Don’t expect to see David Crosby reunited with his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmates any time soon.
Crosby hasn’t exactly been on speaking terms with either Neil Young or Graham Nash for a number of years and comments he made in an interview published this week with The Guardian will likely keep it that way.
Young, he said, was “probably the most self-centered, self-obsessed, selfish person I know. He only thinks about Neil, period. That’s the only person he’ll consider. Ever!”
When asked if the rock icon would agree, Crosby said: “Probably. He knows himself pretty well.”
Crosby said any impression fans may have of Nash caring for him when he was down on his luck and the two toured as a duo was just for show.
“He gave the impression of looking after me, but apparently that was all just trying to keep the money coming,” Crosby said. “But there you go.”
Crosby said he hasn’t spoken to Nash in a couple of years now.
“I’m not going to talk to him. I don’t want to talk to him. I’m not happy with him at all,” Crosby said. “To me, that’s all ancient history, man.”
The feeling is mutual. In an interview with FaceCulture in 2016, Nash said he was “not interested” in talking to Crosby. And when asked what he would do if Crosby reached out to him, Nash said: “He can try all he wants, it’s a little fucking late.”
Nash also said Crosby “tore the heart” out of the band and is “not a really great person.”
Crosby has had a longtime substance abuse problem that resulted in a prison stint in the 1980s and a host of legal and financial issues as well as years of health problems, including a liver transplant.
He told the Guardian that the only CSNY member he was still in touch with was Stephen Stills.
Crosby’s relations with Young soured in 2014 when he called Young’s then-girlfriend Daryl Hannah “a purely poisonous predator.” He apologized the following year, but it seems the two still aren’t on speaking terms.
“Neil has got a genuine beef,” Crosby told The Guardian. “OK, he can be mad at me. That’s all right.”
But Nash, Crosby said, “changed from the guy I thought was my best friend to being a guy that is definitely my enemy.”
The new comments probably close the door on whatever slim hopes for a reconciliation and reunion may have been left. However, Crosby has been in one of the most productive periods of his career, releasing a string of acclaimed albums since 2014.
Crosby is a two-time member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Prior to the coronavirus shutdowns, he attempted to reach out to Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn on social media about a reunion, only to be shot down there as well.
″[David Crosby] is not hated,” a rep for McGuinn told Rolling Stone in 2019. “But that doesn’t mean anyone wants to work with him.”