David Crosby, Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member Of Both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dead At 81

David Crosby (Photo: s-bukley / Shutterstock.com)

DAVID "CROZ" CROSBY, a two-time ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME inductee as a member of both THE BYRDS and CROSBY, STILLS & NASH, who straightened out his life after almost dying from a cocaine addiction, passed away at 81.

His wife JAN issued the following statement: "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 native CALIFORNIAN, the son of OSCAR-winning cinematographer FLOYD CROSBY, DAVID had his sights set on being an actor when he moved from SANTA BARBARA to LOS ANGELES in 1960, when he first began his career as a folksinger, forming THE BYRDS with ROGER McGUINN, CHRIS HILLMAN, GENE CLARK and MICHAEL CLARKE, scoring hits with “Eight Miles High,” “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and a cover of DYLAN’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” before joining with STEPHEN STILLS and BRITISH singer-songwriter in CROSBY, STILLS & NASH, later adding STILLS’ BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD bandmate NEIL YOUNG to the trio and becoming a sometime quartet.  The resulting group earned a GRAMMY in 1969 as Best New Artist after its acclaimed self-titled debut, which included CROSBY’s “Guinnevere” and “Wooden Ships,” one of ROLLING STONE’s “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time,” In all, CROSBY appears on five titles on that list, three with THE BYRDS and a pair with CSN(Y). He went on to success as a solo artist with his 1971 masterpiece, “If Only I Could Remember My Name,” featuring GRAHAM NASH, JONI MITCHELL (whose career he championed during a brief stint as her boyfriend) and members of THE GRATEFUL DEAD, the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE and SANTANA.  

Born AUGUST 14th, 1941 as DAVID VAN CORTLANDT CROSBY, he starred in several high school musicals while in MONTECITO and SANTA BARBARA.  He briefly studied drama at SANTA BARBARA CITY COLLEGE before deciding to pursue music, moving to NEW YORK’s GREENWICH VILLAGE to become part of the folk scene, where he was a member of LES BAXTER’S BALLADEERS and shared a DYLAN mentor in FRED NEIL.  With producer JIM DICKSON, he recorded his first solo session in 1963.
 
CROSBY first ran into JIM McGUINN (who was later to change his name to ROGER) and GENE CLARK, then calling themselves the JET SET, with drummer MICHAEL CLARKE, at the TROUBADOUR in LOS ANGELES, and shortly after, became a member of the band, now called THE BYRDS. In 1964, they were joined by CHRIS HILLMAN on bass.  Managed by DICKSON, who had connections with BOB DYLAN’s publisher, they obtained a demo acetate of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” and recorded a cover version, featuring McGUINN’s jangly, 12-string guitar and folky harmonies.   The record was a smash, going to #1 in the U.S. and U.K. in ’65, with CROSBY getting credit for the band’s distinctive harmonies and offbeat lyrical phrasing. 

When GENE CLARK left the group in 1966, CROSBY began to hone his own songwriting abilities, contributing a line to “Eight Miles High” and co-writing “Why,” the b-side, with McGUINN.  He also convinced the band to cover “Hey Joe,” a song he popularized, on their “Fifth Dimension” album. 

By mid-’67, CROSBY’s outsized personality as the first of the hippies, led to his departure from the band, stemming from an incident at the MONTEREY POP FESTIVAL, when his on-stage political diatribes disturbed both McGUINN and HILLMAN.  He sealed his fate when, at the invitation of STEPHEN STILLS, he sat in for the absent NEIL YOUNG for BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD’s set.

While recording “The Notorious Byrd Brothers” later that SUMMER, differences over song selections – CROSBY insisted the group should record only original material – led to his departure, with his controversial menage-a-trois song, “Triad,” which they had recorded, left off the album. The track was later recorded by JEFFERSON AIRPLANE for their “Crown Of Creation” album in 1968. CROSBY reunited with the original BYRDS, producing their 1973 album, “BYRDS,” which charted at #20, but marked the final collaboration between the band’s founding members.

The seeds for CSN came when CROSBY ran into STEPHEN STILLS during a party at the LAUREL CANYON home of CASS ELLIOT, leading to informal jam sessions, where they were eventually joined by ex-HOLLIES member GRAHAM NASH, newly arrived from the U.K. Their appearance at WOODSTOCK in AUGUST 1969 solidified their status as rock ‘n’ roll’s hottest supergroup.

Their self-titled debut album spawned two hit singles, “Marrakesh Express” and “Suite: Judy Blue Eys,” and was an FM radio favorite. CROSBY’s contributions included “Guinnevere,” “Almost Cut My Hair,” “Long Time Gone” and “Delta,” while co-writing “Wooden Ships” with PAUL KANTNER.  When NEIL YOUNG joined up that same year, they recorded “Déjà vu,” which went straight to #1 on the album charts.  The death of his longtime girlfriend CHRISTINE HINTON at the time only days after they’d moved from L.A. to SAN FRANCISCO, sent him on a downward spiral of drug abuse, though he managed to contribute both the title track and “Almost Cut My Hair.”  After the release of the double-live “Four Way Street,” and an appearance at the ROLLING STONES’ ill-fated ALTAMONT free concert, the foursome went on a temporary hiatus to focus on their solo careers. 

