, 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:06.400 or you would have stayed with it just because you 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:08.280 loved it. I would have because I love it, right, 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:10.280 I love it so much. Like I can't tell you 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:11.600 I love singing. 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.600 I'm good at it, but that's not really it's there's 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.840 a joy to singing in and of itself, and it's 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:24.160 it's an elevating thing. It's totally freaking wonderful. It's very 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:26.640 tough for me now, man, because I'm really old and 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.320 getting on the road to exhausting. 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:30.800 Yeah. Well, it beats the crap out of me. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:32.720 Yeah, because you never get more than four hours sleep 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:34.480 in a row, and then in the middle of that 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.120 you hit an expansion joint and you're awake again, and 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:41.920 you know, and you're eating terrible food and restaurants. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.240 When when did you when you left home, you didn't 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.080 go to college. No, I went one year and you 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:48.480 went to. 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.680 City College in Santa Barbara, which is now, oddly enough, 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.640 the highest rated city college in the country. It was 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:58.720 interesting and good, and I had one really good teacher 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.360 who hooked me up about some really interesting things about 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:02.559 semantics and language. 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:05.960 And No, you were sending music then no, in a band. 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.800 Then no, not yet, I was I was bussing tables 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:14.720 at the local coffeehouse because as a busboy. They would 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.200 let me sing harmony with the guy who was being 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:17.719 paid to sing. 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:20.600 And what was the first band you were in? 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:25.480 Less Baxter's Balladiers Less Baxter, you know, band leader guy. 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:31.120 He had seen the Christy Mitchels, which at that guy 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.360 who bar his he had. I think he had three 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.200 of them out there, bands like that, all named the same. 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:37.400 You know. 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:42.000 It just was a commercial operation. It was really lame. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.280 But if we was put food on the table. My 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.719 brother and I were in that. And then I ran 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:51.040 into Roger mcgwyn and Jeene Clark and where a tributaur 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.840 in l a yeah bar, it's a tributary and they 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.160 were singing and it was good and the songs were 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:01.640 you know, James is pretty good writer. And so when 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.120 those two have they had an act called they have 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:04.439 an act. 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.040 They were just playing. They were in the bar. You know. 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.040 Roger had been a musician for a while and successful 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:12.720 and played with other bands, Lime Letders, Chairman's Trio, a 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.520 bunch of different people, so he knew what he was doing, 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.840 and he knew that Gene was talented and that this 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.120 stuff had value because it sounded a lot like Beatle songs. 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.640 And uh, so I started singing harmony to him. They said, 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:30.160 what's your name? And that works out really well. It 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:35.000 was a good band, simple good. Roger was extremely good 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.720 at taking Bob Dylan songs and turning them into pop records. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.280 And you covered tambourine men. Yeah, that was our first hit. 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:43.880 Well what did you learn about bands in your first band? 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:45.079 What was that experience? 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:45.320 Like? 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.920 I learned that I had a lot to learn. I 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.720 was just a young punk and I really had no 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:57.440 idea how to actually work with people and accomplish the 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:00.280 aim that I wanted to. I had an experienced early 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.120 on when I was young. My mom took me to 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.440 see a symphony orchestra in a park free show there 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:07.839 in LA and they tuned up and they got ready 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.520 and then he started the piece and it was this. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.320 Huge, beautiful wave that hit me. 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:15.959 I didn't know anything was like that. You know, the 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:20.440 symphony orchestra hugely powerful thing and it freaked me out. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:24.040 And the thing I've realized, even as a kid, the 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:25.600 power came from they were all. 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.840 Doing it together. I can't believe you just said that. 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:31.119 It's the truth, and it really and it penetrated. 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.880 So I've always wanted to be in a band. Yeah, always. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:35.640 I love cooperative effort. 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:40.040 Competitive effort winds up at war, cooperative efort winds up atter. 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.760 I'm watching Tom Petty's band play at a benefit and a 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:45.439 friend was with me. I turned to him and I said, 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.439 do you see what I'm seeing? My friend said what? 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:50.959 And I said, they're all doing the same thing at 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.680 the same time. Bingo, I said, they're all in service 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.760 to and feeding. You know, in my business, not everybody's 0:13:57.760 --> 0:13:59.400 doing the same thing. They're kind of doing their own 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:00.839 thing off in the corner. 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:02.920 Thereatty's band was doing the same thing. 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.320 Yeah, it was really really, very very cool. Do you 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:07.600 find in a band does somebody always need to be 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:09.520 in charge? Does somebody need to be the boss? 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.720 It can go both ways. And the Birds Roger was 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:14.920 definitely the leader of the band, and. 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:15.800 That worked well. 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.240 Yeah, he knew a lot more than we did, and 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.760 he's also an extremely talented guy and a good singer, 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.400 and so it wouldn't you know. I challenged it at 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.160 every turn, but he was the leader of the band. 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:29.840 CSNY. 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.440 None of us was willing to admit anybody else was 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:37.320 the leader. It was and probably still is one of 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:43.200 the most competitive situations in the history, and why he goes. 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.720 Really just that simple. And in spite of all the 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.120 incredible success you've had. I mean, who's when you think 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:54.640 of people, when you think of men harmonizing in a group, 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:56.920 the first people that come to mind are the three 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:58.760 of you. Why do you think that that didn't bring 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:00.520 them any comfort? 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.640 I don't think that's what they went in for, and 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.200 I don't think they realized exactly how. 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:06.680 Good it was. 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.120 We did really like each other when we started, and 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.560 we were thrilled, you know, by each other's songs. 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.320 So you leave the Birds and and Still's leaves Buffalo Springfield, 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:18.440 and they bring you with them. 