Neil Young had long been estranged from David Crosby when his former bandmate died this week. He’s decided instead to focus on the legendary songs they created together as members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. “David is gone, but his music lives on,” Young wrote on his official site, Neil Young Archives.
“The soul of CSNY, David’s voice and energy were at the heart of our band. His great songs stood for what we believed in and it was always fun and exciting when we got to play together.”
The pair stopped speaking in 2014 after Crosby criticized Young’s then-new girlfriend, calling Daryl Hannah a “purely poisonous predator” after Young left his wife Pegi. CSNY 1974 arrived the same year, commemorating a signature tour together, but their last studio collaboration was 1999’s Looking Forward. It was just the third CSNY album, after 1988’s American Dream and 1970’s Deja Vu.
“We had so many great times, especially in the early years. Crosby was a very supportive friend in my early life, as we bit off big pieces of our experience together. David was the catalyst of many things,” Young said. “‘Almost Cut My Hair’ and ‘Deja Vu,’ and so many other great songs he wrote were wonderful to jam on, and [Stephen] Stills and I had a blast as he kept going on and on. His singing with Graham [Nash] was memorable, their duo spot a highlight of so many of our shows.”
Crosby repeatedly apologized to Young, who later married Hannah. More recently, Young seemed to be moving toward the idea of a reunion, telling Mojo in 2017 that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young had “every chance of getting together again. I’m not against it. There’s been a lot of bad things happen among us, and a lot of things have to be settled. But that’s what brothers and families are all about. We’ll see what happens. I’m open. I don’t think I’m a major obstacle.”
The reunion never happened, though Crosby, Stills and Nash joined Young in removing their music from Spotify in 2022 amid a COVID-19-related controversy involving podcaster Joe Rogan.
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