David Crosby

American rock legend David Crosby has died aged 81 following a long illness, his wife has reportedly announced.

His tumultuous life included a serious motorcycle crash, the death of a girlfriend and battles against hepatitis C and diabetes. And a wonderful person. Looking back at the turbulent 1960s and his life, Crosby, an outspoken political progressive whose conspiracy theories about US President John F. The New York Times reported Crosby’s death based on a text message from Patricia Dance, Crosby’s wife’s sister. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. Musically, Crosby stood out for his intricate vocal harmonies, unorthodox open tunings on guitar and incisive songwriting.

One of the most influential rock singers of the 1960s and '70s, David Crosby stood out for his intricate vocal harmonies, unorthodox open tunings on the ...

"I'm ashamed of that." His father was a cinematographer who won a Golden Globe for "High Noon" in 1952, and his mother exposed him to the folk group the Weavers and to classical music. Crosby was a founding member of two revered rock bands: the country and folk-influenced Byrds, for whom he cowrote the hit "Eight Miles High," and CSNY, who defined the smooth side of the Woodstock generation's music.

Singer, songwriter and guitarist co-founded the Byrds and supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash.

In the same interview, Crosby admitted that – after surviving alcohol, cocaine and heroin addictions for many years – he “expected to be dead” at 30. I’m not, because I’m 80.” He also pointed to his age to explain his recent spate of solo albums: “I’m 80 years old so I’m gonna die fairly soon. And so I’m trying really hard to crank out as much music as I possibly can, as long as it’s really good.” His music and legacy will inspire many generations to come.” His most recent, For Free, was produced and co-written with James Raymond, a son Crosby didn’t know he had until Raymond was 30, after he was given up for adoption by his mother after birth. Raymond had been a musician for 20 years before he discovered who his father was, and tracked him down. In 2019 documentary Remember My Name, Byrds member Roger McGuinn described Crosby and his on-stage political rants as “insufferable”, with fellow band member Chris Hillman saying he had a superiority complex. “He leaves behind a tremendous void.” He recently described Mitchell as “the best singer-songwriter ... In 1968, Crosby met Stephen Stills and the pair started jamming together. He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Thank you for the love and prayers.”

Crosby, who co-founded both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash, had been ill for some time.

There followed periods of ill health, and a liver transplant in 1994. A six-decade career culminated in his final album, For Free, released in 2021. He was renowned for his guitar-playing and vocal harmonies. Following the musician's death, Graham Nash wrote on social media that his late collaborator was "fearless in life and in music" and left behind a "tremendous void". Crosby later expressed regret over his addictions and altercations with co-stars, telling the Los Angeles Times in 2019 he was "ashamed" of some of his past behaviours. His substance abuse had reportedly intensified after the death of a girlfriend in a car crash when he was a young man.

Crosby was a prominent figure of the free-spirited 1970s Laurel Canyon scene who helped bring folk-rock mainstream with both The Byrds and Crosby, ...

Years of well-documented substance abuse led to tumultuous relationships in and out of music, multiple arrests and a nine-month stint in a Texas prison in the '80s. His songwriting contributions also pushed the band in new directions — in particular, the rhythmic cadences of "Déjà Vu" and the loose arrangements and boho instrumental tone of "Wooden Ships." But in later years, it made him a natural for the concise and quippy nature of Twitter. Its self-titled 1969 debut led to an performance at Woodstock and a Grammy for best new artist, while 1970's Déjà Vu — by which point Neil Young had joined, adding another letter to the band's name — touched on both the comforts of tradition and the seismic generational shifts that were underway. His older brother, Ethan, introduced him to jazz, a genre he would touch on throughout his career, including with his late '90s / early '00s band CPR and on a ruminative 2017 solo album, Sky Trails. and [Bob Dylan](https://www.npr.org/artists/15193203/bob-dylan)'s "Mr. At loose ends, he immersed himself in sailing, one of his childhood passions, buying a schooner for $25,000 with money borrowed from The Monkees' Peter Tork. He added five solo albums to his catalog between 2014 and 2021, and toured frequently with two sets of collaborators, the Lighthouse Band (which featured "The idea of cooperative effort to make something bigger than any one person could ever do was stuck in my head," he wrote in his 1988 autobiography, Long Time Gone. [Pete Seeger](https://www.npr.org/artists/15869924/pete-seeger)'s "Turn! His publicist confirmed the artist's death to NPR; no cause of death was given at the time of this report. Crosby had long dealt with serious health problems, including multiple heart attacks, diabetes and hepatitis C, for which he had a liver transplant in 1994.

