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In an interview, Graham Nash (83) spoke about his complicated relationship with Neil Young (79) – and found clear words. Together with David Crosby († 81) and Stephen Stills (80), the quartet wrote music history as a crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) – but it was common behind the scenes.
Young behavior in particular repeatedly caused trouble at Nash, as the legendary songwriter unpacks in an interview in the podcast “The Rockonteurs”. “I have great respect for Neil. I know that he is a wonderful musician, but he occasionally does things that really annoy me,” says Nash in conversation. Even more clearly: “Sometimes he does things that really piss me.”
Neil Young preferred to travel alone
An example that Nash still employs: Young’s special role during the legendary stadium tour in 1974. “He has always traveled alone,” recalls Nash. “He never traveled in the buses like me and David and Stephen on the entire tour of 1974. He never joined. He never traveled with us.” This distance, which Young used to do with his bandmates, remained a stimulus topic over the years.
It was Nash, who was instrumental in bringing Young into the band in 1969. In 1969 Atlantic Records boss Ahmet Ertegun († 83) proposed to get Neil Young as the fourth member of CSN. Nash was skeptical and insisted to get to know him first. The meeting took place at a breakfast in a café in Manhattan – with a surprising outcome “After breakfast I would have made it a king of the world. He was funny, modest and damn smart,” recalls Nash.
“Déjà vu” – an album that would have worked without Neil?
The first and only regular studio album by CSny, “Déjà Vu” (1970), was a huge success. And yet Nash remains divided when it comes to young people. After all, there has been a lot of things without a Young, who has been married to actress Daryl Hannah (64, Kill Bill “) since 2018:” I think that the truth is that the “déjà vu” album should have been the second CSN plate in a way. “We already had ‘almost cut my hair’. ‘Our House’ and ‘4 + 20’, and we had ‘Carry on’. ” Nash recorded his most personal album at the age of 81, as he told us in the exclusive interview.
What followed was an explosive chemistry – musically and human. But the balance sheet is sober: “We only got two songs from Neil (‘Helpless’, ‘Everybody I Love You’) and he did not play or sang a single grade at ‘Teach Your Children’ or ‘Our House’,” continued Nash to “The Rockonteur”. And sums it up: “In a way, Neil was the best thing CSN ever happened, and the worst thing that CSN has ever happened”.
Nash comes to Germany for six concerts as part of his tour “More Eevenings of Songs & Stories 2025”.
An eternal coming and going
The bouncing of the egos within Csny kept the band in motion. The group was often inactive for a long time over the years, starting with its first resolution in 1970. Even after reunification for a stadium tour in 1974, it remained complicated – Young repeatedly got in and out during the majority of its existence. According to Young, it was finally over when David Crosby in 2014 was derogatory about his then new girlfriend Daryl Hannah. Today Young, the “Godfather of Grunge”, is completely exhausted according to his concerts.