David Crosby called Graham Nash to apologise before death
Just over a week before his death on January 18th, American singer-songwriter David Crosby reportedly called his former bandmate Graham Nash in an attempt to apologise. For many years, the four members of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have engaged in vitriolic flare-ups, and at death’s door, Crosby still felt the hatchet’s burden.
In a 2016 interview with Howard Stern, Crosby admitted that he’d “let all three of those guys [aforementioned bandmates] down”. At the time, Crosby revealed that he now only remained in contact with Stephen Stills and that Neil Young became understandably estranged when Crosby insulted his now-wife, Daryl Hannah. Meanwhile, Crosby claimed that Nash seemed to “think that I’m responsible for everything wrong since the Korean War”.
“The fact is that we were getting a little closer at the end,” Nash revealed in a new interview with AARP. “[Crosby] had sent me a voicemail saying that he wanted to talk to apologise, and could we set up a time to talk. I emailed him back and said, ‘OK, call me at 11 o’clock tomorrow your time, which is two o’clock on the East Coast.’ He never called, and then he was gone.”
The Hollies’ founder was then asked if he believed Crosby knew his death was just a few days away when he called. “He was a very intelligent man. I wouldn’t put it past him to know that he was actually at the very end,” Nash opined. “The truth is … we’ve been expecting David to pass for 20 years.”
Here, Nash refers to Crosby’s long-lived health concerns. In the 1990s, Crosby dodged death before an emergency liver transplant and has also lived with seven stents in his arteries for a number of years.
“[Crosby’s voicemail] was very significant for me,” Nash continued, focussing on the positives. “It made David’s death a little easier for me because I realised that we were going to get together later in his life. Crosby was my dear friend, my best friend for over 50 years. I can only concentrate on the good stuff.”
Watch David Crosby and Graham Nash perform together below.
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