David Crosby, founding member of the influential rock groups The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has died at age 81.

“He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. 25+ news channels in 1 place. Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and those he touched. He dropped out of Santa Barbara City College to pursue a career in music and became involved in the folk music scene. Stream more entertainment news live & on demand with Flash. We will miss him dearly.”

American rock legend David Crosby has died aged 81 following a long illness, his wife Jan Dance announced on Friday. Crosby, one of the most influential ...

Crosby, one of the most influential rock singers of the 1960s and ’70s, was a founding member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash (later becoming Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young). American rock legend David Crosby has died aged 81 following a long illness, his wife Jan Dance announced on Friday. US rock legend David Crosby passes away at 81

The musician helped set up two major bands in the 1960s: The Byrds, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. He was renowned for his guitar-playing and vocal harmonies.

Crosby was among the first American stars to become close to The Beatles, and helped introduce George Harrison to Eastern music. The couple had a son, Django, in 1995. In 2000, Melissa Etheridge revealed that Crosby was the father of the two children she shared with then-partner Julie Cypher. Cypher carried the children Crosby fathered by artificial insemination, Etheridge told Rolling Stone. Crosby was exposed early to classical, folk and jazz music. Crosby, Stills and Nash’s first meeting is part of rock folklore: Stills and Crosby were at Joni Mitchell’s house in 1968, working on the ballad You Don’t Have to Cry, when Nash suggested they start over again. Crosby also had a daughter, Donovan, with Debbie Donovan. Shortly after he underwent the liver transplant, Crosby was reunited with his son Raymond, who had been placed for adoption in 1961. Troubled relations with bandmates pushed Crosby out of The Byrds and into a new group. He was a twinkly-eyed hippie patriarch, the inspiration for Dennis Hopper’s long-haired stoner in Easy Rider. The first album was an easy, happy recording, but the mood darkened during the second album, Deja Vu. “I was right about the sex.

From his celebrated work with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to his unfairly maligned solo debut, Crosby always set the agenda rather than follow it.

"[He] didn't want me to leave it in 'cause he thought that it was a bad vocal," Crosby told Rolling Stone in 1970. While their flawless harmonies were a big part of CSNY's appeal to many, there's none of that here: this song is all attitude. It was on Mayan that he wrote the music for 1969's 'Wooden Ships', one of his biggest songs. The sentiment in one of many great tracks from CSNY's Déjà Vu album is fairly clear-cut. Crosby has said that Mayan was a genuine escape plan for when the world ended. His latest albums did, however, remind us of his musical intelligence. Its druggy undertone – denied at the time, confirmed in later years – didn't help. He spoke his mind, his heart, and his passion through his beautiful music and leaves an incredible legacy. No one, however, calls into question its influence on the psych-rock genre. "And it was a bad vocal in the sense that it slid around, and it wasn’t polished, but I felt like what I meant when I sang it, and so it always put me on that trip." "We imagined ourselves as the few survivors escaping on a boat to create a new civilisation," he wrote in the liner notes of a CSN box set in 1991. But he was a genius artist whose work is among the most instrumental in the development of folk-rock.

BMG has paid tribute to David Crosby, who has died aged 81. The music legend was a recording artist and publishing client of BMG, as well as being a BMG ...

[David Crosby: Remember My Name](https://www.musicweek.com/labels/read/fred-casimir-on-bmg-s-david-bowie-documentary-and-the-music-company-s-growing-film-division/086450), produced by Cameron Crowe and directed by AJ Eaton. Crosby attended the premiere along with BMG execs including [CEO Hartwig Masuch](https://www.musicweek.com/media/read/david-bowie-film-moonage-daydream-is-2022-s-biggest-documentary-at-the-box-office/087142). He would go on to form the Grammy-winning supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) in 1968, before Neil Young joined the band adding his name (CSN&Y). One of the all-time greats, we remember David through his incredible music, poignant words, and electric performances. [Rock & Roll Hall of Fame](https://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/lyor-cohen-on-the-future-of-the-rock-roll-hall-of-fame/084521) for his work with both The Byrds and CSN, Crosby released his first solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name in 1971. The company posted on social media that Crosby was “one of the all-time greats, we remember David through his incredible music, poignant words, and electric performances”.

