Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing,
Speaker 1: and I feel that got here before, that I did
Speaker 1: year before, and you know, it makes me wonder what's
Speaker 1: going on? C S N and sometimes why. Some combination
Speaker 1: of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash played together
Speaker 1: for fifty years until two thousand sixteen, but always Crosby.
Speaker 1: He's the constant in some of the greatest songs of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. His composition, harmonizing and non traditional guitar
Speaker 1: tunings helped create the sound of the sixties and seventies.
Speaker 1: It's a sound he honed with his first big act,
Speaker 1: The Birds, turning counterculture anthems like Dylan's Tambourine Man into
Speaker 1: mainstream hits. David Crosby is famous too for his addiction
Speaker 1: to cocaine and heroin in the nineteen eighties. It almost
Speaker 1: killed him, but even in his darkest moments, Crosby always
Speaker 1: had people pulling him up, even some of the biggest
Speaker 1: stars of the era. All Right, I am in the
Speaker 1: middle of my lowest point of being a complete wasteerl
Speaker 1: on hard drugs. Right, it's a bit of my phone rings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who's this. It's Townsend? I said, bullshit. He says, no,
Speaker 1: it's Townsend. Listen, get off that stuff. Get the off
Speaker 1: that stuff after watch the four letter words right now
Speaker 1: you can let it rip. He really your podcasting, and
Speaker 1: so he says, you know, fucking get your ship, you gotta.
Speaker 1: You're fucking up, glad, quit that ship in my face.
Speaker 1: Really seriously, I was like, who the fun my number?
Speaker 1: I still haven't deciphered how this all happened. Well, it
Speaker 1: made him think it would work working everybody else had failed.
Speaker 1: Somebody put him up to it. I'm not sure work. No, No,
Speaker 1: what worked was they sent me to prison in Texas
Speaker 1: for a year. That worked. So that's what That was
Speaker 1: a turning point for you. Yeah, it got me sober,
Speaker 1: and you were largely or you were completely sober since then.
Speaker 1: I was completely sober for fourteen and a half years.
Speaker 1: Uh what happened with the prison? What year you were?
Speaker 1: How old? I was born in forty and I was
Speaker 1: deeply addicted and the only had already tried uh in
Speaker 1: you know rehab places moment I think four or five
Speaker 1: times failed. Ah, so the prison did it? You know?
Speaker 1: Junk and free base, that's that's a prison you carry
Speaker 1: around with you. You don't get to get out prison.
Speaker 1: You get to get out, and I don't regret it
Speaker 1: a bit. How were you treated by the inmate population
Speaker 1: when you're imprisoned with a kind to you? Did they
Speaker 1: dig you and admire you? A full range went all
Speaker 1: the way from uh, I like your music man to
Speaker 1: uh hey, rock star? How are you doing now? I
Speaker 1: bet you wish you had some drugs, don't you? Hey? Ron?
Speaker 1: Look over here, rock Star throwing up again? Some bit
Speaker 1: was Texas and they didn't give me an aspect. They
Speaker 1: didn't even have a meetings in the prison. And not
Speaker 1: that you had no help at always crawled out of
Speaker 1: there was bitter. It was bitter. But I woke up.
Speaker 1: When you get out of prison, what do you do well? Like?
Speaker 1: Like who comes around you? People come to you and
Speaker 1: say let's get back to work? Or what's that like?
Speaker 1: As soon as I woke up, I started writing again.
Speaker 1: I'm a hugely lucky human being. Now I have a reason.
Speaker 1: Here's a fact about writing and creating and drugs. The
Speaker 1: more drugs I did, the less I wrote. And you
Speaker 1: can plot the two curves and they crossed at a
Speaker 1: certain point, you know, and I just kept the more
Speaker 1: drugs identically stopped writing. And then about two years went by,
Speaker 1: and then I woke up in prison remember who I was,
Speaker 1: and started writing again. And since then it's been a
Speaker 1: steady increase in a steady increase in quality. So I
Speaker 1: can only draw one conclusion. Now this is gonna sound strange,
Speaker 1: but you come from a nice family, were comfy, and
Speaker 1: I got to go to good schools. I had a
Speaker 1: rich uncle. My dad was a cinematographer and a very
Speaker 1: good one. Not a warm and fuzzy guy, but technically excellent.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I thought I wanted to be an actor.
Speaker 1: You know what's really funny, man, most of the actors
Speaker 1: I don't want to be musicians, And all the musicians
Speaker 1: I know, because no matter what you're doing, you can
Speaker 1: be doing anything, and music can be in your left
Speaker 1: and therefore music will always have a more powerful place
Speaker 1: in the lives of people than any film or TV.
Speaker 1: Any debatable, but I think you got a lot of
Speaker 1: evidence on your side there. Music. The way I look
Speaker 1: at it, music all art can be and usually is
Speaker 1: a lifting force, just as war drags humanity down and
Speaker 1: makes brings out the very worst in US. So music
Speaker 1: and art lift they're lifting force. They make things better,
Speaker 1: and so I I kind of think, I kind of
Speaker 1: think I'm probably the luckiest guy in the world. I
Speaker 1: think I've got probably one of the best jobs. I
Speaker 1: tried to acting. I'm not really good at it. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know why you'd want to act. If I
Speaker 1: could do what you do, you could never You couldn't
Speaker 1: get me off stage with a gun. I just would
Speaker 1: play music if I could do what you do. It's
Speaker 1: when I went to go see The Beatles Love. I
Speaker 1: go to Vegas to go to see the Circus. So
Speaker 1: the The Beatles Love, and what kits you in the beginning,
Speaker 1: other than the really kind of groovy meshing of the
Speaker 1: songs and the kind of overdubbing they did, was the
Speaker 1: idea of that all of them were born during the war.
