Crosby Stills Nash & Young - VH1 Legends Documentary

they began the 70s is the top band in the US and then abruptly broke apart for 30 years they lived hi and loan from adoring stadiums to jail cells for wealth and luxury to near-death experiences but when times were dark the friendship between these four complicated men shone brightest until they surprised the whole world by reuniting to tour in the year 2000 three decades after they walked away David Crosby Stephen Stills Graham Nash and Neil Young are legends this is their story [Applause] the first time I saw Neal and was going across Canada on this tour with this little folk group and he was doing exactly what I wanted to do when I got back was to get a great rhythm section and play folk song on an electric guitar we drove down to Los Angeles in 53 Pontiac hers and we're in traffic and I guess still sauce so he ran up to us and got us and pulled over Neil Young teamed up with Stephen Stills in 1966 to form one of the greatest California rock bands Buffalo Springfield something happen and you what it is ain't exactly play the Springfield found immediate success but conflicts between the two stars Stills and young combined with Young's desire for a solo cutter to cause tension from the start still said later that he wanted to be in the Beatles and Neil wanted to be Bob Dylan [Music] the relationship was a bunch of 19 and 20 year old guys just getting something together for the first time in the spotlight you know interviews and and you know attention that they never had before we lost the ability to stay in the moment you know which is what you have to do to performs young walked out on the group just before the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival Stephen has David Crosby of the Byrds to Philly Neil had split and Steven knew each other and liked each other and he said well you know like I thought we got to do this gig it's gonna be great I said yeah Crosby was also performing at the festival with the birds who were at the height of their success [Music] Crosby was having troubles with his bandmates Chris Hillman and roger McGuinn troubles that were magnified by his performing with Buffalo Springfield I remember it being a very kind of sour experience it was sad on stage there was the camaraderie that we'd had as a band wasn't there anymore it was David Crosby's wanting to be in what became Crosby Stills and Nash that really drove the situation to an end there was some friction there and also I just I've never been here the the easiest person I'm very opinionated very independent guy they said your brother tour without you I stood by making terrific mistake you know I said well we think we'll do better without you when Buffalo Springfield split for good Crosby instills decided to team up we sort of found herself spending a lot of time together and driving around and on singing songs and to basically man cries we're hanging out and we went and saw Graham sing with the Hollies and then cast comes up and whispers to me do you think you guys need the harmony singer Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas introduced David and Stephen to the English pop star Graham Nash Graham had been a member of the Holly since the early 60s but by 1968 he was beginning to feel the limitations the group is putting on when I made the decision to leave the Hollies three things have happened one I was getting frustrated that I was writing songs that I thought were pretty cool and that they didn't want to record secondly they wanted to do an entire album of Bob Dylan songs in a kind of Las Vegas horn section swing band can detain and the third thing is that I'd actually been befriended by this teddy bear called David Crosby Cass Elliot said get in the car I want you to meet somewhere she rather modern and told me to get him stoned on his chest was a lid from a shoebox and in the lid was a pile a'dope I had this pullover pot meaning if you smoke something we're going someplace you pull over and try to remember where you were thought it was done air weed so he we laughed all through the afternoon and I liked him a lot in the summer of 1968 crosby Stills and Nash sang together for the first time at a house in Laurel Canyon belonging to either Cass Elliot or Joni Mitchell nobody is absolutely sure now this is possibly because we might have smoked but you know none of us is absolutely sure whether it was Joanie's or cats as I say it was Joanie's say Davis got it wrong it would sit casas hills were we sang together in the morning when you arise we had you know I had a pretty good harmony - and are we saying it - Graham you would do that again would you and the third time he put the top part on Stephen I look to each other in my before crosby Stills and Nash could make their group official Graham had to go back to England to quit The Hollies David and Stephen joined him in London we could to Britain to rehearse now and there were like fans that would spot us in a card and holler things at us because we were blowing up one of their groups now oh there's horrible Americans I didn't know that it's that big a deal yeah just a band the trio rehearsed their songs has started looking for label