@stephharmon Main image: David Crosby, pictured performing in California in 2018. He has died at the age of 81. Photograph: Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
Thu 19 Jan 2023 19.51 EST Last modified on Thu 19 Jan 2023 22.01 EST
David Crosby with the Byrds on the London set of Ready Steady Go! on 6 August 1965. Crosby joined the band in 1964, but was dismissed three years later due to internal tensions.
In 1968, shortly after leaving the Byrds, Crosby met Stephen Stills and the pair started jamming together. They were soon joined by Graham Nash to form Crosby, Stills & Nash, releasing their self-titled debut in 1969. They are pictured here in the recording booth, with John Sebastian on harmonica behind.
David Crosby discovered Joni Mitchell playing in a club in Florida in 1967. He brought her to California, helped her get a record deal and produced her first album, Song to a Seagull. The pair also had a romantic relationship. In a 2021 interview with the Guardian, Crosby described Mitchell as ‘the best singer-songwriter’ of all time.
David Crosby in Amsterdam in 1976. Crosby was addicted to alcohol, cocaine and heroin for many years. He was convicted of possession of cocaine and a loaded pistol in 1983, but fled California to Florida while on bail. He eventually turned himself in in 1985, and served five months in jail. It was in prison that he got clean from hard drugs.
The Byrds got their first No 1 hit in 1965 with a cover of Mr Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan. David Crosby and Dylan are pictured here in 1990, playing a Roy Orbison tribute in Universal City, California.
Neil Young and David Crosby had a tumultuous relationship, in a band riven with feuds and tension. It came to a head in 2014, when Crosby referred to Young’s wife, Daryl Hannah, as ‘a purely poisonous predator’ in an interview. A few weeks later, Young said the band would never tour again. In a 2021 interview with the Guardian, Crosby described Young as ‘the most self-centred, self-obsessed, selfish person I know’. The pair are pictured here in simpler times: on stage at the polo fields in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in November 1991.
David Crosby with wife Jan Dance and son Django at the Man of the Year film premiere in Los Angeles in 2006. Dance said the pair were with Crosby when he died. ‘His humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us,’ she said in a statement on Thursday 19 January. ‘His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music.’
Photograph: Paul Fenton/Keystone USA/Rex/Shutterstock
David Crosby, Carly Simon and Jimmy Webb perform at Radio City Music Hall in 2001 during a tribute to former Beach Boy Brian Wilson. ‘I don’t know what to say other than I’m heartbroken to hear about David Crosby,’ Wilson said on Twitter after hearing of his death. ‘David was an unbelievable talent - such a great singer and songwriter. And a wonderful person. I just am at a loss for words.’
Crosby, Stills & Nash were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, with Crosby also inducted in 1991 for his work in the Byrds. David Crosby is pictured here at a Crosby, Stills & Nash concert in Boston in 2012.
David Crosby performs with his son James Raymond, as well as Stevie D, Mai Leisz and Jeff Pevar, in London in 2018. Raymond was put up for adoption after his birth, and only discovered he was Crosby’s son 30 years later. He’d been a musician for 20 years by then, and the pair began making music together. ‘He gave me a chance to earn my way into his life,’ Crosby told the Guardian in 2021.
Crosby in concert at the Parker Playhouse in Florida in May 2019. Crosby released five solo albums between 2014-2021: ‘I’m 80 years old so I’m gonna die fairly soon. That’s how that works,’ he said in 2022. ‘And so I’m trying really hard to crank out as much music as I possibly can, as long as it’s really good.’
Michele Farinola, Greg Mariotti, David Crosby and Cameron Crowe attend the 2020 Grammy awards. Crowe narrated and produced a 2018 documentary about Crosby, called Remember My Name.