Speaker 1: They were all war babies in London. They were and
Speaker 1: you talk and talk, and the opening of the show
Speaker 1: kind of tips how that affected them and how they
Speaker 1: affected their lives and now they viewed their country and
Speaker 1: so forth. You're a war baby, you were born during
Speaker 1: the war. What was life like when you were a kid?
Speaker 1: I remember my dad, I remember watching my dad at
Speaker 1: a distance at you know where Burbank Airport is used
Speaker 1: to be Douglas Field. I remember my dad climbing into
Speaker 1: the belly of a B twenty four and flying away
Speaker 1: to the war. I remember watching he was. They commissioned
Speaker 1: directly into what was then the Army Air Corps because
Speaker 1: he had this he was already an Academy award running,
Speaker 1: you know, autographers. They put him right in the Air
Speaker 1: Corps and put him in this twenty four that didn't
Speaker 1: that was a camera plane, that's all it was. And
Speaker 1: he went all over the world. He went every he
Speaker 1: had every theater reddened there was. It was gone for
Speaker 1: how long? Five years? Well, because he wasn't a bombing thing.
Speaker 1: You know, he had to follow up bombers, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't bombing, so he didn't get thirty five and out.
Speaker 1: He he kept calling five years every major theater of
Speaker 1: the war. And when he came back, what was he like?
Speaker 1: You wouldn't ever talk about it. So life at home
Speaker 1: when you were a child is with your mother. Yeah
Speaker 1: at first, yeah, and then both of them. But my
Speaker 1: dad just wasn't a real home body family guy. He
Speaker 1: was off working. Yeah, and you go to boarding school
Speaker 1: I did. Yeah, Kate, what was that black? What were
Speaker 1: you like? Were you always mischievous? Always? And it got
Speaker 1: me in a shipload of trouble. Why do you think,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but it's definitely true. I got thrown
Speaker 1: out of almost every school I was ever in, including Kate.
Speaker 1: What was music in your life? Then? Music came early?
Speaker 1: And well, uh, my mom sang in choirs. My dad
Speaker 1: liked music. He could play a mantle in. My brother
Speaker 1: played guitar. We used to There's an interesting thing when
Speaker 1: when we were growing up in the fifties, when TV
Speaker 1: started to really happen, we didn't have a TV, so
Speaker 1: we sang folks songs out of the Fireside Book of
Speaker 1: Folk Songs, and that was where it started. Did anybody
Speaker 1: tell you then you could sing that? They say you're
Speaker 1: a good singer. They did notice that I was singing
Speaker 1: harmony when I was six, and huh, what's the first
Speaker 1: instrument you played? Good to are my brother turned me
Speaker 1: on to guitar when you were how old? I guess
Speaker 1: maybe can what's the best time you think that. My
Speaker 1: son is two and a half years so it's gonna
Speaker 1: be three in June. He's obsessed with simulating playing the guitar.
Speaker 1: He actually has a band with my wife. He calls
Speaker 1: her Trista, and he's Mr Pants. Mr Pants. He'll turn
Speaker 1: to my wife a little, I've got it on video.
Speaker 1: He'll turn to my wife and Trista, what are we
Speaker 1: gonna play now? He's two and a half. Don't let
Speaker 1: him be a musician we wanted to be. It's terrible idea.
Speaker 1: He'll never have a job. Actually let him. Do you
Speaker 1: think that if you didn't? But when you say that,
Speaker 1: do you think if you hadn't made it as big
Speaker 1: as you made it, you wouldn't have stuck with it,
Speaker 1: or you would have stayed with it just because you
Speaker 1: loved it. I would because I love it. I love
Speaker 1: it so much. Like I can't tell you I love
Speaker 1: singing it. I'm good at it, but that's not really it.
Speaker 1: It's there's a joy to singing in and of itself,
Speaker 1: and it's it's an elevating thing. It's totally freaking wonderful.
Speaker 1: It's very tough for me now, man, because really old
Speaker 1: and getting on the road exhausting. Yeah, well, I beat
Speaker 1: the crap out of me. Yeah, because you'd never get
Speaker 1: more than four hours sleep in a row and then
Speaker 1: in the middle of that you had an expansion joint
Speaker 1: and blinking your way again, and you know, and you're
Speaker 1: eating terrible food and restaurants. When when did you when
Speaker 1: you left home? You didn't go to college. No, I
Speaker 1: went one year and you went to UH City College
Speaker 1: in Santa Barbara, which is now, oddly enough, the highest
Speaker 1: rated city college in the country. It was interesting and good,
Speaker 1: and I had one really good teacher hooked me up
Speaker 1: about some really interesting things about semantics and the language.
Speaker 1: And no, you weren't sending music then, No, no, not yet.
Speaker 1: I was. I was bussing tables at the local coffeehouse
Speaker 1: because as a bus boy they would let me sing
Speaker 1: harmony with the guy who was being paid to sing.
Speaker 1: And what was the first band you were in? Less
Speaker 1: Baxter's Balladeers. Let's Baxter band leader. He had seen the
Speaker 1: Christie Mittrels, which that guy who sparks we had. I
Speaker 1: think he had three of them out their bands like that,
Speaker 1: your all name the same, you know. Just it was
Speaker 1: a commercial operation and was really onla but we was
Speaker 1: put food on the table. My brother and I were
Speaker 1: in that. And then I ran into Roger mcgwinn and
Speaker 1: Gean Clark and where a tutor a bar at the
Speaker 1: tributary and they were singing and it was good and
Speaker 1: the songs were you know, James pretty good writer. And
Speaker 1: so when those two have they had an act called
Speaker 1: they have an act. We're just playing. They were just
Speaker 1: in the bar. You know. Roger has been a musician
Speaker 1: for a while and successful and played with other bands,
Speaker 1: Lime Letters, Jad Mitchell Three, a bunch of different people,
Speaker 1: so he knew what he was doing, and he knew
Speaker 1: that Jean was chalented and that this stuff had value
Speaker 1: because it sounded a lot like Beatles songs. And so
Speaker 1: I started singing harmony to him. They said, what's your name?