Singer and songwriter whose work with the Byrds, and Crosby, Stills and Nash helped define folk-rock.

An accomplished musician and composer, Raymond played in the jazz-rock band CPR with his father and Jeff Pevar (they released four albums between 1998 and 2001), was music director for Crosby’s solo live shows and also became a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s touring band from 2009. He released the solo album Thousand Roads (1993), which gave him a minor hit single with Hero, then picked up the pace dramatically in the new century with Croz (2014), Lighthouse (2016), Sky Trails (2017) and Here If You Listen (2018). One of his regular musical collaborators was James Raymond, his child with Celia Crawford Ferguson, whom Crosby had left pregnant in California in the early 60s, and who had given her baby up for adoption. Born in Los Angeles, he was the second son of the cinematographer Floyd Crosby and his first wife, Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead, a scion of the influential Van Cortlandt dynasty. In 1973 Crosby reunited with his previous band for the album Byrds, and in 1977 Crosby, Stills and Nash released CSN, which reached No 2 on the US album chart and outsold the trio’s debut. [Peter Tork](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/21/peter-tork-obituary) of the Monkees, Crosby bought a 74ft schooner called Mayan, where he would write some of his best-known songs including Crosby, Stills and Nash’s Wooden Ships. He would make six further solo discs, in addition to Crosby & Nash (2004), two albums with Stills and Nash (Live It Up in 1990 and After the Storm, 1994) and American Dream and Looking Forward with CSNY (1988 and 1999). The hanging chords and mysterious time changes of his title track made it one of his most mesmerising compositions, while Almost Cut My Hair was his battle cry for the counterculture. He marked his return with the enthralling autobiography Long Time Gone (1988) and the solo album Oh Yes I Can (1989). The members then embarked on solo ventures and their reunions grew increasingly rare, though they reformed for a stadium tour in 1974, a lavishly wasteful affair that Crosby nicknamed “the Doom tour”. Their debut album, Crosby Stills & Nash (1969), was an immediate smash, and proved hugely influential on a rising generation of west coast artists. This was defined by their shimmering recording of Bob Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man, its distinctive harmonies and chiming 12-string guitar carrying it to the top of the charts in Britain and the US in 1965.

Crosby could be overbearing and convinced of his own brilliance – but despite the ups and downs of his time with the Byrds and CSNY, he was always proven ...