interest we did attempt at one point to get on Apple Records it was a up-and-coming new record label obviously controlled by the Beatles and Peter Asher at the time we actually auditioned for George and Peter and we sang it very well and they passed which I think they probably in hindsight we're not happy about ahmud arrogant of Atlantic Records had loved Buffalo Springfield and offered the new group a contract crosby Stills and Nash settled in Los Angeles to record their first album we knew that we were doing something really unusual we knew the songs were really good and we were totally thrilled and it was the year of the guitar player you can understand this was a year when clapped on Hendrix and Jimmy Page and people like that work it you know and for us to come out from left field with this you know three-part harmony and a lot of Kuh stick stuff you know it's a pretty unexpected thing it was great [Music] cut my hair the music was wonderful but the dynamic between the three strong personalities is explosive I have my own weirdness isn't craziness with it it's not as volatile as David his demons so we settled into that role you know David and Stephen over the years I have loved each other to death we disagree about a lot of stuff but we're brothers I love him he loves me and brothers fight in May of 1969 the band released their debut sweet Judy blue eyes in Marrakesh Express were a.m. hits FM radio played the entire album the music of crosby Stills and Nash became the sound of the counterculture within a few months David Stephen and Graham would be more famous than they had ever been with their previous bands they had never performed live when an offer came in to appear at a summer music festival in upstate New York crosby Stills and Nash said yes their performance at Woodstock would change everything [Music] [Music] in the summer of 1969 Crosby Stills and Nash released their first album to immense critical and commercial acclaim then it was time for the group to tour stills had overdub lead guitar keyboards and bass on the album they would need other musicians to form the songs on stage [Applause] it was Atlantic Records President Hamid Erica who suggested Stevens former bandmate Neil Young would be the perfect addition I've been casting about for a keyboard player I wanted another musician to play off it but I'm talking away with Amin nothing but the armistice why are you getting Neil and they were didn't we just go through this Steven decided that Ahmed was right David and Graham were not so sure we had a interview with Neil in Greenwich Village on Bleecker Street and I went to breakfast with you because I was the one that was mainly against it because I didn't I didn't see what we needed from you you know the blend that we had with our voices was pretty good and our musicianship was pretty good and by the time I'd finished breakfast with Neil I would have given in the world he was unbelievably brilliant and of course I loved his music [Applause] [Music] it's songs how are you not going to invite him in you know listen the songs yeah good lord I'd ask him between the group if I had 25 people and [Music] Neal had begun to establish himself as a solo artist but the chance to team up with his old Buffalo Springfield partner was too tempting to resist I thought it'd be cool to play with Stephen again and the other guys were great singers and had their own songs and everything but I I really felt like I had some unfinished stuff with Stephen then we fly together and you know we needed to do more of that the band officially changed its name to crosby Stills Nash and young and went to perform their first gig in Chicago one week later they had their second performance at Woodstock looking at the world through the sunset in your eyes [Music] this kid could come off and it was what kind of a shaky deal nobody was sure what was gonna happen it was just knew that some of our favorite bands we're gonna play to the big nervousness that everybody you know makes a point of you know what Stephen said no yes the point was that all the people that we really cared about all standing behind us and they had all heard the record but we'd never played live before and so they said okay let's see can I [Music] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] but when the cameras set up to shoot the band's the start performance Neil Young refused to be filmed I was offended by the cameras all over the place because it was a distraction to what we were doing which was playing the music so I told him not to do that with me that not to film me don't bother you know don't come near me and you know stay out of the way after Woodstock the band's reputation grew with every show they perform [Music] within a month after their first gig Crosby Stills Nash and young were superstars the performance in New York's Fillmore East created such pandemonium the crowds refused to leave the venue concert promoter Bill Graham began stuffing money underneath the dressing-room doors until the band returned to the stage [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in September the group went to San Francisco to record an album but the mood had changed four and twenty years ago four