Speaker 1: And uh, that worked out really well. It was a
Speaker 1: good band, simple good. Roger's extremely good, had taken Bob
Speaker 1: Dylan songs and turning them into pop records. And you
Speaker 1: covered Tambourine Man. Yeah, that was our first hit. Well,
Speaker 1: what did you learn about bands in your first band?
Speaker 1: What that experience thought? I learned that that I had
Speaker 1: a lot to learn. I was just a young punk
Speaker 1: and I really had no idea how to actually work
Speaker 1: with the people and accomplished the aim that I wanted to.
Speaker 1: I had an experience early on when I was young.
Speaker 1: My mom took me to see a symphony orchestra in
Speaker 1: a park free show there in that way, and they
Speaker 1: tuned up and they got ready, and then he started
Speaker 1: the piece and it was this huge, beautiful wave that
Speaker 1: hit me. I didn't know anything was like that, you know,
Speaker 1: symphony orchestra, hugely powerful thing, and it freaked me out.
Speaker 1: And the thing I've realized, even as a kid, the
Speaker 1: power came from they were roll doing me together. I
Speaker 1: can't believe you just said that. It's the truth, and
Speaker 1: it really and it penetrated. So I've always wanted to
Speaker 1: be in a band always. I love cooperative effort. Competitive
Speaker 1: effort winds up at war, cooperative effort winds up. I'm
Speaker 1: watching Tom Petty's band playing a benefit and offriend was
Speaker 1: with me. I turned him and I said, do you
Speaker 1: see what I'm seeing? My friend said what? And I said,
Speaker 1: they're all doing the same thing. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I said, they're all in service to and feeding. You know,
Speaker 1: in my business, not everybody's doing the same thing that
Speaker 1: they're kind of doing their own thing, kind of jerking
Speaker 1: off in the corner there. You know Patty's band was
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. Yeah, it was really really, very
Speaker 1: very cool. Do you find in a band does somebody
Speaker 1: always need to be in charge? Does somebody need to
Speaker 1: be the boss? It can go both ways. And the Birds,
Speaker 1: Roger was definitely the leader of the band, and that
Speaker 1: worked well. Yeah, he knew a lot more than we did,
Speaker 1: and he's also an extremely talented guy and a good singer,
Speaker 1: and so it wouldn't you know, I challenged it at
Speaker 1: every turn, but he was the leader of the band
Speaker 1: uh c s And why none of us was willing
Speaker 1: to admit anybody else was the leader were it was
Speaker 1: and probably still is one of the most competitive situations
Speaker 1: in the history uh and not. He goes really just
Speaker 1: that simple. And in spite of all the incredible success
Speaker 1: you've had, I mean, who's when you think of people,
Speaker 1: when you think of men harmonizing in a group, the
Speaker 1: first people that come to mind of the three of you,
Speaker 1: Why do you think that that didn't bring them any comforts?
Speaker 1: I don't think that's what they went in for, and
Speaker 1: I don't think they realized exactly how good it was.
Speaker 1: We did really like each other when we started, and
Speaker 1: we were thrilled, you know, by each other's songs. So
Speaker 1: you leave the Birds and and and and Stills leaves
Speaker 1: Buffalo Springfield and they bring you with them Springfield throw
Speaker 1: fell apart left, which is kind of his m o uh.
Speaker 1: Stephen was very appealing guitar player and singer. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's really good. Remember how well he played acoustic guitar
Speaker 1: back down beautiful, pretty stunning, And so I started hanging
Speaker 1: out with him, and then Cass introduced me to the ground.
Speaker 1: But when Nash leaves the Hollies, the Hollies are doing
Speaker 1: very well, aren't they very successful? Why does he leave
Speaker 1: the Hollies? I told him you did? I went to work,
Speaker 1: I went to London. I told me she quit? And
Speaker 1: how did you do that? We could quit? Why? Because
Speaker 1: he could join us. He was at a very crux
Speaker 1: point with the Hollies. They wanted to do an album
Speaker 1: of Dylan covers. Now, there are bands that should do
Speaker 1: Dylan covers and there are bands that should not do
Speaker 1: Dyl covers. That was one of the bands that should
Speaker 1: not do Dealing covers. And they were ignoring his songs.
Speaker 1: He had already written A Lady at the Island, and
Speaker 1: they didn't get it beautiful song. He had already been
Speaker 1: right between the eyes. They didn't get it. He he
Speaker 1: was already outgrowing them. So I walked in and said, hmmm,
Speaker 1: this is pretty ordinary. And I was funnier than they were,
Speaker 1: and I knew more than they did, and I did
Speaker 1: it on purpose, and they'll probably never forgive me. But
Speaker 1: it made a great sound, we the three of us,
Speaker 1: when we heard each other saying it was, it was spectacular.
Speaker 1: But bands get together and you're in love with each
Speaker 1: other and fall wonderful and exciting, and then it devolves,
Speaker 1: and forty years later it's turned on. A small machine
Speaker 1: will play your heads and you don't even like each other.
Speaker 1: You don't ride the same bus, you do not hang out,
Speaker 1: and you are competing with the other guys. So it's
Speaker 1: easier to do the touring and get on stage and
Speaker 1: get that on and get that of it than it
Speaker 1: is to be. You don't go into a studio anymore
Speaker 1: because that's more intimate that died quicker. Yeah, the money
Speaker 1: is still good on the road in a band like that,
Speaker 1: you know uh that you you want to stay there.
Speaker 1: It means big crowds, big places, big deal. You can continue,
Speaker 1: But it got to pomer is no fun? Is it
Speaker 1: about when it starts to crack, when it starts to ship?
Speaker 1: Is it because of songwriting? No one's getting that too.
Speaker 1: Wants to see my songs. I want my songs on
Speaker 1: that album. Who's the decider? Did you guys acquiesced to producers? No?