He also became an enthusiastic user of Twitter – he was still tweeting the day before he died – on which he was variously funny, provocative, infuriating, generous, wilfully argumentative, clearly obsessed with music, and never above reminding the world of his own talent. Soulless and stilted, American Dream was a largely awful album – Compass, which Crosby had written in prison, was a rare highlight among a dearth of decent material – and, if anything, the subsequent CSNY album Live It Up was even worse, a hopeless attempt to marry their harmonies to the booming drums and glossy synth production that was still mainstream US rock’s default setting. It was a problem that also afflicted his post-prison solo albums Oh Yes I Can and Thousand Roads, although anyone prepared to dig deep would find a scattering of songs suggesting his skills were undiminished – the reflective and rueful Tracks in the Dust, the wordless Flying Man on the former, the Mitchell co-write Yvette in English on the latter. After Crosby emerged from a nine-month stretch in prison on drugs and weapons charges – a sentence that almost undoubtedly saved his life – Young proved true to his word. Just how intent he was is laid out in his 1988 autobiography Long Time Gone, a book that spares few details in documenting his descent: the open sores that covered his face and body, the squalid conditions in which he and partner, Jan Dance, lived, the crowd of dealers and fellow addicts he surrounded himself with – so sinister that even the musicians still willing to work with him dubbed them “the Manson Family” – the endless string of drug and firearms busts. A man who had battled the Byrds to get as many of his songs as possible on their albums managed only three compositions on 1977’s CSN, an album that sold 6m copies: if the sense of exploratory magic that sparkled throughout Crosby Stills and Nash’s debut had been replaced by solid professionalism, its sound fitted neatly with that year’s vogue for smooth, Californian rock (tellingly, it was at No 2 in the US charts when Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours was at No 1). Nash began publicly expressing the view that Crosby was going to die; Young responded to his plight with the scathing Hippie Dream, a song that depicted Crosby in his ruin, “capsized in excess”. The album’s poppier material was Nash’s work, while Crosby came up with more expansive and exploratory exercises in mood and atmosphere of which Games was a particularly great example. It was a huge hit, establishing CSN as the premier example of that most late 60s of concepts, the supergroup. Yet the Byrds had initially demurred from recording his material: it was hard to find room in among the souped-up folk songs and Dylan covers and the work of the band’s frontman McGuinn and chief songwriter Gene Clark. He forced his fellow Byrds to listen to a collection of Ravi Shankar ragas and John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass over and over again while touring the UK: the two albums inspired the groundbreaking Eight Miles High, widely considered to be the first psychedelic single ever released. He successfully lobbied for his song Lady Friend to be released as a single: it was both a flop and a superb song, richly melodic, boasting an intricate brass arrangement and complex vocal harmonies.

The singer and songwriter, who died this week, created music that helped define an era and stretched across generations. Listen to six decades of tracks ...

Written with the members of the Lighthouse Band, “Balanced on a Pin” contemplates fragility and mortality: “Landing’s the hardest part/The connection comes apart,” Crosby sings. “Curved Air” — written with his son James Raymond — is briskly percussive and rhythmically unpredictable, with flamenco-like handclaps and a bass line that talks back to him. There’s more than a hint of Crosby’s lifelong admiration for Mitchell in “Holding On to Nothing,” with its calmly strummed, eccentric chords and asymmetrical melody. In 1971, Crosby released his perfectly atmospheric solo debut album, “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” backed by members of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane as well as Joni Mitchell, who joined the backup harmonies on this song. “Don’t you wonder what’s going on down under you?” the members of this supergroup harmonized at a key moment in this wonderfully complex musical and verbal construction. Boomers can remember when the length of a man’s hair signified a political allegiance. Survivors from opposite sides of a war, who don’t even know “who won,” share their meager supplies, deciding they can be “free and easy” on the water. The song would emerge anyway: first with the Jefferson Airplane, later on “4 Way Street” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Written by Crosby and Jim McGuinn (who would later rename himself Roger), “I See You” shows their shared interest in Indian music and John Coltrane’s jazz. He was also happy to dissolve that voice, and the ego it implied, into shared vocal harmonies: with the Byrds, with Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young) and with his 21st-century group, the Lighthouse Band. Is it a love song or a rush of hallucinations? The singer and songwriter, who died this week, created music that helped define an era and stretched across generations.

Singer-songwriter-guitarist David Crosby, a founding member of hugely influential '60s rock units the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, has died at 81.

“I loved him and he loved me and he was family to me.” Wrote Bob Dylan in his memoir, “Chronicles”: “Crosby was a colorful and unpredictable character, wore a Mandrake the Magician cape, didn’t get along with too many people and had a beautiful voice — an architect of harmony … In 2000 he published “Stand and Be Counted,” a history of activism in music, with David Bender. In a [separate article,](https://variety.com/2019/music/news/cameron-crowe-interview-david-crosby-documentary-remember-my-name-1203274929/) Crowe talked about working with producer Greg Mariotti on the picture with the idea of preserving Crosby’s legacy and personality for future generations of viewers. Though by no means a stranger to drug use himself, Young was appalled by Crosby’s behavior and the constant tension and disorder within the group, and withdrew to focus on his solo career, though he would return to tour with the other members in 1974. Crosby maintained his solo career with the albums “Oh Yes I Can” (No. Graham Nash was Crosby’s reliable partner and stabilizing collaborator through the ’70s: Together they issued the duo recordings “Graham Nash/David Crosby” (No. That June, the band appeared at the historic Monterey Pop Festival in Northern California; the politically outspoken Crosby infuriated McGuinn with some of his onstage remarks, and further enraged his bandmate by sitting in with Buffalo Springfield for most of their set. Though Crosby’s pure, soaring voice was a key component of the unit’s sound, he took a back seat as a writer to bandmates McGuinn and Clark, who were responsible for the group’s hit originals. Crosby spoke about his own mortality in the film, and Crowe remarked on that in an [David Crosby](https://variety.com/t/david-crosby/), a founding member of two popular and enormously influential ’60s rock units, the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash (later Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), has died, his representative says. I don’t have the stamina; I don’t have the strength.” But he said he was recording as busily as possible: “I’ve been making records at a startling rate.

