WEBVTT - David Crosby: Don't Call It a Comeback 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.480 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing, 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:32.120 and I feel that got here before, that I did 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:44.200 year before, and you know, it makes me wonder what's 0:00:44.320 --> 0:01:00.840 going on? C S N and sometimes why. Some combination 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.800 of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash played together 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:10.040 for fifty years until two thousand sixteen, but always Crosby. 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.520 He's the constant in some of the greatest songs of 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:19.240 the twentieth century. His composition, harmonizing and non traditional guitar 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.160 tunings helped create the sound of the sixties and seventies. 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.160 It's a sound he honed with his first big act, 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:32.120 The Birds, turning counterculture anthems like Dylan's Tambourine Man into 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:36.880 mainstream hits. David Crosby is famous too for his addiction 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.360 to cocaine and heroin in the nineteen eighties. It almost 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.360 killed him, but even in his darkest moments, Crosby always 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.400 had people pulling him up, even some of the biggest 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.080 stars of the era. All Right, I am in the 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:54.640 middle of my lowest point of being a complete wasteerl 0:01:54.760 --> 0:02:00.400 on hard drugs. Right, it's a bit of my phone rings. Yeah, 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:06.440 who's this. It's Townsend? I said, bullshit. He says, no, 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:14.360 it's Townsend. Listen, get off that stuff. Get the off 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.040 that stuff after watch the four letter words right now 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.080 you can let it rip. He really your podcasting, and 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.800 so he says, you know, fucking get your ship, you gotta. 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:29.359 You're fucking up, glad, quit that ship in my face. 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:34.079 Really seriously, I was like, who the fun my number? 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.040 I still haven't deciphered how this all happened. Well, it 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.959 made him think it would work working everybody else had failed. 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:45.120 Somebody put him up to it. I'm not sure work. No, No, 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.040 what worked was they sent me to prison in Texas 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.320 for a year. That worked. So that's what That was 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:54.680 a turning point for you. Yeah, it got me sober, 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.440 and you were largely or you were completely sober since then. 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:01.840 I was completely sober for fourteen and a half years. 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:07.240 Uh what happened with the prison? What year you were? 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:12.880 How old? I was born in forty and I was 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:17.440 deeply addicted and the only had already tried uh in 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.079 you know rehab places moment I think four or five 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:25.880 times failed. Ah, so the prison did it? You know? 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.280 Junk and free base, that's that's a prison you carry 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:33.560 around with you. You don't get to get out prison. 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.520 You get to get out, and I don't regret it 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:38.680 a bit. How were you treated by the inmate population 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:40.720 when you're imprisoned with a kind to you? Did they 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:44.880 dig you and admire you? A full range went all 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.800 the way from uh, I like your music man to 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.760 uh hey, rock star? How are you doing now? I 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:54.720 bet you wish you had some drugs, don't you? Hey? Ron? 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.400 Look over here, rock Star throwing up again? Some bit 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:02.480 was Texas and they didn't give me an aspect. They 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.040 didn't even have a meetings in the prison. And not 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.240 that you had no help at always crawled out of 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:11.880 there was bitter. It was bitter. But I woke up. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.880 When you get out of prison, what do you do well? Like? 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:16.760 Like who comes around you? People come to you and 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:18.839 say let's get back to work? Or what's that like? 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:21.640 As soon as I woke up, I started writing again. 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.760 I'm a hugely lucky human being. Now I have a reason. 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.719 Here's a fact about writing and creating and drugs. The 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.440 more drugs I did, the less I wrote. And you 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:35.279 can plot the two curves and they crossed at a 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.800 certain point, you know, and I just kept the more 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:42.920 drugs identically stopped writing. And then about two years went by, 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.599 and then I woke up in prison remember who I was, 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:49.159 and started writing again. And since then it's been a 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.279 steady increase in a steady increase in quality. So I 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.360 can only draw one conclusion. Now this is gonna sound strange, 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.600 but you come from a nice family, were comfy, and 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:01.880 I got to go to good schools. I had a 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.760 rich uncle. My dad was a cinematographer and a very 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:11.919 good one. Not a warm and fuzzy guy, but technically excellent. 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.599 So yeah, I thought I wanted to be an actor. 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.040 You know what's really funny, man, most of the actors 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.360 I don't want to be musicians, And all the musicians 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.640 I know, because no matter what you're doing, you can 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.279 be doing anything, and music can be in your left 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.600 and therefore music will always have a more powerful place 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:31.400 in the lives of people than any film or TV. 