A master of contradiction: David Crosby on “one of the best actors in the country”
You could always count on The Croz to bend your mind out of shape. Not only was David Crosby one of the most effective creatives of his era, but he was also an impish pot smoker, a teller of tall tales, and a man prone to big and, quite often, confounding opinions.
Crosby was a real one until the end, and throughout his various tribulations, he would never lose any of that colourful spirit that had marked him out as one of his era’s most defining voices when at his peak. Although he was an outspoken bundle of energy, sometimes this could have negative effects on his life. He would have many spats with those he worked with, such as Graham Nash and Neil Young, as he frankly made his feelings about them known to the public.
While these fraught moments shared between Crosby and some of those closest to him are key in highlighting his tendency to be challenging and add a touch of sadness to his story, as it seems he was often misunderstood, there are other more lighthearted moments that confirm his status as a comedy genius. Often, these tend to be his wildly contradictory comments on fellow artists.
In 1998, Crosby sat down for an entertaining discussion with The Tapes Archive. At one point, the conversation turned to Oliver Stone’s 1991 Jim Morrison biopic The Doors. Although the film was controversial, he was in no doubt that the star, Val Kilmer, who played ‘The Lizard King’, is “one of the best actors in the country” and got Morrison “eerily well”.
He then turned to his 1998 song ‘Morrison’ by his outfit CPR, which addressed his feelings about Kilmer’s portrayal of the late Doors leader, seemingly contradicting the above statement.
He said, somewhat ramblingly: “The line in the song, ‘I’ve seen the movie, and it wasn’t like that,’ is mostly ’cause it sings good. But it’s also ’cause Oliver Stone didn’t quite get it. He was in a foxhole when it all went down, so he tended to paint it in slightly brighter colours than it was too. But, no, Morrison was a tortured guy, man, and the reason that he wound up inserting himself into the song is that he was lost. He was lost. A lost guy. And the song is about being lost, ‘Like a gull blown inland on a stormy day.’ That’s the key line of the song.”
While Crosby was in no doubt about Kilmer’s acting talent and offered a sympathetic view of his contemporary Morrison in the song and that comment, that same year, he also revealed his true feelings about him. In 1998, he said simply, “I knew him. I didn’t like him.” Despite admitting he was “not a bad poet”, he concluded that he was an “obnoxious guy”.
It’s not just Morrison Crosby had an issue with. When asked for his thoughts on The Doors in 2019 on X, he was damning in his account. He said they “basically sucked” and comically came back for round two later, doubling down: “I’m not wrong …they sucked all the time.”
I sure would have loved to have been there when Crosby first watched The Doors. His mixture of reverence for Kilmer and absolute disdain for Jim Morrison must have been a sight to behold. He really was a character.