come into this line the song of a woman and a man lived in strife he was tired [Music] David suffered a huge loss when his girlfriend Christine Hinton was killed in a car accident when I made deja vu I was very sad my girlfriend had just been killed and a lot of the time I would come into the studio and just sit on the floor and cry I wasn't great together I'm amazed that we did as good of work as we did the band managed to finish their album but it was a tough time to begin the longest tour any of them had ever been on DejaVu was released in March of 1970 at the same time the Beatles broke up CSNY were Rock's new superstars their singles Woodstock our house and teach your children were all over radio they were the symbol of peace and love except between themselves well you know there was one time in Denver where we had some some trouble but rehearsals or something and they had booked the tour once again that never really works for us because the first day we were rehearsing with the new bass player once we got to know the guy and start playing with him it was great so there was there was a big fight around then we used to fight a lot started like a hockey team you know the pucks flying around the Neal tilts is great matter for threat playing hockey they team's really clicking and everything and then all of a sudden the gloves are up they're all fighting and then they pick them back up and they go back to playing hockey again it's kind of like that in May of 1970 the band recorded what would become their most profound political statement a reaction to the shooting of for Kent State college students at an anti-war rally I was at this house in Anna Canyon on the California coast Crosby came up and he had the magazine the Kent State killings cover on it and I'd heard it on the news but Crosby always has a way of bringing things into focus that's wolf me after that there was something going on there that I had some thoughts about these started right in the song and when it was done and I called - I think it said get the studio get any studio get it that run away and we cut it it was out for me [Applause] ohayo ratified CSN wise position as the voice of the counterculture DejaVu was selling in the millions their concerts were rallies rock shows political events but Neil was gearing up to restart his solo career with his new album after the gold rush in July the CSNY tour ended and so did the band they were living legends they had been together one year [Music] at the end of 1970 Crosby Stills Nash and young had become the biggest band in America then at the peak of their fame they walked away we got together at a certain point in time and it had a huge effect on a lot of people including ourselves and then but we always planned from the beginning to go off in a different directions and do different things and it's just was a loose organisation [Music] [Applause] [Music] by the time the live album four way street was released crosby Stills Nash and young were all making solo records when we started we used our own names because we intended to continue with solo careers all of us and every time we did it fits it all they broke up we were never together but I thought that was that was kind of cool he'd give ourselves you know some air and that's why we used all of our last names there was any plan at all that was the only one in the aftermath of CSNY all four had hit so long [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] mother nature on in the 1970 while Stills and young were leading their own bands Crosby & Nash began making music together as a duo David and I knew that we had a musical link and we always haven't always will have there's probably no me currently that seems harmony the way national idea or kin [Music] it was easy to make music with David because we think so similarly it was a joy we had great songs starting with the first Graham Nash David Crosby ready young solo music propelled him to the top of the charts in time his association with crosby Stills and Nash began to seem like a brief side trip in what was always essentially a solo career all the people that I play with they all know me that that I'm moving along and that I may not stay forever and not might be back and you know as long as everybody knows that from the beginning it's great to see everybody and then change is good for music so real musicians understand that and they don't worry whether you're playing with them this year or not [Music] I wanna give I've been a miner for every one of us has got off and it's only been really successful as Neil and he's done that brilliant in 1973 Neal was on the road when he called on David and Graham to join him after the tour the trio contacted Stephen and they all ended up in Hawaii they began recording new songs going so far as to shoot an album cover photo but the reunion was not to be when people plan things for us to do thinking that all what a great opportunity sometimes it didn't work out you know because it wasn't we weren't looking at life that way at that time say the relationship between Crosby Stills Nash and Neil is is very much like a frozen pond the ice gets a certain things and if we wait long enough it will bear