Speaker 1: We Uh, we always produced our records and uh and
Speaker 1: are we had what we call the reality rule. You
Speaker 1: come into the room, you know, just us, nobody else
Speaker 1: and seeing each other's song, and they either liked it
Speaker 1: they didn't and uh, if they liked it, you know,
Speaker 1: then we start figured out how to sing it. And
Speaker 1: these are hugely talented guys. Man, they came with a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. So before it was the four of you,
Speaker 1: the three of you was basically pretty good. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was okay. You know. Uh. Neil's nickname is sometimes it's
Speaker 1: CSN sometimes why you know, uh, and when it would
Speaker 1: be c S and why it was a lot bigger that.
Speaker 1: You've got to know that that's the reason to see
Speaker 1: us and has always Neil's decision. Because if there's twenty
Speaker 1: thousand people in the stadium, Neill put ten of them there.
Speaker 1: That's the truth. And so he's he's the one that's
Speaker 1: that's said, that's it's done. He doesn't want to do
Speaker 1: that anymore. And I don't think he needs to to
Speaker 1: see so I don't think you'll ever see it again
Speaker 1: when you say he's sometimes and he comes and goes.
Speaker 1: Is that his nature in all things? He just has
Speaker 1: to tough time committing to anything. No, he's on his
Speaker 1: own path and he does not relinquish that ever under
Speaker 1: any circumstances. And uh, he does not want to be
Speaker 1: dependent on anybody else and probably doesn't want to explain
Speaker 1: the money. I don't know. I've never asked him, but
Speaker 1: I know he I think you know I had to
Speaker 1: come to this decision. It's a very hard decision, man,
Speaker 1: This is a very hard time for us. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this, but streaming pretty much destroyed
Speaker 1: our earning power. It took half, at least half of
Speaker 1: our earning power away from us because they folks, they
Speaker 1: don't pay us for records anymore. And that's really sad. Huh.
Speaker 1: They got that deal passes and they it's sort of
Speaker 1: as if you worked your job and they paid you
Speaker 1: a nickel for every two weeks. It's the proportion is
Speaker 1: drastically tiny. So with Neil gone and CSN still earning,
Speaker 1: but really frozen in place and really unpleasant I mean
Speaker 1: incidents that I will not tell you about, but violently bad,
Speaker 1: carefully chosen more h David Crosby is having a renaissance,
Speaker 1: three solo albums over the past four years. We hear
Speaker 1: about his new burst of creativity and why he thinks
Speaker 1: Stills and Nash are still out there playing the hits
Speaker 1: when we come back. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening
Speaker 1: to Here's the Thing such a time before. That's Crosby
Speaker 1: with Stills A Nash. We've heard about the band's disintegration,
Speaker 1: but not what made it great? What was the best time?
Speaker 1: Every time? Every time? For years at the beginning, every
Speaker 1: time we'd go on stage, we would just kill it.
Speaker 1: We could sing together. Nash is a fantastic HERMONI singer.
Speaker 1: He absolutely hates my guts. That's not fun to work.
Speaker 1: But why do you think that's that's the case. I
Speaker 1: could tell you, but it would be personal. Stuff would
Speaker 1: be better. It would be better if he told you, yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know, uh he said, he said, he said
Speaker 1: some unfortunate stuff happened in his life someone which is
Speaker 1: his fault, some of which isn't uh and and he
Speaker 1: blames me for it. And he mostly blames me because
Speaker 1: I shot my mouth off about Neil's girlfriend and piste
Speaker 1: off Neil, which ended to us, and that's my fault,
Speaker 1: and it's it was so innocent, you know, I've finished
Speaker 1: an interview like this and we shut the tape off
Speaker 1: and I was walking down and he said, what do
Speaker 1: you think it's needle few girlfriend? Man I said, oh,
Speaker 1: I think she's a predator bamn on the net immediately. Wow.
Speaker 1: And Niel says, okay, that's it, no more and uh,
Speaker 1: I went on stern and he said, wow, do you
Speaker 1: feel man? I said, I. I didn't have any right
Speaker 1: to do that. It was I shot my mouth off,
Speaker 1: and he's pissed at me, and so I want to
Speaker 1: apologize to him and to morrow. I want to apologize, sir.
Speaker 1: I'm not really in a position to judge other people.
Speaker 1: I'm the one who wound up in prison. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you know, mist these days, everybody's just waiting to pound
Speaker 1: you never you never, you never, uh you know, there's
Speaker 1: no forgetting. I mean, everybody knows the story I guess
Speaker 1: I was fighting for custody of my daughter and I
Speaker 1: have to go to court and spend dollars just to
Speaker 1: get my kid on the phone. You know, they're going
Speaker 1: to coach the child how to answer the phone. She
Speaker 1: was like eleven, and so I leave this message on
Speaker 1: my order his voicemails screaming at my daughter on the phone.
Speaker 1: I go go nuts because I've gone through all these
Speaker 1: stages of that. Now what I did. I had this
Speaker 1: great therapist say this to me. Once he goes, you
Speaker 1: realize that none of what you suffered, no matter what
Speaker 1: you felt was unfair, he said, you realize that none
Speaker 1: of that would have happened if you hadn't left the message.
Speaker 1: If you hadn't left the message, none of this would
Speaker 1: have happened, regardless of what you think about them leaking
Speaker 1: it to the press. But the point once that gets
Speaker 1: out there on the internet, if you go online and
Speaker 1: you read my Twitter feed or you go see any
Speaker 1: of my social media, there's not a day goes by,
Speaker 1: not one that someone doesn't throw that in my face.
