The Old Deuil
In 2018, when he last sat down for an in-depth chat with MOJO, Dauid Crosby was on a roll. Writing well, singing great, and - a constant over 50-odd years of fame and (mixed) fortune -pulling no punches. “I’m not going to shut up,” he told Dave Di Hartino.
DAVID CROSBY MAY JUST BE having the time of his life right now. The 76-year-old has released four albums in the last four years, each better than the last, and made with two distinct, young-ish bands. The latest, Here If You Listen, is polished, timely, and politically challenging.
Most remarkable of all: his singing voice remains an object of wonder.
“Look, man, I did everything wrong,” Crosby says. “I did it all wrong. So there’s no excuse for me to be singing the way I am right now. I know that. My partners? My current partners that are so good I have to paddle faster to keep up? Those ones? They all tell me that I’m singing as good I’ve ever sang in my life. And I don’t think they’re buttering my toast; they’re not that kind of people.”
Crosby has had a mixed history with bands. It’s close to 50 years since his first big one – The Byrds – fired him. Does it still rankle?
“No, I gave up on that a long time ago,” he says. “It’s just egos. I was a very egotistical kid, and I was trying to get all the attention I possibly could, and I wanted to be more than just the rhythm guitar player and harmony singer, I wanted to sing lead, I wanted to play my songs. And there was ego friction, between me and Chris, me and Roger, and me and Gene [Clark]. It’s just the same thing that happens in all the bands.”