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.360 Any debatable, but I think you got a lot of 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.440 evidence on your side there. Music. The way I look 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:43.680 at it, music all art can be and usually is 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.880 a lifting force, just as war drags humanity down and 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.840 makes brings out the very worst in US. So music 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.600 and art lift they're lifting force. They make things better, 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:02.200 and so I I kind of think, I kind of 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.359 think I'm probably the luckiest guy in the world. I 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:05.960 think I've got probably one of the best jobs. I 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.320 tried to acting. I'm not really good at it. You know, 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:11.159 I don't know why you'd want to act. If I 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.520 could do what you do, you could never You couldn't 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.600 get me off stage with a gun. I just would 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:17.600 play music if I could do what you do. It's 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.760 when I went to go see The Beatles Love. I 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.560 go to Vegas to go to see the Circus. So 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.680 the The Beatles Love, and what kits you in the beginning, 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.000 other than the really kind of groovy meshing of the 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.840 songs and the kind of overdubbing they did, was the 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:34.280 idea of that all of them were born during the war. 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.039 They were all war babies in London. They were and 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.040 you talk and talk, and the opening of the show 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.000 kind of tips how that affected them and how they 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.800 affected their lives and now they viewed their country and 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.280 so forth. You're a war baby, you were born during 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.839 the war. What was life like when you were a kid? 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:54.120 I remember my dad, I remember watching my dad at 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.600 a distance at you know where Burbank Airport is used 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:02.000 to be Douglas Field. I remember my dad climbing into 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.720 the belly of a B twenty four and flying away 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:11.160 to the war. I remember watching he was. They commissioned 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:13.520 directly into what was then the Army Air Corps because 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.480 he had this he was already an Academy award running, 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.880 you know, autographers. They put him right in the Air 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:22.920 Corps and put him in this twenty four that didn't 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.640 that was a camera plane, that's all it was. And 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.040 he went all over the world. He went every he 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.400 had every theater reddened there was. It was gone for 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:35.480 how long? Five years? Well, because he wasn't a bombing thing. 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:37.080 You know, he had to follow up bombers, but he 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.120 wasn't bombing, so he didn't get thirty five and out. 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.520 He he kept calling five years every major theater of 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.400 the war. And when he came back, what was he like? 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:49.840 You wouldn't ever talk about it. So life at home 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.520 when you were a child is with your mother. Yeah 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:54.680 at first, yeah, and then both of them. But my 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.240 dad just wasn't a real home body family guy. He 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.320 was off working. Yeah, and you go to boarding school 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.520 I did. Yeah, Kate, what was that black? What were 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:10.560 you like? Were you always mischievous? Always? And it got 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.720 me in a shipload of trouble. Why do you think, 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:17.320 I don't know, but it's definitely true. I got thrown 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.120 out of almost every school I was ever in, including Kate. 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.000 What was music in your life? Then? Music came early? 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.560 And well, uh, my mom sang in choirs. My dad 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:32.480 liked music. He could play a mantle in. My brother 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.880 played guitar. We used to There's an interesting thing when 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.800 when we were growing up in the fifties, when TV 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:44.400 started to really happen, we didn't have a TV, so 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.960 we sang folks songs out of the Fireside Book of 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.360 Folk Songs, and that was where it started. Did anybody 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:52.040 tell you then you could sing that? They say you're 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.000 a good singer. They did notice that I was singing 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:58.400 harmony when I was six, and huh, what's the first 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:00.719 instrument you played? Good to are my brother turned me 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.480 on to guitar when you were how old? I guess 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:07.079 maybe can what's the best time you think that. My 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.000 son is two and a half years so it's gonna 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:13.120 be three in June. He's obsessed with simulating playing the guitar. 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.520 He actually has a band with my wife. He calls 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:20.480 her Trista, and he's Mr Pants. Mr Pants. He'll turn 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:21.960 to my wife a little, I've got it on video. 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:23.839 He'll turn to my wife and Trista, what are we 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.680 gonna play now? He's two and a half. Don't let 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.840 him be a musician we wanted to be. It's terrible idea. 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.600 He'll never have a job. Actually let him. Do you 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:35.200 think that if you didn't? But when you say that, 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.760 do you think if you hadn't made it as big 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:39.679 as you made it, you wouldn't have stuck with it, 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:41.080 or you would have stayed with it just because you 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.360 loved it. I would because I love it. I love 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:45.720 it so much. Like I can't tell you I love 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:48.319 singing it. I'm good at it, but that's not really it. 