The song Graham Nash wrote to attack David Crosby: “Asshole”
Keeping any good band together usually takes a few small miracles to happen.
There are many groups that still love playing together simply for the love of the sport, but once people start letting their egos get the better of them, it’s easy for them to assert their opinions a little bit more or mouth off because a song isn’t going the way that they had hoped. But for someone who was known to be a peacemaker, Graham Nash wasn’t messing around when going after some of his old bandmates in Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
Then again, the trio was never exactly meant to be the most idealised version of a rock and roll band. Each of them were separate solo artists, and it made sense for them to return to their solo careers once they figured things were getting a little bit tough between the three of them. But looking at all of their respective relationships, Nash seemed to always be the person in Crosby’s corner at the very worst of times.
Looking back on the zany period when Stephen Stills started making records with Neil Young, Crosby and Nash always had that unique blend of voices whenever they sang. Whatever they did was bound to turn to gold if they had the right idea, and while Nash did have to put up with a few moments when Crosby was falling down in the middle of a session or stumbling over his guitar when he was strung out, he knew there was a musical genius in there that hadn’t completely bottomed out yet.
But as much as the smiling faces were there when they made the lacklustre American Dream, Crosby’s road to recovery didn’t stop his mouth every single time he got off the road. He could work magic with Nash and even collaborated with him on some of David Gilmour’s solo material, but when ‘Encore’ came out, Nash started to see some cracks in the foundation of someone that he considered a dear friend.
Crosby had already said nasty things about Young’s girlfriend at the time, so Nash figured he’d use ‘Encore’ to help put his friend in his place, saying, “I wrote that for David Crosby. Basically, the song is about ‘Who are you when you’re not famous? Who are you when the lights have gone out and the audience has left? Are you a decent person or are you a fucking asshole?’ I’m not sure I have the complete answer yet.”
Regardless of where Crosby landed on that spectrum in the last few years of his life, Nash blamed his attitude as the reason why Crosby, Stills and Nash would never get back together. They existed as a commercial entity for a while and would band together against the use of their music every now and again, but it was bound to be a cold day in hell before they decided to put down the musical boxing gloves long enough to commit to an album.
While Nash eventually managed to bury the hatchet towards the end of Crosby’s life, there was no reason to think they would ever see a studio environment again. Both of them simply had different approaches to the way they were making music, and while that’s totally understandable now, it makes sense for them to go their separate ways rather than kicking and screaming their way through an album.