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.480 The well Springfield through fell apart left right, which kind 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:27.840 of his m Steven was very appealing guitar player and singer. 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.240 I mean, it's really good. Remember how well he played 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.840 acoustic guitar back then? Beautiful, pretty stunning, And so I 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:37.000 started hanging out with him, and then Cass introduced me 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:37.440 to Graham. 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.560 But when Nash leaves the Hollies, the Hollies are doing 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:42.560 very well, aren't they very successful? Yah? 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.120 Why does he leave the Hollies? I stole him, you did? 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.440 I went to work. I went to London and I 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:48.320 told me she quit. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.479 And how did you do that? We should quit? Why? 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:52.840 Because he could join us. 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:56.040 He was at a very crux point with the Hollies. 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.640 They wanted to do an album of Dylan covers. Now 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:01.920 there are bands that should do Dylan covers and there 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:06.120 are bands that should not do Dylan covers. That was 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.560 one of the bands that should not do Dylan covers. 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.560 And they were ignoring his songs. He had already written 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.880 a Lady at the Island and they didn't get it. 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.800 The beautiful song they had already written right between the eyes, 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:23.720 they didn't get it. He was already outgrowing them. So 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:29.000 I walked in and I said, hmm, this is pretty ordinary. 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.520 And I was funnier than they were, and I knew 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:34.160 more than they did, and I did it on purpose 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.680 and they'll probably never forgive me. But it made a 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:38.880 great sound, the three of us when we heard each 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:43.480 other same it. It was spectacular. But bands get together 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:45.160 and you're in love with each other, it's all wonderful 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:50.760 and its exciting, and then it devolves, and forty years later, 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:53.640 it's turned on the smoke machine to play your heads 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:57.000 and you don't even like each other. You don't ride 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.560 the same bus, you do not hang out, and you 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:01.720 are come peating with the other guys. 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.119 So it's easier to do the touring and get on 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:06.879 stage and get that on and get that of what 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:08.159 than it is to be. You don't go into a 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.879 studio anymore because that's more intimate that died quicker. 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.600 Yeah, the money still good on the road in a 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.080 band like that, you know that you you want to 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.760 stay there. I mean it's big crowds, big places, big deal. 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:22.720 Yeah, but it got to winbers no fun. Is it 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.640 about when it starts to crack, when it starts to shift? 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:28.840 Is it because of songwriting? No one's getting that too. 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:31.800 No one wants to sing my songs. I want my 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.720 songs on that album. Yea, who's the decider? Did you 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:36.159 guys acquiesce to producers? 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:36.640 No? 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.320 We uh, we always produced our records and uh and 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:42.480 are we had what we call the reality rule. You'd 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.959 come into the room, you know, virus, just us, nobody 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.280 else and I sing each other or song and they 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:50.359 either liked it or they didn't. 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.080 And if they liked it, you know. 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.400 Then we'd start figuring out how to sing it, and 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.080 these are hugely talented guys. 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.440 Man, they came with a lot of stuff. So before 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:01.679 it was the four of you, the three of you 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.240 was basically pretty good. Yeah, it's okay. 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:10.720 You know, Neil's nickname is sometimes it's CSN sometimes why 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:14.280 you know, and when it would be CS and Y 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.040 it was a lot bigger that. 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:17.040 You've got to know that. 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:21.320 That's the reason the CSNY is always Neil's decision is 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:23.520 because if there's twenty thousand people in the stadium, Neil 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.320 put ten of them there. That's the truth. And so 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:32.359 he's he's the one that's that's said that it's done. 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.440 He doesn't want to do that anymore, and I don't 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.120 think he needs to do CSM. I don't think you'll 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.440 ever see it again when you say he sometimes and 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:41.720 he comes and goes. Is that his nature in all things? 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.399 He just has a tough time committing to anything. No, 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.960 he's on his own path and he does not relinquish 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:55.680 that ever, under any circumstances. And he does not want 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.000 to be dependent on anybody else and probably doesn't wantly 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:00.360 split the money. 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:01.199 I don't know. 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:06.320 I've never asked him, but I think it, you know, 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.000 I had to come to this decision. It's a very 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:10.040 hard decision, man, this is a very hard time for us. 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:12.760 I don't know if you know this, but streaming pretty 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:17.920 much destroyed our earning power. It took half, at least 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.320 half of our earning power away from us because they folks, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.920 they don't pay us for records anymore. And that's really sad. 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:28.920 They got that deal passed us and they It's sort 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.120 of as if you worked your job and they paid 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.520 you a nickel for every two weeks. It's the proportion 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:43.240 is drastically tiny. So with Neil gone and CSN still earning, 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:48.760 but really frozen in place and really unpleasant I mean 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:54.760 incidents that I will not tell you about, but violently bad, 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:56.959 carefully chosen one. 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:30.600 David Crosby is having a renaissance, three solo albums over 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:33.720 the past four years. We hear about his new burst 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:37.439 of creativity and why he thinks Stills and Nash are 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.440 still out there playing the hits when we come back. 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.640 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the. 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:53.520 Thing, a besturb. 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:07.359 Such a long long time, the. 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:27.800 Madness that's Crosby with Stills and Nash. We've heard about 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.800 the band's disintegration, but not what made it great? What 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.520 was the best time? Every time? Every time? 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.639 For years at the beginning, every time we'd go on stage, 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:40.840 we would just kill it. We could sing together. Nash 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:45.119 is a fantastic harmony singer. He absolutely hates my guts. 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:46.920 That's not fun to work. 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:49.680 But why do you think that's that's the case. 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:53.960