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:52.280 It's there's a joy to singing in and of itself, 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:58.200 and it's it's an elevating thing. It's totally freaking wonderful. 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.120 It's very tough for me now, man, because really old 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.840 and getting on the road exhausting. Yeah, well, I beat 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:06.439 the crap out of me. Yeah, because you'd never get 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.480 more than four hours sleep in a row and then 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:10.839 in the middle of that you had an expansion joint 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.719 and blinking your way again, and you know, and you're 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:18.240 eating terrible food and restaurants. When when did you when 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.240 you left home? You didn't go to college. No, I 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:25.280 went one year and you went to UH City College 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.280 in Santa Barbara, which is now, oddly enough, the highest 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.360 rated city college in the country. It was interesting and good, 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.200 and I had one really good teacher hooked me up 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.199 about some really interesting things about semantics and the language. 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:42.200 And no, you weren't sending music then, No, no, not yet. 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.640 I was. I was bussing tables at the local coffeehouse 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:50.000 because as a bus boy they would let me sing 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.360 harmony with the guy who was being paid to sing. 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.040 And what was the first band you were in? Less 0:10:56.080 --> 0:11:02.760 Baxter's Balladeers. Let's Baxter band leader. He had seen the 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:08.320 Christie Mittrels, which that guy who sparks we had. I 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.440 think he had three of them out their bands like that, 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:12.760 your all name the same, you know. Just it was 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:17.199 a commercial operation and was really onla but we was 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.600 put food on the table. My brother and I were 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:22.679 in that. And then I ran into Roger mcgwinn and 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:27.000 Gean Clark and where a tutor a bar at the 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.880 tributary and they were singing and it was good and 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:35.520 the songs were you know, James pretty good writer. And 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.120 so when those two have they had an act called 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:40.320 they have an act. We're just playing. They were just 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:42.920 in the bar. You know. Roger has been a musician 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.040 for a while and successful and played with other bands, 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.160 Lime Letters, Jad Mitchell Three, a bunch of different people, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.360 so he knew what he was doing, and he knew 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.360 that Jean was chalented and that this stuff had value 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.680 because it sounded a lot like Beatles songs. And so 0:11:57.760 --> 0:11:59.880 I started singing harmony to him. They said, what's your name? 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:05.640 And uh, that worked out really well. It was a 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:10.880 good band, simple good. Roger's extremely good, had taken Bob 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.559 Dylan songs and turning them into pop records. And you 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.440 covered Tambourine Man. Yeah, that was our first hit. Well, 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.520 what did you learn about bands in your first band? 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.760 What that experience thought? I learned that that I had 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.760 a lot to learn. I was just a young punk 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.079 and I really had no idea how to actually work 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.160 with the people and accomplished the aim that I wanted to. 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:35.679 I had an experience early on when I was young. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.080 My mom took me to see a symphony orchestra in 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.280 a park free show there in that way, and they 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.560 tuned up and they got ready, and then he started 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.480 the piece and it was this huge, beautiful wave that 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.520 hit me. I didn't know anything was like that, you know, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:55.080 symphony orchestra, hugely powerful thing, and it freaked me out. 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.680 And the thing I've realized, even as a kid, the 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.480 power came from they were roll doing me together. I 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.360 can't believe you just said that. It's the truth, and 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:06.880 it really and it penetrated. So I've always wanted to 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:11.440 be in a band always. I love cooperative effort. Competitive 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.720 effort winds up at war, cooperative effort winds up. I'm 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.800 watching Tom Petty's band playing a benefit and offriend was 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:20.559 with me. I turned him and I said, do you 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.000 see what I'm seeing? My friend said what? And I said, 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.360 they're all doing the same thing. At the same time, 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.920 I said, they're all in service to and feeding. You know, 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.040 in my business, not everybody's doing the same thing that 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:34.839 they're kind of doing their own thing, kind of jerking 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:36.720 off in the corner there. You know Patty's band was 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:38.880 doing the same thing. Yeah, it was really really, very 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:41.600 very cool. Do you find in a band does somebody 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.600 always need to be in charge? Does somebody need to 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.480 be the boss? It can go both ways. And the Birds, 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:49.600 Roger was definitely the leader of the band, and that 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.319 worked well. Yeah, he knew a lot more than we did, 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.400 and he's also an extremely talented guy and a good singer, 0:13:56.640 --> 0:14:00.120 and so it wouldn't you know, I challenged it at 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:02.800 every turn, but he was the leader of the band 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:05.320 uh c s And why none of us was willing 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.120 to admit anybody else was the leader were it was 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.520 and probably still is one of the most competitive situations 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:18.800 in the history uh and not. He goes really just 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:23.560 that simple. And in spite of all the incredible success 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.200 you've had, I mean, who's when you think of people, 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.680 when you think of men harmonizing in a group, the 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:31.920 first people that come to mind of the three of you, 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.280 Why do you think that that didn't bring them any comforts? 