your weight but if you put too much weight on it you'll go through the four musicians scrapped the album but agreed to tour the demand for tickets was enormous for the first time ever a rock group would do an entire tour football stadiums [Music] time to change [Music] the tour was a huge success it was over the group convened in Los Angeles to make an album shortly after the recording began Neal disappeared we started it we cut two Tunes Neal said show up the next day never saw him again everybody has to feel it at the same time for it to really be what it is I mean I think it's really great that that people have wanted CSNY to be together over the years and I think that's testimony to what that it was worth it when we did get together but you have to want to after those sessions fell apart the band members went their separate ways prejudice is slick when it's a word game a year later Stephen was on tour with his own band when Neal showed up after years as being part of Buffalo Springfield and CSNY Stephen and Neal began recording his Stills and young we make lots of room for each other and we listen to each other and there's little spheres of influences you know and Neal and I have a way of saying things and three sentences that it might take him and David all day to get to Stephen and Neil a special chemistry of the same way of nationality [Music] Stephens always wanted to work with me I think you always will and I think that goes both ways [Music] after recording a few song Stills and young invited Crosby & Nash down to Miami to join the sessions once again talk of a CSNY album and tour began but David and Graham had signed a deal with ABC records and had to finish an album for them first they left Miami to finish the Crosby Nash album wind on the water and in their absence Neal and Stephen erased their vocals from other recorded tracks David and Graham were heard in an angry Neil and Stephen released long may you run by the stills young band and went out on the road we've been through some things too it was a great record and then the tour got going along pretty good and we were moving so fast though there was no time to rehearse up anything new so the set never changed after a few weeks Neil quit the tour he left Stephen a telegram that said funny how some things that start spontaneously and that way eat a peach Neil little sense of humor it certainly wasn't I'd started I knew him too well in late hurt might be things like that with a little bit of verbal jousting I left the tour in the middle of the tour and there was something inherently something was wrong something was wrong with the whole thing and you know it wasn't working the balance was off in some way so you know I bailed on hill got frustrated and then he got sick and he said well that's it I'm off you know and he's you know he's got more nerve than I do I can't I can't just bolt like that Stephen was left shaken not only an eel left him holding the bag on the rest of the stills young days but he had done what it seemed like a reparable damage to his relationship with David and Graham and Stephen showed up at a crosby nash concert and managed to patch things up with david and graham crosby Stills and Nash decided to pick up where they left off after their first album in 1969 as a trio in 1976 they made CSM Shi it was a big head Neil Young was back to being a solo artist crosby Stills and Nash were back to being a group it was a pretty good time I remember recording the CSN record and in in criteria studios in Miami we had we'd rented this villa we had great songs we were having a great time like twice the speed of sound it's easy to just a song before I go with CSN's biggest hit ever the band was back on top and exhilarated to be there but David's drug use was escalating to dangerous levels I was just shifting in the bad habit from snorting cocaine to freebasing cocaine which is even worse and I was a very good place with my music Crosby Stills Nash was doing the CSN album but by the end of the 70s Graham had had enough Crosby next recording session the band started a gem david was free smoking bass and his pipe was on an amp and the jam session was so vibrant and so hot that the amp was shaking and it was slowly shaking the pipe towards the edge of the end then the pipe fell off and shadow danced around a David stopped who is it dope had gotten more important to me than music something which I swore would never happen tomorrow and at that moment I knew that David was in deep trouble and that if David was in deep trouble we were all in deep trouble when he stopped that Jam from going forward a door shut in my mind that was the time I told David that I couldn't make music with him anymore Graham Nash was David Crosby's most loyal friend and defender if David was so far gone that even Graham gave up on him it looked to everyone like crosby Stills and Nash were gone for good [Music] you [Music] tene 81 Crosby Stills and Nash were divided again this time because of David Crosby's drug addiction Stephen Stills and Graham Nash decided to record a duo album you and I were totally we're just gonna make a stew - record the only combination we haven't done can't blame a man that was right near