Speaker 1: They send me a message with that, they'll show me
Speaker 1: a YouTube tape with a LinkedIn, so there's no forgetting anymore. No,
Speaker 1: And it's the people that were up against your are
Speaker 1: are very very good at at assaulting any vulnerability they
Speaker 1: see in the people who criticize them. And we do
Speaker 1: criticize them, both you and I do, because they are
Speaker 1: doing a rotten job with this country. Uh. But his supporters,
Speaker 1: um the level of vitriol against people like you that
Speaker 1: that have a conscience and that loved this country, and
Speaker 1: that really loved the constitution and really loved the idea
Speaker 1: of a democracy which we no longer have. Uh, they're
Speaker 1: very very hot to assault you. They want that. The
Speaker 1: level of vitriol is indicative it's gone up, and I
Speaker 1: think they're getting uncomfortable because he flux up every day
Speaker 1: every day. But you've been political for a long time,
Speaker 1: having always I mean I read online where you were
Speaker 1: doing riffs on stage. I don't know if it was
Speaker 1: Monterey or where were you. Risks about JFK's assassination. I
Speaker 1: said it was an assassination. I said, the warring reports
Speaker 1: a lot, and it is. It's absolutely not true. Uh.
Speaker 1: But being an activist is kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: I had heroes Man Seeker as a hero of mine,
Speaker 1: Joan bys the hero of mine. These are people who
Speaker 1: actually put their lives on the line. You know, Harry Belafani,
Speaker 1: he walked from someone in Montgomery, arm in arm. It
Speaker 1: was rifles and the bushes. Plenty of people wanted to go.
Speaker 1: I did a documentary about music and activism, and he's
Speaker 1: one of my heroes because he was very brave. I
Speaker 1: wrote a book about it. That's why we made the documentary.
Speaker 1: Working on a new book now and get him. Jeff
Speaker 1: Benedict started out about politics, but I think it's going
Speaker 1: to be about the whole United States of America and
Speaker 1: democracy and what happened. What do you think it's gonna happen?
Speaker 1: It's fascinating, man. I don't think we know. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: we didn't protect our democracy well enough. What's gonna happen?
Speaker 1: I really don't know. I'm very encouraged by these kids.
Speaker 1: I was very hugely encouraged. Got to keep them active,
Speaker 1: don't let that fire die out. It's not gonna and
Speaker 1: we don't. We're not in charge of them. They are
Speaker 1: gonna do that, and they are pissed. Understand they're being
Speaker 1: handed a world that's in deep danger ecologically and a
Speaker 1: broken democracy. I don't think they don't know it. They're pissed.
Speaker 1: My son is Piste. He's getting handed the short end
Speaker 1: of the stick, and he knows that he's too smart
Speaker 1: not to know it. They're not going to go away.
Speaker 1: These kids are going to see some change. And all
Speaker 1: the politicians things always been this way, and it's all
Speaker 1: he canna be this way. Were close to the nozzle,
Speaker 1: we can get the goodies. We're gonna run things. Uh.
Speaker 1: The Women's March, the women of the United States of
Speaker 1: America may save the United States of America. We need
Speaker 1: more of them in Congress. Maybe Stormy Daniels is going
Speaker 1: to save the country. Yeah. I thought it was interesting
Speaker 1: that you saw everybody attack David Kid, that was the
Speaker 1: leader of the Florida movement, becomes this lightning rod for
Speaker 1: all these right wingers, especially Hannity, who I've always been,
Speaker 1: you know, just just throttled Hannity whenever I can, because
Speaker 1: he just because he drives me insane, because because first
Speaker 1: of all, he has no talent none. I mean, as
Speaker 1: much as I detest o'riley's positions and as much as
Speaker 1: I'm sickened by the things that O'Riley did, at least O'Riley,
Speaker 1: as a broadcaster had some talent I had. I had
Speaker 1: a showdown with the with the o'relly. He was using
Speaker 1: my song long time Going, and I found out, what
Speaker 1: do you doing? He came out to a show CSN
Speaker 1: show at out on Long Island, What's your name? And
Speaker 1: at that place was Beachy Jones Beach. He came out
Speaker 1: there and he was very you know how he is peacock.
Speaker 1: You know, he's like very full of himself. H O'Riley,
Speaker 1: Nice to meet you. And I said, Mr O'Riley, stop
Speaker 1: using my song. And he said what I said, I
Speaker 1: didn't give you permission. If you use my song anymore,
Speaker 1: I'm going to see you. He said, why don't you
Speaker 1: come on my show and talk about it. I said,
Speaker 1: my son talking about I said, you bully. You just
Speaker 1: interrupted me three words in I'm not gonna come. You
Speaker 1: discussed me and he stopped. But I don't like him
Speaker 1: at all. I don't like any of them because they're
Speaker 1: they don't really even believe what they're ranting about. They're
Speaker 1: ranting because it makes them money. That's how they pay out.
Speaker 1: But you know, multimillion dollar settlements. But but but handed
Speaker 1: the attacks this guy and a lot of people. He's
Speaker 1: a good kid. That's why they attacked me. Because he's effective,
Speaker 1: because it's working. He's believable. These people have they they
Speaker 1: assassinate characters of leadership. They have a leadership assassination program. Yeah,
Speaker 1: anybody on the other side is gonna was gonna get
Speaker 1: an attraction and get anything done. They try to kill him,
Speaker 1: They try to kill him. They don't like it. And
Speaker 1: now I'm I'm tiny, I'm not really worth coming after,
Speaker 1: but they do come after me. I'll give you a
Speaker 1: birdec example, I shot my mouth off yesterday whenever was
Speaker 1: his hotel? I said, burn, baby, burn, stupid and then
Speaker 1: a guy dies. Fifty emails you are heartless, worthless son
Speaker 1: of a bit. Somebody died and you loved it. I
Speaker 1: don't love. Yeah, I don't want to be sometimes I
Speaker 1: don't want any fifty like raging. I'm gonna kill you,
Speaker 1: you low cheesy motherfucker. You can't communicate in the media
Speaker 1: at all the way you thought you could have wanted
Speaker 1: to carefully. Yeah, Because the place I go where I
Speaker 1: can speak as long as I want to, and I'm
Speaker 1: completely uncensored, and I'm welcome and nobody's is Howard Stern.
