DILTZ: “Cass Elliot was on a TV show with Cream, which is how she met Eric Clapton. He didn’t know anyone in LA, so she invited him to a picnic at her house. Crosby brought Joni. She sat under a tree and played her whole first album. It blew everyone’s mind, especially Eric. She used different tunings, slackkey guitar where she doesn’t play a chord but just lays her finger over the fret. The great blues guitarist was gobsmacked!” “Joni is magical. She’s got a great mind, a great way of observing life and love. When we shot the first CSN cover, she came along on a little field trip we took to take photos for the inside of that album.”
DILTZ: “Stephen is very motivated. He’s a Capricorn; they’re pretty tenacious and he was totally, seriously into the work. David was more of a lark, while Graham is such a gentleman. So they were a great mix of different qualities and they all complemented one another – especially, of course, when they sang those beautiful harmonies.” “How did the dynamic change when Neil came into the band? Well, Neil is a Scorpio. They march to their own drum. So even though Stephen and Neil had played together in the Springfield, Neil was kind of an outsider when he joined the group. Neil wrote his own songs – which were all so different from the others. But that’s how it worked.”