DAVID CROSBY. Rock legend David Crosby has died aged 81. It was the entourage of the singer and guitarist who announced it, referring to a “long illness” and specifying that he had died on the evening of Wednesday January 18.
[Updated January 20, 2023 at 7:40 p.m.] Rock has lost one of its icons. David Crosby, singer and guitarist of several acclaimed bands in the history of American music, has passed away. His death was announced by his wife, Jan Dance, in a press release taken up, on the night of Thursday January 19 to Friday January 20, by Variety magazine. This statement gave few details on the circumstances of the death of the rock legend, just evoking a “long illness” and specifying that David Crosby died surrounded by his wife and his son Django. Patricia Dance, sister of David Crosby’s wife, said in a text message to The New York Times that the rock legend passed away on Wednesday evening, Jan. 18, without giving further details. His death has also been confirmed to AFP and Rolling Stone by sources close to the artist.
“Although he is no longer with us, his humanity and his good soul will continue to guide and inspire us. His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music”, is it written in statement from his wife. Variety, the magazine which relayed this press release, nevertheless specifies that it was not able to corroborate it with other sources in the entourage of the musician. In any case, he was still very active on his Twitter account on Wednesday January 18, a few hours before his death. He had written that day, in particular, about paradise: “I heard that the place is overrated… cloudy.” Co-founder of the Byrds or the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash
The singer David Crosby, present in Woodstock in 1969, was the emblem of his time. Faithful to the American way of life of the 1960s and 1970s followed by rock stars, the man multiplied the excesses all his life by tasting almost all drugs. An excessive and addictive consumption that did not get the better of him. A chance that the singer was aware of, as he explained to Rolling Stone magazine in 2014: “I don’t know why I’m alive, when Jimi [Hendrix] isn’t, Janis [Joplin] isn’t. ain’t…I got lucky.”
Drugs and excesses, however, did not spare David Crosby, who saw his health decline: diabetes, several heart attacks until a liver transplant in 1994. A time addict to heroin and crack, David Crosby had to perhaps his salvation to his short stint in prison in 1986, which forced him into forced drug addiction. The singer assured never to have touched illegal substances since his release. When he returned in 2014, the man seemed to have regained his health and was still artistically active in 2022. However, it was a “long illness” that took away David Crosby, according to the press release from his wife. An evil that had been gnawing at him slowly for several months? Relatives of the singer did not reveal anything about this.
David Crosby was inseparable from the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash
The group The Doors also split a tribute to an “ethereal element of the Peace and Love movement of the 60s; a legend in his own right, and in every group he was part of”. American singer Melissa Etheridge, to whom David Crosby had donated sperm so that she could have two children with his partner Julie Cypher, also reacted to the announcement of the death of the artist: “I mourn the loss from my friend and the biological father of Bailey and David. He gave me the gift of a family. I will be forever grateful to him. His music and his legacy will inspire many generations to come. A true treasure.” So many messages from his peers that prove the mark left by David Crosby in the world of music.
David Crosby embraced music very early on and never left it. Although he was not yet 25, he helped to give birth to the band Byrds, with whom he brought some of the first guitar riffs mixing influences from British rock and folk. After five years with the Byrds, the Californian singer begins the adventure of the famous group Crosby, Stills, Nash
After his success with his first two bands, David Crosby tried his hand at duos in the 1970s and 1980s with one of his friends, to form Crosby and Nash. But the musician quickly returns to what he knows by forming a new group in 1996, and once is not custom, the group finds its name by joining those of all its members: Crosby, Pevar
The Californian singer and musician was very early upset by a personal drama that made him sink a little more into his addictions. In 1969, David Crosby, then only 28 years old, lost his fiancée Christine Hinton in a tragic car accident. The young woman was barely 21 years old. “After Christine died, he was never the same,” said guitarist and friend of David Crosby, Graham Nash, in memory of that time.
If this drama has long taken place in the private life of the musician, the man has had different relationships and has been a father several times. His first son, James Raymond, was born of his union with Celia Crawford Ferguson in 1962 but was placed for adoption, which did not prevent David Crosby from being found by his offspring and sharing the stage with her. in 1997. The folk rock singer had three more children: a daughter with Jackie Guthrie, a second daughter with Debbie Donovan and finally a son, Django, conceived with his last wife, Jan Dance. David Crosby married his last girlfriend in 1987 and the couple never left each other.
