D
PEOPLE August 5, 2019 59During his 77 years, David Crosby has learned a lot.
But there’s still one thing he can’t quite fathom: how
the hell he’s still alive. The two-time Rock & Roll
Hall of Famer survived addiction, prison and four
decades in music’s most tempestuous supergroup,
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. He’s also endured
health problems including liver failure, diabetes and
multiple heart attacks. While he might not know
how he’s stuck around, he does know why. “Music.
Music makes things better. It’s a lifting force,” he
says. “It’s the one contribution I can make.” In the
last five years he’s put out four critically acclaimed
albums, with another on the way. His workload
reflects a man racing the clock. “Time is the final
currency,” he says. “Not power, not money.”
Crosby’s wild past and prolific present are the
subject of the gripping new documentary Remem-
ber My Name. Directed by A.J. Eaton and produced
by Cameron Crowe, the film features discussions
that are unflinchingly honest as Crosby grapples
with his own mortality and speaks of mistreating
himself and others. The most affecting moments
concern his estranged CSNY bandmates, none of
whom are speaking to him due to years of infighting
exacerbated by recent personal comments. “I know
that I’m difficult to deal with,” he says. “I’ve made so
many mistakes, and I’ve wasted so much time, but
I’m trying hard to be a decent human being.”
Born in August 1941 to a mother who dabbled
in poetry and music and an Oscar-winning cine-
matographer in Los Angeles, Crosby initially set
his sights on being an actor—mostly to attract
women. “Then I sang at a coffeehouse and real-
ized I could meet girls that night!” he laughs. After
years on the folk circuit, he cofounded the Byrds,
scoring back-to-back No. 1’s with “Mr. Tambou-
rine Man” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” in 1965. But
rapid fame meant “big ego, no brains,” says the
headstrong guitarist, who clashed with band-
mates until getting ejected from the group in 1967.
In the summer of 1968 Crosby first joined voices
with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash in musical
peer and former love Joni Mitchell’s Laurel Can-
yon cottage. Later bolstered by Neil Young, the
group played before half a million people at Wood-
stock the following August. Their set, filled with
generation-defining songs like “Guinnevere” and
“Wooden Ships,” was a highlight of the festival, but
Crosby’s fondest memory was finding common
ground with a kindhearted cop. “We had hope for
a minute, for three days,” he says of his antiwar,
hippie comrades. Just weeks later Crosby’s girl-
friend Christine Hinton was killed in a car accident.
The loss changed him forever. Nash, Young, Mitch-
ell, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and more ral-
lied around him and helped out on his first solo“It’s cathartic,”
Crosby says
of examining
his ups and
downs in a new
documentary.
“It’s lightening
my load.”
FAME I N
THE FAST
LANE
Young Rocker,
Young Love
Crosby (top, in 1965)
met onetime romance
Joni Mitchell after
leaving the Byrds in 1967.
“She’s the best there is,”
he says of her talent.Three to Start
Crosby, Stills and Nash
formed after jamming in
Mitchell’s home in ’68.Big Hits, Big
Fights
“We made good music,”
he says of the group,
which added Neil Young
(in 1969), “but we were
a fully competitive band
all the time.”Years Adrift
Crosby (in 1982) says his
main regret is hard drugs.
“It nearly killed me, it put
me in prison and kept me
from making music.”