David Crosby's life was defined crushing lows - from personal and professional break-ups to drug addiction and jail time. But it is the soaring musical ...

It was a sad situation for a man who so often espoused the principles of the peace and love generation. If you listen to his demos of songs you quickly realise that working with Stephen Stills he found the perfect partner with a gift for arrangement and an incredible musical ear. Using cocaine and heroin in tandem to focus and then to lose himself, he was still convinced he was in control. Still on the road he played to adoring audiences. Amidst the horror of his loss he crafted a remarkable record at Waller Heider's studios in San Francisco. The singer had fathered a child, James Raymond, in the 1960s. The meeting would lead to a new super-group, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and propel his own musical career into the stratosphere. Christened America's "new Beatles" in terms of their selling power, the group was almost too successful, too quickly. Less than three years into his life as a Byrd, Crosby found himself being told by the other band members he was out. For a time the prophesy looked like it was coming true. To add the icing, the band married the music and words to the chiming sound of McGuinn's electric 12-string with their three-part harmonies. The transplant, paid for by rock star Phil Collins, became a controversy in itself thanks to his celebrity.

Legendary rocker Neil Young has paid tribute to former Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate David Crosby.

David was the catalyst of many things.” Young and Crosby’s paths crossed in 1970 when Young joined Crosby, Stills & Nash. “His great songs stood for what we believed in and it was always fun and exciting when we got to play together,” Young’s tribute continued. [posted to Facebook, ](https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=758979955598521&set=a.325940078902513)adding that “what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together.” Stills added that “David lived a life of deep and enduring gratitude and was an extraordinary, richly sentient being,” continuing to say that “his music will live on through us all.” Crosby was a very supportive friend in my early life, as we bit off big pieces of our experience together.

The musician relished sharing opinions big and small, sparring with fans and dispelling myths, often in sharp, hilarious quips. The vibe on the platform ...

[rating joints](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1612651571413934080), once again advocating for [the mood-setting capabilities](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1609821563377057793) of his own music and making plans [to perform again](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1608872502717210626). [playful](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1492927917357088768), and [sweet](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1582209811130654720). He praised younger musicians like [Jason Isbell](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1404947814774304768) and [Jacob Collier](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1221837610131148802). He solicited [movie recommendations](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1362668045576019971) and [promoted restaurants](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1229530935965573120). Even as Twitter [frays](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/technology/twitter-elon-musk.html) and [coarsens](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/technology/twitter-hate-speech.html) under Musk’s ownership, it’s still possible to have fun with others, one of the few things that keeps users from leaving. [Grammy.com](https://www.grammy.com/news/david-crosby-new-album-for-free-twitter-csny-interview) in 2021. [“Eleanor Rigby”](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1615679396765134850)). He loved to talk about his wife, and his appreciation for [his family life](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1458581447845974017). In a bit of poignant foreshadowing, he shared some thoughts [ about heaven](https://twitter.com/thedavidcrosby/status/1615681363600080899): “I heard the place is overrated,” he wrote, “cloudy.” His willingness to post so often and honestly did the work of several marketing budgets, and accompanied a late-career creative renaissance that saw the release of five solo albums in the last decade. (It’s hard to believe that Mick Jagger has anything to do with the Rolling Stones’ newly announced He was a boldfaced name for his brief prison stay on drug charges, his liver transplant and the revelation that he was the sperm donor for Melissa Etheridge’s two children with Julie Cypher.