David Crosby, a founding member of two popular and tremendously important 1960s rock bands, the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash (later Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), has died, according to his representative. He was 81 years old at the time. The reason for death has not been disclosed, according to a statement provided to Variety by his wife, Jan Dance.
Those who followed his very active Twitter account, which he’d maintained tweeting on as recently as Wednesday, were taken aback by his death. Crosby’s farewell tweet on Wednesday was a usually witty remark about heaven: “I heard the place is overrated… cloudy.”
No other details Crosby died Wednesday night, according to the singer’s in-law, who texted the New York Times the time of death but gave no other details. Graham Nash, Crosby’s former CSNY bandmate who had grown distant from him after their group disbanded, paid tribute to the singer on social media.
“It is with a deep and profound sadness that I learned that my friend David Crosby has passed,” Nash wrote. “I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years.
“David was fearless in life and in music,” Nash continued. “He leaves behind a tremendous void as far as sheer personality and talent in this world. “He spoke his mind, his heart, and his passion through his beautiful music and leaves an incredible legacy. These are the things that matter most. My heart is truly with his wife, Jan, his son, Django, and all of the people he has touched in this world.”
Crosby made headlines eight months ago, when he said he was done performing live, saying, “I’m too old to do it anymore. I don’t have the stamina; I don’t have the strength.” Eerie message However, he said he was still going to be recording as often as possible: “I’ve been making records at a startling rate. … Now I’m 80 years old so I’m gonna die fairly soon. “That’s how that works. And so I’m trying really hard to crank out as much music as I possibly can, as long as it’s really good… I have another one already in the can waiting.”
Crosby later changed his mind about having stopped performing live and announced in mid-December that he had: “Dare I say it?… I think I’m starting yet another band and going back out to play live.”
It was obvious that what Crosby had desired most of all was to make amends with those comrades given how CSNY had recently appeared to be irretrievably broken up. However, Stephen Stills stated in his own statement on Thursday night that their romance had ended amicably even though it was not to be.