the end of my drug use days and I was have bout us dysfunction as a human being could be and not be dead we handed it in to Atlantic Records and they said no we want to see SN record said there is no cross but he's gone he said well we don't want the record so now we're $600,000 in a record out all right and I thought we Steven I said what was he we do and then we had to make room for Dave you know any change some things that I really wish he hadn't and then there were some other things that were there were great additions it came on my special day [Music] Crosby was in bad shape but with his friends help he made it through the sessions the finished album included a song by Graham that documented how he felt about the whole saga of Crosby Stills Nash and young wasted on the way I wrote as a reaction to the amount of time that me and David and Steven and me and David and Steven and Neil of wasted over the years we have made a lot of good music I'm not denying that but we have wasted a lot of time we have wasted a lot of love and we have wasted a lot of life so [Music] the fact that I turned it into a hit record is his fist he sell more silly could considering what it's really about between 1982 and 1985 David was arrested five times on various drug and weapons related charges but his habit persisted the trio toured on and off whenever David was well enough I've always tried to be that 100% and he didn't always make it but I do believe that the compensation factor of me and Steven wanting to be stronger and better because our partner was hurting equaled everything humph to me in 1985 Crosby Stills and Nash had a bittersweet reunion with Neil Young and Live Aid [Music] there are a lot of times that I would rather not remember that's that one wasn't the worst or other times over much worse but you know a lot of times when I did not do anywhere near where I'm capable young tried to help Crosby as others had it was no use he carriage my house in the valley and syphilis immune I know you kind of scared to go to the hospital know what she's come down to my place even even kick all this stuff there and he took the time out to try and help save my life you know we we all care about each other a lot they offered to do another CSNY album if David managed to clean up instead David went on the run from the police ending up on his boat in Florida when he was on the boat contemplating escaping and therefore never coming back into American society and being a fugitive at large a federal fugitive running out of food running out of money the decision that he made to walk off his boat into the nearest FBI office was the point on which David recognized that he desperately desperately needed help in December of 1985 David turned himself in and was extradited to a Texas prison I prayed for him as much as I do he got through it and then while facing the inevitable and then he got through it I don't want to be the recovery poster boy come on I I'm one of the lucky few that was given a chance to get away from it and did took a year in prison and held a lot of meetings and a lot of help from their friends in 1986 David emerged from prison clean and sober Neil kept his word in the quartet regrouped to record American dream as a gesture of friendship it was wonderful but musically it was not the triumphant reunion fans had waited 16 years to hear [Music] it was part of a bargain that that we would get together if David got straightened out I don't remember a bit of it don't have Italy record I discuss it we really didn't get together we were just in the same area they did the work for it some more reasons that I can come dalia never been didn't work CSNY did not tour in support of American dream young went back to his solo career in Crosby Stills and Nash returned to the road [Music] then in 1994 David was dealt another terrible blow I was very sick and I didn't know I was dying and I didn't know my liver was probably half gone and we'd had no idea why I kept on the line on arrest Crosby finally went to the hospital and was told his liver was family and that he was probably going to die he'd need all the luck in the world just to survive for Crosby Stills Nash and young to ever make music again it would take a miracle [Music] in 1994 the future of Crosby Stills & Nash was endowed as David Crosby's health was in serious decline that's know when t is healing they sat me down he said David what the deal is is you have hepatitis C and your liver is just about destroyed and you're gonna die unless you get a transplant fairly soon and he put me on the list and we started to wait David's friends stuck with him through his ordeal with Graham Nash keeping vigil at his bedside they had medicine at UCLA call me one day and said down we found a liver for David you wanted we're gonna prep him do you want to come I wish him the best and I go to the door and I turn around I says no luck don't you leave me with stills and he burst out laughing and I burst out laughing Crosby's will to live prevailed again he made it through the operation got a new liver and regained a sound the puzzling part isn't my descendant writes the puzzling part is the amazing good luck has happened and continues to