Remembering David Crosby

Remembering David Crosby

The life of a music journalist can be an emotional rollercoaster. You work for peanuts in an industry that constantly throws you curveballs, but you (mostly) love your job. Once or twice a month, you may get to interview one of your music heroes…perhaps for 30 minutes or, if you’re lucky, an hour. You gleefully bond over gear and inspiration as though you’ve just made a new, famous best friend. And, then, poof, interview time is over and you never hear from them again. You write your piece and hopefully meet your deadline. Repeat.

That’s how it usually goes. 

But that’s now how it went down with David Crosby. Some contacts at the Surfer’s Journal (one of the magazine’s the FJ took inspiration from) connected us early on. He loved the issues of the FJ that he saw. And, after I interviewed him for what would become the cover story of our 25thissue, he stayed in touch. He had dozens of ideas for future subjects we should cover, some obvious, some not-so-obvious. Ultimately, I dubbed him our guest editor of that issue, because more than one suggestion made it to the printed page.

For the next 25 issues and several years, Croz continued to stay connected. We were, as he once pointed out when I was sheepishly reached out to ask him for a favor, friends. On his own dime, he attended our first Fretboard Summit gathering back in 2015. He showed up and let any attendee play his Martin D-45. He gleefully handed Bill Frisell his McAlister to try out, beaming like a proud parent. Though Croz was all about songwriting and harmonies, like so many of us he was a passionate guitar geek.

Crosby at the 2015 Fretboard Summit.

Later that night at the Summit, things got chilly. In front of a couple hundred of our readers, he roasted me onstage (repeatedly) for having the audacious idea to throw a music festival with acoustic guitars in November on the frigid Northern California coast. I couldn’t tell if he was actually pissed off or not at me, but it didn’t matter. He showed up. He’d later tell me that the Summit was a great idea and that it should happen again…just somewhere warmer. We took his advice. (Secretly, I was hoping I could someday convince him to visit our new Summit digs in Chicago, his old stomping grounds.)

I obviously didn’t know Croz during his tumultuous hard drug years; I can’t vouch for all those unfiltered tweets - where he was often painfully honest with followers about everything from joint rolling to fan art; and I certainly never had to work with him as a bandmate. But I loved how this bonafide music legend championed what he cared about: Great guitars (Martin and McAlister were two brands he gushed about, onstage and off); young musicians who were pushing the limits (Becca Stevens, Sarah Jarosz, Michael League, and Marcus Eaton, to name just four); and even the Fretboard Journal.

The other thing I can’t help but admire about Crosby’s later years: The music. He kept making challenging music till the very end. So many aging rock stars do their victory lap tours and figure out how to do a cash grab off their mainstream hits. Meanwhile, Croz was up on stage trying to keep up with the Chris Thile’s of the world…preferring to play his new original material, often with crazy time signatures and wild harmonies. I can’t think of any other artist of his stature who worked so hard to make new, often difficult music during the final stages of his career. If you haven’t checked out his output from the last 15 years, you owe it to yourself to finally give it a listen.

I’m going to miss my emails with Croz and seeing him every year or so. He was, like he said, a friend.

Jason

PS: Speaking of Chicago: Pre-Byrds, Crosby spent time in the Windy City working as a duo with Terry Callier. I’ve always been curious about what this pairing sounded like, but I assumed no recordings were ever made. Croz’s old friend Steve Silberman just shared this recording from NYC’s Bitter End in 1962. It’s Crosby and Callier (and maybe someone else) performing “I’m a Drifter.” Amazing.

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