Why couldn’t Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young ever truly get along?
For male rock stars, generally speaking, there are four prominent thorns in their side: women, money, drugs, and ego.
Tell any story about a band breaking up or a musician going off the rails, and, more often than not, one or more of these factors will come into play at some point. It’s the poisoned chalice of fame, and whether it can be viewed as a damning indictment of their personalities or not, is an issue that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young seemed to keep running into time and time again.
Although the folk supergroup represented the pinnacle of the genre and went on to produce more defining hits than many could ever dream of, it is perplexing to think about how they ever actually became a band, as it seems they were beset with tensions from the very first moment. To tick one pretty major point off the list, much of their arguments over the years had to do with more than a subtle hint of arrogance—each man being a solo artist in his own right, and sometimes not quite being able to share the success.
That was no better epitomised than in the promotional tour for their first album as a four-piece, the seminal Déjà Vu, released in 1970. Despite topping the charts and becoming a global phenomenon, the picture was far less rosy within the band’s inner dynamics, as between Stephen Stills’ addiction issues with drugs and alcohol, a jilted love affair with Rita Coolidge, who left her relationship with Stills in order to be with Graham Nash, and Neil Young’s famously less than amicable personality, the band seemed to be on the rocks from the get-go.
In this sense, taking into account all the plethora of animosities that followed in the decades to come, it was perhaps the fact that the group fell into choppy waters at such an early stage in their careers that they were never fully able to harmonise with each other—at least in a dynamic sense—ever again. In many ways, the perilous cornerstones of fame became a vicious circle for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and if there’s another thing that stardom will often teach you, it’s that you can never fully let go of a grudge.
What was the final nail in the coffin for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young?
Even almost half a century down the line, with umpteen reconciliations and subsequent break-ups under their belts, the final nail in the coffin for the CSNY dynasty came at a relatively late stage in the game, given the sheer level of acrimony that had come before. Only as recently as 2014, David Crosby delivered the final crushing blow by describing Young’s new partner, Daryl Hannah, as “a purely poisonous predator”, and thus, they finally reached breaking point.
Although Crosby later admitted he came to regret his pretty snarling comments, it could never repair the chasms established between himself and Young. Coupled with the rest of the tense history of the band, chances of a reunion were already slim until they reached zero, when Crosby then passed away in 2023.
As such, the musician has taken the opportunity of a full CSNY reunion to his grave with him, and even as they now reach their twilight years, it would be surprising to see the remaining members of the band ever be able to put their differences behind them. In many ways, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young represent the blueprint of how not to operate a successful group, because although critical praise is one thing, actually being able to stand the sight of each other is a whole new level.
