DAVID Crosby, founding member of the influential rock groups The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has died at age 81.
Crosby’s former partner, Graham Nash shared a tribute on social media.
“It is with a deep and profound sadness that I learned that my friend David Crosby has passed,” he wrote.
“I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years.
In recent years, Nash and Crosby had been estranged after their groups focused on their solo careers.
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He described Crosby as fearless in life and in music.
“He leaves behind a tremendous void as far as sheer personality and talent in this world. He spoke his mind, his heart, and his passion through his beautiful music and leaves an incredible legacy.
“These are the things that matter most. My heart is truly with his wife, Jan, his son, Django, and all of the people he has touched in this world.”
In the mid-1960s, Crosby joined bandmates Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke to form the folk-rock band The Byrds.
His time with the group was rocky and he eventually left in 1967 after forming a close bond with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, creating CS&N in 1968.
The group released their debut album to critical acclaim, becoming a multi-platinum piece.
Stills’ colleague, Neil Young, would join the group a year later in 1969, causing a clash of egos among the members.
Throughout the years, the members would break up and regroup, releasing multiple albums during that time.
Crosby and Nash worked closely together, recording and touring regularly.
During the 1960s era of sex-drugs-and-rock ’n’ roll, Crosby struggled with addiction for several years.
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In 1992 he was famously arrested in Texas on drugs and weapons charges, resulting in a five-month prison stint in 1986.
He had to undergo liver transplant surgery in 1994 due to years of cocaine and alcohol abuse.
Crosby has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice - once as a member of The Byrds in 1991 and in CS&N in 1997.
STORIED CAREER
Born in Los Angeles, California on August 14, 1941, Crosby was the son of Academy Award-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby and Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead.
At a young age, he was drawn to acting and music while growing up in LA and Santa Barbara.
He dropped out of Santa Barbara City College to pursue a career in music and became involved in the folk music scene.
While performing solo, Crosby caught the attention of Jim Dickinson, the house engineer at World Pacific Records, who worked with Crosby on several demos.
While at a jam session in 1964, Crosby met McGuinn, who was wary of Crosby’s opinionated personality but the two worked closely anyways, also getting to know Gene Clark.
The trio released their first single under the name the Beefeaters before reforming as a rock quintet influenced by the Beatles’ 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night.
Their lineup was complete with the addition of bassist Chris Hillmen and drummer Michael Clarke.
Before long, the group had reformed and rebranded themselves as the Byrds and signed to Columbia Records in late 1964 with Dickson managing the band.
Their first single was a cover of folk star, Bob Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man, which jumped to the Number one spot on the US singles chart in early 1965.
Their debut album of the same name reached Number six on the chart and the group was gaining in popularity.
McGuinn and Clark were the ones behind writing most of the group’s hit songs as Crosby’s own singles Lady Friend and Why failed to get popular.
Clark eventually left the group in 1966, exacerbating tensions between McGuinn and Crosby.
Trouble within the group reached a boiling point in the summer of 1967 when the band appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in Northern California.
The ever-outspoken Crosby made political remarks onstage that drew the ire of McGuinn and some of the other bandmates.
Eventually, in October 1967, McGuinn and Hillman drove to Crosby’s house to fire him from the Byrds.
A NEW BAND
Out of a band, Crosby started jamming with Stephen Stills, who had been part of Buffalo Springfield, which had also broken up following their own infighting, and Graham Nash, who met the other two during a US tour in 1966.
The trio brokered a deal to free themselves of their outstanding contractual obligations and signed with Atlantic Records as Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Their self-titled debut was released in May 1969 with a few songs penned by Crosby - the long song, Guinnevere, Wooden Ships, and Long Time Gone.
The album landed at Number six on the US chart and sold more than four million copies.
By that summer, Neil Young joined the group, and the quartet - now known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - performed before a crowd of half a million people at the Woodstock music festival.
Their chart-topping album Déjà Vu was released in 1970, becoming the best-selling record in any of the member’s carers, selling seven million copies.
Crosby’s personal problems came to the surface at the height of CSN&Y’s popularity, however, as he turned to heroin after already being an avid cocaine user.
His drug use caused tensions between him and Young, who didn’t agree with Crosby’s behavior and left the group to focus on his solo career - Young would return to tour with the other members in 1974.
Nash and Crosby collaborated multiple times throughout the 1970s on recording including, Graham Nash/David Crosby, Wind on the Water, and Whistling Down the Wire.
During this time, the duo was removed from a CSN&Y reunion album in 1976, issued as Long May You Run by the Stills-Young Band.
However, CS&N was able to reconcile to record CSN in 1977 and Daylight Again in 1982.
Crosby is survived by his wife, Jan Dance, and their children: sons Django and James, and daughters, Erika and Donovan.
It was revealed in 2000 that Crosby was the biological father of two children born to Melissa Etheridge’s then-partner Julie Cypher through artificial insemination.