CSNY reunited in 1973 at the WINTERLAND in SAN FRANCISCO, followed by a hugely successful stadium tour in the summer of ’74 before splintering into two separate duos – CROSBY & NASH and STILLS & YOUNG.  The foursome didn’t perform together again until LIVE AID in PHILADELPHIA in 1985, and then only sporadically through the ‘90s, though CSNY did undertake full-scale tours in 2000, 2002 and 2006. 

As a duo, CROSBY and NASH have released four studio albums and two live efforts. The two also enjoyed lucrative careers in the mid-‘70s as session musicians, contributing to albums by JACKSON BROWNE, DAVE MASON, JAMES TAYLOR, ART GARFUNKEL, J.D. SOUTHER, CAROLE KING, ELTON JOHN and GARY WRIGHT. 

CROSBY collaborated with good friend PHIL COLLINS in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, singing back-up on “That’s Just The Way It Is” and “Another Day In Paradise.” He also worked with DAVID GILMOUR on his third solo album, “On An Island,” with NASH, in 2006. The two performed live with the PINK FLOYD guitarist at the ROYAL ALBERT HALL in MAY 2006 and toured together in the U.S.

CROSBY formed CPR (CROSBY, PEVAR & RAYMOND) in 1996, joined by his son, pianist JAMES RAYMOND, whom he ever knew until he met him after he was originally put up for adoption.  The prog-jazz group released two studio albums and a pair of live albums before disbanding in 2004, including “Live At The Wiltern,” which also features PHIL COLLINS and GRAHAM NASH. 

In 2006, he published his “Long Time Gone: The Autobiography Of David Crosby,” with CARL GOTTLIEB, a harrowing tale of kicking drugs.  He is also the author of “Stand And Be Counted: Making Music, Making History/The Dramatic Story Of The Artists And Causes That Changed AMERICA,” and the sequel to his original autobiography, “Since Then: How I Survived Everything And Lived To Tell About It.”
 
CROSBY was inducted into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME as a member of THE BYRDS by DON HENLEY in 1991 and as a member of CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH by JAMES TAYLOR in 1997.

CROSBY’s legal and medical problems threatened to end his life. He spent nine months in a TEXAS state prison after being convicted of drug and weapon offenses in 1982, and in 2004, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and illegal possession of an ounce of marijuana. 

He was also the recipient of a liver transplant in 1994, paid for by PHIL COLLINS, caused by contracting hepatitis C.  In FEBRUARY, 2014, he was forced to postpone the final dates of a solo tour to undergo a cardiac catheterization and angiogram just after the release of “Croz,” his first solo album in 21 years, since “Thousand Roads,” back in 1993. The album, which was released on CROSBY and NASH’s independent BLUE CASTLE RECORDS label, featured guest appearances by WYNTON MARSALIS, MARK KNOPFLER and LELAND SKLAR and included songs co-written with his son JAMES RAYMOND. The disc appeared on five different BILLBOARD charts, including the Top 10 on the Independent Album Chart, Top Folk Album Chart and Top Internet Sales Chart. He recently released “DAVID CROSBY & THE LIGHTHOUSE BAND: Live At The CAPITOL THEATRE” on CD and DVD through BMG, a group which included BECCA STEVENS, MICHELL WILLIS and MICHAEL LEAGUE, who he'd been working with since 2016’s “LIGHTHOUSE” album, one of four solo records he'd released over the past six years.

In 2019, a documentary, "DAVID CROSBY: Remember My Name," narrated and produced by CAMERON CROWE, brought him back into the public view, and he stayed active on TWITTER until days before his death.

“I’m fuckin’ lucky,” he told ROLLING STONE in 2021. “I don’t know if I have two weeks left of life or 10 years, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do with the time. If you sit there on your butt and worry about dying, then you fucking wasted it. I haven’t been wasting it. I’m having a really good time, and feeling wonderfully about it. Sooner or later, something is going to break. Right now, my life is pretty great.”

DAVID CROSBY is survived by his wife JAN DANCE and their son DJANGO CROSBY, his biological son JAMES RAYMOND and two daughters, DONOVAN CROSBY (with former girlfriend DEBBIE DONOVAN) and ERIKA KELLER CROSBY (with girlfriend JACKIE GUTHRIE). He also donated sperm as the biological father of two children, daughter BAILEY JEAN CYPHER and son BECKETT CYPHER, carried by JULIE CYPHER with partner MELISSA ETHERIDGE. 

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