(Credits: Far Out / Analog Originals / David Gans)
Thu 2 April 2026 21:00, UK
It’s no secret that times in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were tough. Their voices and musicality might have effortlessly melded into something beautiful, but their personalities, or specifically the personalities of David Crosby and Neil Young, did not.
“Crosby should write an introspective book: ‘Why People Won’t Talk to Me Anymore’”. Those were the cutting words of Neil Young. Not from the 1970s or ‘80s, Young said that in 2019. Even at the time of Crosby’s death in 2023, it’s said that the pair never fully reconciled despite sharing so many years and achievements.
A lot of things were at play in the tensions amongst their supergroup band. First, there was the matter of all their origins as Crosby entered the scene from The Byrds, having had major success there. Naturally, that meant he entered with a kind of ego, believing that he would wind up as a leader here, but with so many other musical titans in the room, and so much talent, it was inevitable that there would be some clashes.
Then, there was the matter of romance. Crosby was the one to discover Joni Mitchell as the pair shared a brief but intense romance during the making of her debut album. He brought her to LA and showed her the scene, and then she left him via song and went off with his bandmate, Graham Nash.
Finally, there was the drugs. All of them dabbled, but Crosby went in hard, ultimately destroying the group and blowing up the various bubbling tensions. From then on, and for decades, it was rare that any of the rest of the band had anything nice to say about Crosby, especially not Young. In 2014, that was made even worse when Crosby called Young’s wife “a purely poisonous predator.” After that, all ties between them were cut.
Overwhelmingly, the story of the band seems to be a run of bad times and big fights. Despite the success, their personalities just couldn’t get along. But musically? It was a match made in heaven. In spite of it all, Neil Young could still find it in him to say something nice about that. In April 1970, he could even find it in him to gush about Crosby, even though the problems were already bubbling and about to see him quit for the first time.
However, one thing the two musicians did share was a similar process. Both liked to record songs live as Young said, “David likes to do it that way too, ’cause he likes to get off, he really likes to get off”. Both wanted to feel the energy in the room and capture that rather than working off stagnant, repeated and isolated takes.
The song that captured it best for Young was ‘Almost Cut My Hair’. “There’s gonna be a lot of reaction to that song. It’s really Crosby at what I think is his best,” Young said with glowing praise. To him, and to Crosby, it was done exactly how songs should be: “It’s like all live, three guitars, bass, organ and drums, and it’s all live and there are no overdubs, one vocal and the vocal was sung live”.
It united them, and it held them together long enough for some truly great songs to be put on tape, even if off-mic, there never could be peace.