Speaker 1: I Whenever I want to talk about something, I want
Speaker 1: to talk about an issue, and something's bothering me, I
Speaker 1: go on, Howard. It's the best. These are the nighttime shows.
Speaker 1: Some of them are my friends. I like them. They
Speaker 1: have their purpose promotionally, six minutes on the couch and out.
Speaker 1: They have their function in the in the promotional world.
Speaker 1: But Howard, it's a completely different thing. I have a
Speaker 1: good conversation, and he's a kind guy. He's a really
Speaker 1: interesting thing. You know what happened with Howard. He grew up.
Speaker 1: He ard it be out being you know, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have strippers on my radio shop, all right? Not
Speaker 1: so shit. And then he kept encountering stuff and learning stuff,
Speaker 1: and you watch him he matured. Eventually they realize Letterman
Speaker 1: and Howard in their own way, they realized they're enough
Speaker 1: them just sitting there talking to is enough. You don't
Speaker 1: need any more of this crap looking. Howard learned a
Speaker 1: lot and became smarter and became much He's a serious,
Speaker 1: a serious guy to talk to. Now. I I feel
Speaker 1: the same way you do. I felt completely free to
Speaker 1: say pretty much anything. I honestly felt you say the
Speaker 1: thing about the fire at Trump's building. But but don't
Speaker 1: we all get pushed to the point where I mean,
Speaker 1: there's things I almost hit send on Twitter that you
Speaker 1: wouldn't believe, right right in line with what you said
Speaker 1: about burdens. We get pushed to that point. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: they make us mad exactly. You love this place. You
Speaker 1: believed in this democracy all your life. You think it's
Speaker 1: a great idea. We got taught it. We're going to
Speaker 1: ruin everything, and well they're ruining it, you know, And
Speaker 1: that's really bad. Uh, And yes, I get pissed and
Speaker 1: everyone swhile I want to make a mistake. I'm made
Speaker 1: a mistake that maybe there was one in one too.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to smile. It was a joke. But why
Speaker 1: why was it a joke? Because I made mistakes every day.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry? Okay, can I get him now? I'm just
Speaker 1: so earnest right now? Ye are I'm a little too earnest.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about your son. His name
Speaker 1: is Raymond, James, Raymond James Raymond, and you were um separated.
Speaker 1: You didn't see him for while he got reunited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: his mom put him up for adoption, and when he
Speaker 1: was just about to have his first child. His parents said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I shouldn't know what the genetic Sorry, should
Speaker 1: find out who your dad is. So he tracked and
Speaker 1: he found it and he said, no, no way. Oh
Speaker 1: he didn't know how old was he at that point. Uh,
Speaker 1: probably almost thirty, So he didn't know you were his father. No, No,
Speaker 1: he did a one full thing, Alecky. Normally those meetups
Speaker 1: go very badly. You know that somebody brings too much baggage.
Speaker 1: How come you left me and mom? We weren't good
Speaker 1: enough for you? Uh, it's usually bitter. It's usually a
Speaker 1: better pill. Well, he came and he gave me a
Speaker 1: clean slate. He gave me a chance to earn my
Speaker 1: way into his life, which was one of the kindest
Speaker 1: things anybody's ever done to me. And he and I
Speaker 1: became very close and we write extremely well. Because he's
Speaker 1: a better musician than I am. Anybody tells you it's
Speaker 1: not genetic, haven't come talk. That's interesting, Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: He's a wonderful musician, much better musician than I am.
Speaker 1: In a really good writer. You still have your band together, CPR, Well,
Speaker 1: that's that band has evolved now into the sky Trail space.
Speaker 1: I am in two bands, The Lighthouse Band this when
Speaker 1: I'm working with down John right now. It's an acoustic band,
Speaker 1: mostly vocalst You here recording, Yeah, we're here recording right now.
Speaker 1: We're making our second record. My other band, sky Trails Band,
Speaker 1: that's CPO are me and Jeff pe Bar and my
Speaker 1: son James Raymond and this jazz bass player from Estonia
Speaker 1: named my Agen Young, really nice brilliant bass player. And
Speaker 1: then Michelle Willis again because she's a stunning singer. She's
Speaker 1: an amazing singer. But yeah, these two bands are the
Speaker 1: results of being getting out of CSM and uh. And
Speaker 1: it was a very tough decision because the streaming was
Speaker 1: taken away half our money. The other half was live
Speaker 1: performance with CSN and I couldn't do it anymore. And
Speaker 1: so I quit. And are you just as happy or
Speaker 1: do you miss? I'm so happy man? And n at all? Really,
Speaker 1: these people are much better writers and much better singers
Speaker 1: than those guys are. Now. These people still love it,
Speaker 1: they love making music. They're not doing it for a paycheck,
Speaker 1: They're doing it because they do. You think the other
Speaker 1: two are really just doing it for a paycheck at
Speaker 1: this point. Yeah, yeah, I think that's the only thing
Speaker 1: they're doing. Are they gonna do? Do Do you think they're
Speaker 1: gonna follow you and form another band and keep going there?
Speaker 1: You know they're working. Stills was working with Judy Collins
Speaker 1: has been a friend forever, and uh and Nash had
Speaker 1: been not working. Were there people that you wanted to
Speaker 1: play with? Like, was there a dream of somebody you
Speaker 1: wanted to play with? You and get to play with?
Speaker 1: Who'd you want to play with? Rony? Really? And why
Speaker 1: didn't you? She was my old lady. I produced her
Speaker 1: first record. She's arguably the finest singer songwriter of our times.
