CELEBRITY TALES.......AS I REMEMBER THEM: DAVID CROSBY AND GRAHAM NASH

As I sit down to write this, it has been nearly a whole day since the news of a world without Crosby, Stills and Nash. Word of the end came in a response to a question during a recent interview Graham Nash did with a Dutch magazine. "It's the first time I've said this out loud but this is the way it is. You asked me if there is more CSN? Well, my answer is no and that is very sad because we were pretty good but I'm currently not fond of David Crosby. He treated me horrible the last two years. Really, really awful. "I've been there for him for forty five years to save his fucking ass but he treats me like dirt. You can't do that to me. You can do it for a day or so, until I think you're coming around but if you keep going and I keep getting nasty e-mails, then I'm done. Fuck you." The first time I met Graham Nash, it was with David Crosby. It was the late 70's and any interviews we did for the Fox & Leonard Morning Show on WYSP in Philly were done at my partner, Sonny's place. Because of the way we did the show with me in the studio and Sonny at home, we had all of the resources we needed to do a complete broadcast from his living room. We recorded all of our interviews there. It was much more intimate and there were fewer people to confuse things and get in the way. We made the guests feel like it was just a few buddies, “hangin' out and shootin' the shit.” We got some pretty good interviews that way. Keep in mind that it was the 70's and I was part of a successful morning show on one of the top AOR – Album Oriented Rock - radio stations in of of the top markets in the country. Drugs were part of the landscape. The record promo guy who brought Graham and David to the apartment for the interview was a legend in the music industry who was universally loved. Since very few people know this story, I will refrain from naming him. He was, probably in his 70's at the time and had been “promoting” artists for many years yet, he was so astute that he was able to slip nicely into the relatively new world of “sex and drugs and rock & roll” without losing an iota of momentum. The guy was good! He and Crosby & Nash got there in the early afternoon. The weed and coke were set out with chips and Coke on the refreshment counter. David and I dug in and started exchanging heroin stories with a few tales of hallucinogens thrown in for good measure. I think he particularly enjoyed my description of dropping a tab of mescaline and sitting in a tree in a park in Puerto Rico, just watching the world go by in a variety of shapes and colors. We were all having a pretty delightful time when someone suggested that it might be fun to get our friend, the old promo guy, high. Someone approached him and handed him a joint. He was such a master at his job that he would sometimes have to “break character” to keep his charges happy. He took a hit on the joint and we waited for the “fun” to begin. And waited.....and waited. Nothing. We were being typically young and assholish for the times and, fortunately, a hit off a joint is about as harmless as it gets and he remained unscathed, kept his artists happy by complying with their idiotic behavior and got his record on the air. In other words.....this “pro” did his job. Despite us. All in all, it was a successful interview and we had what we considered to be a good time while getting the job at hand done. I didn't see David Crosby again for quite a few years. By the time we had another interview scheduled, it was more than two decades later. I had been free of all things drug related for close to 20 years and Crosby, too, had been clean for a good deal of time. I quit when I began having heart issues in my late 30's. David Crosby's medical history is downright mythological. We met in a small studio. There were about 7 people there and Crosby was visibly uncomfortable. His first act was to clear the studio and he wasn't at all polite about it. I believe his words were something like, “All you assholes, get the fuck out.” We were alone. Before we rolled tape we reminisced about the day we got “promo guy” high and traded stories of how we had gotten clean. How we had both gone cold turkey when our physical limitations told us we had no choice if we wanted to live. We then had an absolutely delightful interview about Crosby, Crosby and Nash, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Crosby, Still, Nash and Young and, of course, The Byrds. It was a very lucid and fun interview. I never met Steven Stills. I've heard the stories but I can't, so I won't, validate any of them. The disagreements among members of the group are very well documented but Crosby and Nash always seemed, to me, to be a team. Good friends who always had each others musical back. I guess that's not the case. I was disappointed when I read about the end of a very integral part of the musical landscape of my life. I guess to expect any type of reconciliation is “Helplessly Hoping.” I guess it's out of the question to ask for “Just a Song Before (They) Go.”