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.280 I don't think that's what they went in for, and 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.280 I don't think they realized exactly how good it was. 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.760 We did really like each other when we started, and 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:48.320 we were thrilled, you know, by each other's songs. So 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:50.920 you leave the Birds and and and and Stills leaves 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:55.000 Buffalo Springfield and they bring you with them Springfield throw 0:14:55.080 --> 0:15:00.000 fell apart left, which is kind of his m o uh. 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.760 Stephen was very appealing guitar player and singer. I mean, 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.600 it's really good. Remember how well he played acoustic guitar 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.160 back down beautiful, pretty stunning, And so I started hanging 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.080 out with him, and then Cass introduced me to the ground. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.200 But when Nash leaves the Hollies, the Hollies are doing 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:17.920 very well, aren't they very successful? Why does he leave 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.040 the Hollies? I told him you did? I went to work, 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.480 I went to London. I told me she quit? And 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.680 how did you do that? We could quit? Why? Because 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.680 he could join us. He was at a very crux 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.560 point with the Hollies. They wanted to do an album 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:35.520 of Dylan covers. Now, there are bands that should do 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.000 Dylan covers and there are bands that should not do 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:42.040 Dyl covers. That was one of the bands that should 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.880 not do Dealing covers. And they were ignoring his songs. 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.920 He had already written A Lady at the Island, and 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.640 they didn't get it beautiful song. He had already been 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.680 right between the eyes. They didn't get it. He he 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.720 was already outgrowing them. So I walked in and said, hmmm, 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:06.160 this is pretty ordinary. And I was funnier than they were, 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:08.240 and I knew more than they did, and I did 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:10.880 it on purpose, and they'll probably never forgive me. But 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:12.760 it made a great sound, we the three of us, 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.360 when we heard each other saying it was, it was spectacular. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.920 But bands get together and you're in love with each 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:23.080 other and fall wonderful and exciting, and then it devolves, 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.560 and forty years later it's turned on. A small machine 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:29.480 will play your heads and you don't even like each other. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.800 You don't ride the same bus, you do not hang out, 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:37.040 and you are competing with the other guys. So it's 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.280 easier to do the touring and get on stage and 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:41.800 get that on and get that of it than it 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:43.400 is to be. You don't go into a studio anymore 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.000 because that's more intimate that died quicker. Yeah, the money 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:48.960 is still good on the road in a band like that, 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.200 you know uh that you you want to stay there. 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.359 It means big crowds, big places, big deal. You can continue, 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:57.320 But it got to pomer is no fun? Is it 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:59.960 about when it starts to crack, when it starts to ship? 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.640 Is it because of songwriting? No one's getting that too. 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:06.919 Wants to see my songs. I want my songs on 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:11.119 that album. Who's the decider? Did you guys acquiesced to producers? No? 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:15.000 We Uh, we always produced our records and uh and 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.040 are we had what we call the reality rule. You 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.840 come into the room, you know, just us, nobody else 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.520 and seeing each other's song, and they either liked it 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.639 they didn't and uh, if they liked it, you know, 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.040 then we start figured out how to sing it. And 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.040 these are hugely talented guys. Man, they came with a 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:35.679 lot of stuff. So before it was the four of you, 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.399 the three of you was basically pretty good. Yeah, it 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:43.520 was okay. You know. Uh. Neil's nickname is sometimes it's 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:48.240 CSN sometimes why you know, uh, and when it would 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:50.719 be c S and why it was a lot bigger that. 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.240 You've got to know that that's the reason to see 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.800 us and has always Neil's decision. Because if there's twenty 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.000 thousand people in the stadium, Neill put ten of them there. 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.480 That's the truth. And so he's he's the one that's 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.800 that's said, that's it's done. He doesn't want to do 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:10.520 that anymore. And I don't think he needs to to 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.520 see so I don't think you'll ever see it again 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:14.880 when you say he's sometimes and he comes and goes. 