David Crosby Shares Why CSN Didn’t Initially Want Neil Young To Join Them

CSNY icon David Crosby spoke to BBC Radio and unveiled why Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and himself didn’t want Neil Young at the beginning. Crosby also talked about their crazy times, which eventually led to their breakup by emphasizing the band members’ characteristics.

Crosby Stills and Nash was founded as a folk-rock supergroup by David Crosby from The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield’s Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash from The Hollies in 1968. However, the band members realized that they were performing harmoniously and ready to create music together. Hence, CSNY became a rock band that would gain international fame and success with the help of their iconic records and performances.

A short time later, CSN needed a keyboardist, and Stills wanted to hire virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood, but he couldn’t join them because he was busy with his new band Blind Faith. Then, Ahmet Ertegun recommended Neil Young, Stills’ former bandmate from Buffalo Springfield. However, Stills initially disagreed with him after all they had been through while playing in the same band due to creative differences and drug abuse.

Also, Graham Nash didn’t know Young, so he thought it would be hard to work with him, but they were then convinced to recruit Young as their new member. In his interview, Crosby highlighted that they didn’t want Young at first because they could end up like Buffalo Springfield and described themselves as ‘sick, old, and crazy musicians’ that were tough to get along with. Therefore it can be said that they feared they would share the same destiny as Young and Stills’ previous band.

Crosby stated in his interview the following:

“We didn’t want him at first. Well, we knew Buffalo Springfield had imploded.

The host added:

Because of creative tensions…

Here’s what Crosby said:

“Yeah. We were all sick old crazy musicians, and we’re not easy to get along with.”

The host responded:

“We have got to say that at this point, you wrote the rule book very much on rock and roll behavior, particularly those chapters, drugs, and sex.

To which Crosby replied:

“We really break the rules, but you know we didn’t know what we were doing, and we had millions of dollars. We were crazy, so that combination cannot go well.”

The host reminded David Crosby that CSNY wrote the rock and roll rule book with their crazy, toxic, and destructive ways of living life. Crosby admitted that they were crazy and rich people who didn’t know what they were doing even though it ultimately caused several problems for them.