Speaker 1: I think probably pretty definitely the best writer, even better
Speaker 1: than Paul or either one of the Paul's or Randy,
Speaker 1: or even better than than James Taylor, who was one
Speaker 1: of my real heroes in life and and most people
Speaker 1: will come down to it's her, Bob, and she's so
Speaker 1: much better musician than Bob's was a great poet. She's
Speaker 1: a great poet and a great musician. Stunning singer, which
Speaker 1: is all over now because she got, she got had
Speaker 1: a really bad thing happened to her. Um Dylan, But
Speaker 1: I worked with him. What was that like? Was it
Speaker 1: everything you hope they would be? Bob is such a
Speaker 1: piece of work man. I went in and he says, Hi,
Speaker 1: how you doing? And uh? And he kissed my wife's hand.
Speaker 1: She's never washed it since um. And he says, come on,
Speaker 1: let's go do it. And I said, Bobby, I haven't
Speaker 1: heard the song yet. Oh come on. Because he loves
Speaker 1: to get you out on the edge. He wants that
Speaker 1: edge stuff. He wants it. So I said, Bob, you
Speaker 1: got to sing me this song. So he says, okay,
Speaker 1: He sings me this song. See okay, Now let's go
Speaker 1: to it. So we go in the other room and
Speaker 1: he does it completely different. He's such, he's really he's
Speaker 1: a piece of work, trust me. And and I love
Speaker 1: him and I'm I I get along great with him
Speaker 1: because I don't butter his toast. You know. I think
Speaker 1: that's that's comfortable for him people I'd love to work with.
Speaker 1: Its still a bunch, man, but I think the younger
Speaker 1: people still have a lot of joy in it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's still really exciting for him. That produces a different
Speaker 1: quality of music. Unquestionably, we had Beard back hold to
Speaker 1: All God here in the night. That's a signal from
Speaker 1: young good. That's answering something here exactly when we returned
Speaker 1: some of the truly great questions you all submitted for
Speaker 1: this legend of rock and roll and a few of
Speaker 1: the less than great ones. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're
Speaker 1: listening to Here's the thing, she shall be free. She
Speaker 1: turns bo gates down this slope to the heart. We
Speaker 1: have some questions that were posed by people on our
Speaker 1: hears I think Twitter side. Yeah, we we you know,
Speaker 1: we went on on our Twitter page and we asked
Speaker 1: people and it really worked like a charm. We were
Speaker 1: kind of amazed how many people are. We're gonna bring
Speaker 1: me the questions, bring those in here. But uh is
Speaker 1: that you, Adam? I want to pick us a couple
Speaker 1: of these that I really really liked. One of them
Speaker 1: is from a woman named Barbara Fisher, and she says
Speaker 1: one of my all time favorite albums of yours is
Speaker 1: Thousand Roads. Did you have any thoughts of what inspired
Speaker 1: you to write these songs, especially Hero? Was this a generalization?
Speaker 1: Was it a commendation on someone specific that inspired you?
Speaker 1: I wish it were actually Hero. I'm not really sure
Speaker 1: what I was talking about. What happened is I was
Speaker 1: working on that set of words and Phil Collins heard him,
Speaker 1: and uh, and he wrote the music and we as
Speaker 1: the closest I came to you ever having a hit? Really,
Speaker 1: uh uh? I never have hits because I write the
Speaker 1: weird Ship. I'm not really sure what I was talking about.
Speaker 1: I wish I could give you a clear and concise
Speaker 1: answer what I was trying to say, but I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: Bill Vora Nikos, and Bill, if I mangled your name,
Speaker 1: I apologize, Bill Vora Nikos. I think this is a
Speaker 1: funny question. Who was a rival artist or band during
Speaker 1: the sixties or seventies that you couldn't stand or thoughts
Speaker 1: sucked other than Jim Morrison? Do you think Jim Morrison sucked? Yeah? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Really poser? Really you thought he was not a good singer,
Speaker 1: not a good singer? No? What? No? Why do you?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I don't think he's a good singer.
Speaker 1: And when you say that, who is a good singer?
Speaker 1: Do you? Yeah? I mean other than the three of you?
Speaker 1: Who's a good singer? James Taylor? Wow, brilliant singer. He's
Speaker 1: just more honest, more straightforward. What what what? What? What much
Speaker 1: more talented. Wow, you know Morrison was a poser. Anybody
Speaker 1: that wants up having a waiver their dick in the audience,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like they're pretty desperate. He was opposer.
Speaker 1: Trust me, I that band was no good. They never
Speaker 1: swung ever, they didn't have a bass player. He played
Speaker 1: terrible bass on a keyboard, really badly, and it was awful.
Speaker 1: I don't like him. I never there were bands earlier
Speaker 1: than that that I didn't like. Paul over here and
Speaker 1: the readers, I mean, come on, I set the bar
Speaker 1: pretty high. The people that I liked were Jimmy Hendrix
Speaker 1: and Janis Joplin and Cass Elliott and Joni Mitchell and
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan. That's those are your basic box set of
Speaker 1: the greatest. Those are all my friends, and they are
Speaker 1: all people that I think are really talented. No, I
Speaker 1: didn't like the Doors worse at all. Well, we have
Speaker 1: a woman here the question. I'm I'm motivated by you
Speaker 1: because it was so blunt about Morrison. I'm so blunt
Speaker 1: about this question. Her name is Renee Champagne. Now that's
Speaker 1: that's a that's a cool name, Renee Champagne. But the
Speaker 1: question is a terrible question. She says, what is the
Speaker 1: most memorable moment of your we are so far and
Speaker 1: why that's a terrible question question. And you get those
Speaker 1: two your favorite and we try to explain to him.
