1969-2015David Crosby (Van Cortland)Vocals, guitar1968-2015
Stephen StillsVocals, guitar, keyboards, bass1968-2015
Graham NashVocals, guitar, keyboards1968-2015
Neil YoungVocals, guitar1970-2015
They started in 1968 as Crosby, Stills & Nash, formed from former members of three prominent 1960s groups: The Byrds (David Crosby), Buffalo Springfield (Stephen Stills) and The Hollies (Graham Nash). After releasing their first album in 1969, another Buffalo Springfield alum, Neil Young, joined the band.
Joni Mitchell is a huge part of CSN&Y history. She was romantically involved with Crosby before taking up with Graham Nash. She also wrote their song "
Woodstock" and did the artwork for their first greatest hits album,
So Far, released in 1974. Mitchell's first album was produced by Crosby.
The Crosby, Stills & Nash performance at Woodstock is well documented, but many don't know that with Young, they played the
ill-fated Altamont concert headlined by The Rolling Stones. The band left right after their set - before it got violent - because they had another gig that night.
Crosby and Nash have released albums together, and Stills and Young teamed up for one called Long May You Run in 1976. The two who really didn't get along were Stills and Nash, both of whom battled for the affections of Rita Coolidge.
Stills got together with Jimi Hendrix in March 1970, six months before Hendrix' death. They jammed together at a London club called The Speakeasy, and Hendrix added guitar to Stills' song "Old Times, Good Times," which appears on his debut album.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are the only group to top the US albums chart with three consecutive LPs where one was a studio album (Deja Vu), one was a live album (4 Way Street), and one was a greatest hits album (So Far).
They espoused peace and love but made lots of money, which put them at odds with some in the hippie community. This came to a head on September 15, 1969, when Stills got into a fistfight with an audience member at a festival in Big Sur, California that was
being filmed as a showcase for good vibes.
Each band member has been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Crosby with
The Byrds, Stills with Buffalo Springfield, Nash with The Hollies, and Young as a solo artist.
From 1972-1981 they released just one studio album - CSN in 1977 (without Young) - but each member was active outside the group with solo albums and other collectives.
The group was somewhat unique in that each of the members were recording solo albums at the height of their success as a group. Other configurations included Crosby-Nash (they made eight albums together) and the Stills-Young Band, which made one album in 1976.
They were successful from the start, beginning with their first album in 1969 and continuing through the early 1970s. CSN&Y was one of the few groups selling as many albums as the Beatles.
Young left the group in 1976, returning long enough to record an album in 1988 after Crosby finished a jail term on drug and weapons charges, fulfilling a promise Young had made to record with CSN if Crosby could beat his drug addiction.
Graham Nash told The Guardian in a 2015 interview that it was a very difficult decision to leave his former group the Hollies. He said: "They were my friends for many, many years, but when I heard myself singing with David and Stephen that first time in Joni's [Mitchell] living room, my life changed dramatically. I needed to sing those songs."
Nash is both a keen photographer and collector of photographs. When he sold his 2,000-print collection through Sotheby's in 1990, it set an auction record for the highest-grossing sale of a single private collection of photography.
Stephen Stills underwent successful surgery for prostate cancer on January 3, 2008, which was his 63rd birthday.
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Suggestion credit:
Bertrand - Paris, France
In a
2022 Songfacts interview with Crosby, he talked about his relationships with his former bandmates. "I still really love Stephen Stills," he said. "I just can't help it. There's something about his music, something about the way he plays that just thrills me. It always has. But I don't get along well with Neil or Graham, either one."