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:16.719 Is that his nature in all things? He just has 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:19.840 to tough time committing to anything. No, he's on his 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:25.840 own path and he does not relinquish that ever under 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:30.480 any circumstances. And uh, he does not want to be 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.960 dependent on anybody else and probably doesn't want to explain 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.399 the money. I don't know. I've never asked him, but 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.280 I know he I think you know I had to 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.359 come to this decision. It's a very hard decision, man, 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.600 This is a very hard time for us. I don't 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.320 know if you know this, but streaming pretty much destroyed 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:53.119 our earning power. It took half, at least half of 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.120 our earning power away from us because they folks, they 0:18:56.160 --> 0:19:00.480 don't pay us for records anymore. And that's really sad. Huh. 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.639 They got that deal passes and they it's sort of 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:05.840 as if you worked your job and they paid you 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.520 a nickel for every two weeks. It's the proportion is 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:17.880 drastically tiny. So with Neil gone and CSN still earning, 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:23.400 but really frozen in place and really unpleasant I mean 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:29.400 incidents that I will not tell you about, but violently bad, 0:19:30.720 --> 0:20:03.080 carefully chosen more h David Crosby is having a renaissance, 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:07.400 three solo albums over the past four years. We hear 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.760 about his new burst of creativity and why he thinks 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.720 Stills and Nash are still out there playing the hits 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:19.600 when we come back. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:59.560 to Here's the Thing such a time before. That's Crosby 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.919 with Stills A Nash. We've heard about the band's disintegration, 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.760 but not what made it great? What was the best time? 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:12.320 Every time? Every time? For years at the beginning, every 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:14.080 time we'd go on stage, we would just kill it. 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.440 We could sing together. Nash is a fantastic HERMONI singer. 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.560 He absolutely hates my guts. That's not fun to work. 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:26.879 But why do you think that's that's the case. I 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:28.840 could tell you, but it would be personal. Stuff would 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.080 be better. It would be better if he told you, yeah, 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:35.840 because you know, uh he said, he said, he said 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:38.919 some unfortunate stuff happened in his life someone which is 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.960 his fault, some of which isn't uh and and he 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:45.720 blames me for it. And he mostly blames me because 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.639 I shot my mouth off about Neil's girlfriend and piste 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:51.840 off Neil, which ended to us, and that's my fault, 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:57.399 and it's it was so innocent, you know, I've finished 0:21:57.440 --> 0:21:59.680 an interview like this and we shut the tape off 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.040 and I was walking down and he said, what do 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:04.639 you think it's needle few girlfriend? Man I said, oh, 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:10.040 I think she's a predator bamn on the net immediately. Wow. 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:16.560 And Niel says, okay, that's it, no more and uh, 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.240 I went on stern and he said, wow, do you 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:21.119 feel man? I said, I. I didn't have any right 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:23.840 to do that. It was I shot my mouth off, 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:27.199 and he's pissed at me, and so I want to 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.040 apologize to him and to morrow. I want to apologize, sir. 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:33.160 I'm not really in a position to judge other people. 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:37.000 I'm the one who wound up in prison. Yeah, but 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:40.760 you know, mist these days, everybody's just waiting to pound 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.080 you never you never, you never, uh you know, there's 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:46.440 no forgetting. I mean, everybody knows the story I guess 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:48.679 I was fighting for custody of my daughter and I 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:52.240 have to go to court and spend dollars just to 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:54.119 get my kid on the phone. You know, they're going 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:55.879 to coach the child how to answer the phone. She 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.639 was like eleven, and so I leave this message on 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:02.399 my order his voicemails screaming at my daughter on the phone. 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:05.200 I go go nuts because I've gone through all these 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:07.560 stages of that. Now what I did. I had this 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:09.520 great therapist say this to me. Once he goes, you 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:12.600 realize that none of what you suffered, no matter what 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:16.320 you felt was unfair, he said, you realize that none 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:18.640 of that would have happened if you hadn't left the message. 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:21.520 If you hadn't left the message, none of this would 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:24.359 have happened, regardless of what you think about them leaking 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:26.200 it to the press. But the point once that gets 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:28.879 out there on the internet, if you go online and 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:32.040 you read my Twitter feed or you go see any 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:34.880 of my social media, there's not a day goes by, 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:37.920 not one that someone doesn't throw that in my face. 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:39.520 They send me a message with that, they'll show me 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:43.320 a YouTube tape with a LinkedIn, so there's no forgetting anymore. No, 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:45.640 And it's the people that were up against your are 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:51.000 are very very good at at assaulting any vulnerability they 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:53.040 see in the people who criticize them. And we do 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:55.440 criticize them, both you and I do, because they are 0:23:55.480 --> 0:24:01.960 doing a rotten job with this country. Uh. But his supporters, 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:06.240 um the level of vitriol against people like you that 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:10.320 that have a conscience and that loved this country, and 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:13.360