Speaker 1: And when you get into the good stuff, it's all
Speaker 1: apples and orange its. There isn't a best. Clapton wasn't
Speaker 1: better than Hendrix. Hendrick wasn't better than Clapton. I got
Speaker 1: another one here that I really really liked. John Packer
Speaker 1: is his name, our our contributor here from Twitter, John
Speaker 1: Packers said. Hugh Masskela described how you helped him move
Speaker 1: out of addiction and how that transformed his life. How
Speaker 1: did he find you? Cass Elliott, the same person introduced
Speaker 1: me to to Graham and one of my best friends
Speaker 1: in the world, A truly wonderful woman. Yeah, she introduced
Speaker 1: me to Hugh and he and I and she used
Speaker 1: to hang out to get her a lot. Hughie was
Speaker 1: very talented guy. He played on Rock and Roll Star.
Speaker 1: That's his trumpet on Rock and Roll Star. I don't
Speaker 1: want you to answer these questions, but I just want
Speaker 1: to read them to you because they're so interesting to me.
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Paris says, if you had six fingers instead of four,
Speaker 1: what will be here from your guitar? Jeffrey Parrish used
Speaker 1: to be the captain on my boat? Is somebody you know?
Speaker 1: You know he's one of my best friends. If you
Speaker 1: have six fingers on your hand rather than four, what
Speaker 1: will be here from your guitar? Clapped it? Is he
Speaker 1: somebody you admire? Hell? Yes, But more than his musicianship,
Speaker 1: I admire his courage. What happened to him would have
Speaker 1: put me back on top, and he didn't go. He
Speaker 1: stayed sober in the face of that. My god, man,
Speaker 1: that's courage. He's a very brave guy. And you know,
Speaker 1: most people just have never really looked at it and
Speaker 1: thought about what it must have taken from him. But
Speaker 1: I admire his courage as much as I admire his
Speaker 1: guitar playing. And I think he's an even better singer
Speaker 1: than he's a guitar player. Three last questions. Gloria Bernstein,
Speaker 1: who's a friend of mine? Gloria Bernstein wants to know
Speaker 1: what's your favorite movie of your dad's. But the one
Speaker 1: they got the Academy Award for is also a stunner.
Speaker 1: It's called Tab and it was a black and White
Speaker 1: Silent Movie. It's that far back. You ever visited him
Speaker 1: on the set? Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I wanted to
Speaker 1: do your job. Man's I'm So Glass worked out well
Speaker 1: from all of us society. It's not easy, man, for
Speaker 1: every part in in film and TV, there's a thousand
Speaker 1: people trying. One last question from me, what are five
Speaker 1: albums you could never do without? Jonny's Blue Asia, Steely Dan,
Speaker 1: my favorite band, Uh sad that he died. No, I'm
Speaker 1: friends with Donald and Though and I gotta give two
Speaker 1: to Steely Dan, Gaucho, Uh Peppers, Starry Pepper loved it.
Speaker 1: A classical piece called Theme from Thomas Talas. Pretty fun. Williams,
Speaker 1: you know about I'm the I'm the announcer for the
Speaker 1: New York Philharmonic here on public radio. I love that.
Speaker 1: How is your health and what recommendations do you have
Speaker 1: to people, especially people in your business, to take better
Speaker 1: care of their health. I think a lot about that
Speaker 1: now what I might have done, I think you don't.
Speaker 1: My health has always been a very serious issue. I
Speaker 1: had hepatitis. See, I had to have a liver transplant.
Speaker 1: I spent seventy two days in the hospital at U C.
Speaker 1: L a before they saved my life. Oh is it
Speaker 1: really pretty pretty terrible? I've been a diabetic for thirty years.
Speaker 1: At least my doctor, who is a crusty old guy
Speaker 1: at u c l A named Gary get Nick, you
Speaker 1: got to do better with his diabetes. Okay, Gary, thank you?
Speaker 1: How do I do that? He said? Eat less food?
Speaker 1: I said, oh, Gary, you thinks it's so simple. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: you cleared it right up for me. You were so
Speaker 1: kind you ask eat less food. I mean it, you're
Speaker 1: eating too much? Turns up. He is right. There's a
Speaker 1: delay period between when you're actually full and when you
Speaker 1: feel full. It's about twenty minutes, and you keep eating
Speaker 1: because it tastes good. So what I do is I
Speaker 1: order a bigler meal. I don't order sugar, but I
Speaker 1: order a pretty regular meal, and then I eat half
Speaker 1: of it. And I went from forty one seventy seven,
Speaker 1: and I've been here for two years. Do you campaign
Speaker 1: for people for candidates ever anymore? I'm very reticent about
Speaker 1: it because they turn on you. I've been campaigning for
Speaker 1: a friend of mine named Dana Steele down in Texas.
Speaker 1: She's running from home for you. Now you live where
Speaker 1: sent by Santa Barbara. I've been campaigning for Dana because
Speaker 1: she's a friend and I know she's an honorable person
Speaker 1: and she wants She's running for Congress in the thirty
Speaker 1: six district in Texas, and I think she might win,
Speaker 1: even though she's an uphill battle. Yeah, I do. Sometimes
Speaker 1: if I know the character of the person, I'd love
Speaker 1: it to man. You know I love this country. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm not giving up. I'm not going to roll around
Speaker 1: and put my pause in here. I Am going to
Speaker 1: keep fighting until I am dead. The inexhaustible creative engine
Speaker 1: that is David Crosby. He actually worked in film. Recently,
Speaker 1: he and his son James wrote a song for the
Speaker 1: documentary Little Pink House, about the human story behind the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court's Keylo decision, where a town bulldozed a woman's
Speaker 1: little pink house to make room for commercial development. They
Speaker 1: put in a movie and they're trying to see if
Speaker 1: they can qualify as for an Academy Award. Were trying
Speaker 1: to course. I'm putting next to my dad, David Crosby.
Speaker 1: He chose the music for today's program and there's both
Speaker 1: joy and pain in it. This is Alec Baldwin and
Speaker 1: you're listening to. Here's the thing. Seven weeks now sick
Speaker 1: we shifts all the water. Very free, easy easy, you
Speaker 1: know the way it's supposed to be. Simper on the
Speaker 1: shoreline as be talking about, very free and easy