David Crosby dies at age 81

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Singer-songwriter-guitarist 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. He was 81 years old.

His wife released a statement to Variety, writing, “It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away. He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Although he is no longer here with us, his humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us. His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music. Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and those he touched. We will miss him dearly. At this time, we respectfully and kindly ask for privacy as we grieve and try to deal with our profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers.”

The death came as a surprise to those who followed his very active Twitter account, which he’d kept tweeting on as recently as Wednesday.

Eight months ago, Crosby made headlines when he said he was done performing live, declaring, “I’m too old to do it anymore. 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. … Now I’m 80 years old so I’m gonna die fairly soon. That’s how that works. And so I’m trying really hard to crank out as much music as I possibly can, as long as it’s really good… I have another one already in the can waiting.” Crosby subsequently backtracked about doing concerts, saying recently that he’d changed his mind and expected to be out playing live again.

Crosby reentered the public consciousness in a big way in 2018 with a theatrical documentary, “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” narrated and produced by Cameron Crowe. Crosby spoke about his own mortality in the film, and Crowe remarked on that in an interview with Variety, saying the singer was thinking about “’telling the truth in my last huge interview that I’ll probably ever do’…”In the second question of the first interview we did with Crosby, he came right out with ‘Time is the final currency. What do you do with the time you have left?’ …What’s great is, he’s got more energy than all of us. He’s gonna outlive us all. He’s batting his eyes like he’s on his deathbed. He ain’t on his deathbed at all! Maybe it all is a con job, like he says at the end. You don’t know.”

With bandmates Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke, Crosby set down the template for ’60s L.A. folk-rock in the Byrds during his stormy 1964-67 tenure in the group.

The addition of another volatile member, Stills’ erstwhile Buffalo Springfield colleague Neil Young, added to the act’s commercial luster. However, a constant clash of egos within Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, fueled by the rock excesses of the era, toppled the act during the ’70s, though its members would regroup sporadically over the years as a recording and touring unit. Crosby’s most stable association was with Nash: The duo recorded and toured regularly into the new millennium.

While never the principal songwriter in either the Byrds or CSN&Y, Crosby was an integral part of the densely layered harmony front line that launched both those acts’ multiple chart hits.

The hedonistic personification of the ’60s sex-drugs-and-rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, he grappled with addiction for many years. His sensational 1982 arrest in Texas on drug and weapons charges led to a five-month prison stay in 1986. Wracked by years of cocaine and alcohol abuse, he underwent liver transplant surgery in 1994.

Though he never returned to the popular eminence of his early years, Crosby recorded and toured profitably into the 2000s.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of the Byrds (1991) and Crosby, Stills & Nash (1997).

Crosby was a child of Hollywood privilege. He was the son of cinematographer Floyd Crosby, who won an Oscar for his work on F.W. Murnau’s 1931 feature “Tabu.” Raised in L.A. and Santa Barbara, he was an indifferent student who gravitated to acting and music at an early age.

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. The Crosby-penned singles “Lady Friend” and “Why” failed to catch fire. The departure of the emotionally unsettled Clark from the group in 1966 only served to exacerbate tensions between McGuinn and Crosby.

Strife within the Byrds came to a head in 1967. 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. In a move that could be considered payback, McGuinn vetoed the release of a new Crosby composition, “Triad,” about a sexual ménage a trois; the song would ultimately find a home on “Crown of Creation,” a 1968 album by Crosby’s San Francisco friends Jefferson Airplane.

Its not surprising that my classic rock idols are all dropping like flies now. They are all pushing 80 now.
Doesnt mean I LIKE it mind you. Just that its not surprising. Expect more bucket kicking soon!

a shame his bandmates struggled to grok him.

GRAHAM NASH HAS revealed in a new interview that David Crosby died during a bout with Covid-19.

At the time of the Crosby, Stills and Nash singer’s Jan. 19 death, his family said in a statement that Crosby definitely following a “long illness,” though no exact cause of death was provided.

While it was rumored that Crosby had again contracted Covid-19 prior to his death, his former band mate Nash confirmed it in an interview on the Kyle Meredith With podcast.

“He was rehearsing for a show to do in Los Angeles with a full band,” Nash said. “After three days of rehearsals, he felt a little sick. And he’d already had Covid, and he had Covid again. And so he went home and decided that he would take a nap, and he never woke up. But he died in his bed, and that is fantastic

Nash added that, while he was saddened by the death of his CSNY band mate, it was a miracle that Crosby lived for as long as he did. “I mean, the fact that he made it to 81 was astonishing,” Nash said. “But [his death] was a shock. It was kind of like an earthquake, you know? You get the initial shock and then you figure out that you survived. But these aftershocks kept coming up, and they’re diminishing in size as I go along

“I’m very pleased that David and I were getting closer towards the end,” Nash told the podcast. “He had a good life. I mean, what incredible music he made. He was a fantastic storyteller. I loved him dearly. In looking back at what separated us, it was just foolish stuff, really. The music is the most important part of our relationship’