happen to my life I am an incredibly fortunate man when David was well enough crosby Stills and Nash returned to the road in 1997 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame then they were dropped by Atlantic Records when we signed with Atlantic Records in 1969 we signed for six records and I think we've only just done six records and it's 30 years later the last couple of records that I landed put out of ours I didn't think that they cared about at all and so we wanted a clean break and we wanted a fresh stop I don't think it's fair to blame just that one record company they all went through the same metamorphosis these guys are lawyers and accountants they had a clue about music crosby Stills and Nash decided that they wanted to make new music with or without a new record deal in 1998 that put up their own money and began recording then stills got a call from Neil Young who was working on a Buffalo Springfield box set the two old friends got together at Neal's ranch to listen to the tapes of their first band basically we were reliving our childhood and I played in his new song I was working on and asked him if he would come down and help Gabe Ingram and I you know cut that I thought that was a cool idea so a few weeks later I went down there and I actually didn't even call him I just waited I was well on my way down there and then called him from a Roadhouse young began recording with crosby Stills and Nash and soon they had more than an albums worth of material Daigo Neal this is not you guesting on CSN reckoning what are we doing Wow looks like we're heading into a CSNY record me the third studio album by Crosby Stills Nash and young was released in the fall of 1999 the group had made one album in the 70s one in the 80s and one at the end of the 90s they called it looking foam it speaks to everything that I'm feeling I want to look forward I've done enough explaining what we get wrong in our middle years and I'm looking forward to how much fun we're gonna have rediscovering the joy of being together CSNY agreed to tour for the first time in 25 years but the dates were put on hold when Graham Nash broke both of his legs in a freak boating accident I must tell you that as a musician this was one of the strangest sounds I ever heard when I broke my legs and I thought I really heard myself here I did not think about the tour I didn't think about anything Graham had been sailing with his family when a storm came out he was thrown in the air by the waves when he landed back in the boat he shattered his legs it was a two-hour journey back after the accident on the boat to port and the way that I dealt with it was I chose to ignore everything to know my race I went in my mind to a great sunset and my land in Hawaii with its waterfalls and the beauty of it and the two hours passed very quickly Nash's recovery was difficult but his spirit was strong carried him through the year 2000 brought another medical surprise from David Crosby but this time it was a happy one the man who came back from near death by drugs in the 80s and liver disease in the 90s was revealed to be the secret birth father of the children of singer Melissa Etheridge and her partner Julie cypher Crosby told animées world fatherhood is the wildest ride I've ever been and that's saying something Crosby Stills Nash and young had beaten the odds so many times who would be hard to ever count them out again in spite of all their battles all their talent and all the temptations that came with success in the long run the music they made and the love between them was always strong enough to bring them back together we have more compassionate with each other we're more understanding of our own weaknesses and strengths we are more sensitive Nash's peers you know a gentleman and I would have always put him at the center of the group I think he's the central guy Graham he's really great in the studio and he works really hard to keep things going and keep things organized Steven explosive brilliant passionate guitar player musician singer writing how can you compete with Stephen Stills he's a great musician you can't compete you can't compete with Neil Neil said brilliant deep guy a huge creative force and he changes the chemistry me I'm kind of a lunatic I can't categorize my stuff well David is more the sole catalyst and spiritual level of things you know in some ways to me and then Steven is just my bro I mean and I love to play guitar with them between the three of them they're just never gonna let me down yeah we're just different yeah we make lots of room for each other and we listen to each other really assiduously like we did when we first started when we were kids I must tell you that the feeling between the four of us has never been better [Applause] [Music] you think telephone [Music] yeah you are baby [Music] right me tada it will make these bad make it rain [Music] between me and you I would I give right but I have that [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Keywords: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Musical Artist) VH1's Legends (TV Program)

Id: PeEWMnRcrTY

Length: 43min 25sec (2605 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2015