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Happy Birthday to Graham Nash who turns 80 today (February 2nd)!!! Nash heads back on the road on March 2nd playing Collingswood, New Jersey’s Scottish Rite Auditorium. Nash’s road dates feature just him, Shane Fontayne — Crosby, Stills, & Nash‘s longtime road guitarist, and keyboardist Todd Caldwell.
Nash announced yesterday (February 1st) that he would be following bandmate Neil Young in pulling his music off the Spotify streaming service.
The statement reads in full:
Having heard the Covid disinformation spread by Joe Rogan on Spotify, I completely agree with and support my friend, Neil Young and I am requesting that my solo recordings be removed from the service.
There is a difference between being open to varying viewpoints on a matter and knowingly spreading false information which some 270 medical professionals have derided as not only false but dangerous. Likewise, there is a difference between misinformation, in which one is unaware that what is being said is false, versus disinformation which is knowingly false and intended to mislead and sway public opinion.
The opinions publicized by Rogan are so dishonest and unsupported by solid facts that Spotify becomes an enabler in a way that costs people their lives.
Graham Nash, who published his latest photo book, A Life In Focus, in November, currently has three new projects in the work; a new original solo set, a live album comprised of recent performances of his first two albums — 1971’s Songs For Beginners and 1974’s Wild Tales, along with a reunion with fellow Hollies co-founder and childhood friend Allan Clarke.
Last month, Graham Nash slammed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for using his song “Chicago” to promote an anti-vaccination rally on January 23rd. A portion of the song is used in a promotional video on the Children’s Health Defense site. Nash’s chorus — featuring the hook line “We can change the world” — is clearly heard in another song titled “Heart Of Freedom,” which claims that the lyrics were penned by RFK Jr.
On January 22nd, Nash posted a message on Instagram writing: “The use of my song ‘Chicago; by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense movement in a video to promote his organization’s rally in Washington, D.C. tomorrow (January 23rd) is not authorized, and I am taking steps to cause the cessation of its use. I do not support his anti-vaccination position as the history of the efficacy of the Covid 19 vaccines is well documented.”
In October 2021, Graham Nash released a new track and video, titled “Vote,” in the lead-up to the November 3rd presidential election. The two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer told Rolling Stone, “I wanted to make sure that people understood that there were many people hitting rock bottom. And because this new Covid relief bill hasn’t been signed yet, there are people that are going to be made homeless, who will starve and won’t have enough money for rent and meds. It’s crazy.”
In 2021 Nash compiled and produced Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young‘s critically lauded “50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition” box set for the group’s 1970’s Déjà Vu.
2018 saw Nash’s 30-track career retrospective, titled Over The Years. The set features tracks from Crosby, Stills, & Nash; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Crosby & Nash; and Nash on his own. The collection’s second disc features a selection of Nash’s personal demos of his best-known tracks taped between 1968 and 1980. In 2016, Nash received raves for his latest solo set, This Path Tonight, along with glowing reviews for his ongoing scaled back live dates.
Perhaps the biggest shakeups of Graham Nash’s life these days are the end of his marriage to wife, the late-Susan Sennett after nearly four decades and three adult children together, his new marriage with writer/actress Amy Grantham, and the crumbling of his partnership with David Crosby. Nash’s ongoing issues with Crosby seem to have marked the end of CSNY. Nash revealed to the Dutch magazine Lust For Life that his relationship with Crosby is virtually non-existent at this point and that CSNY are effectively over.
In an exclusive interview, we pushed Nash on what, if any, future CSNY might have as a working unit: “In my world, there will never, ever be a CSNY record, and there will never, ever be another CSN record or show. Y’know, I let people play their hand right in front of me and I let them do it and then I make a decision. How can I not be sad? Look at the music we probably lost? Right now I don’t want anything to do with David Crosby at all. It’s just that simple.”
Although both Neil Young and David Crosby have openly made positive comments regarding a possible CSNY reunion, the usually outspoken Nash has stayed mum.
Back in 2015, Graham Nash compiled the group’s Top 20 live archival release CSNY 1974. Among the many highlights featured on the third Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young live set are “Teach Your Children,” “Love The One You’re With,” “Deja vu,” “Old Man,” “Carry Me,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Long May You Run,” “Almost Cut My Hair,” “Immigration Man,” “Helpless,” “Long Time Gone,” “Pre-Road Downs,” “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” “Guinevere” “Chicago,” “Wooden Ships,” “Ohio,” and “Our House,” among many others.
In 2013, Nash published his long-awaited autobiography, called, Wild Takes: A Rock & Roll Life, and hit the road for a brief solo tour.
In 2010, along with the rest of the Hollies, Nash was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The occasion marked Nash’s second entrance into the Hall, having already been inducted with CSN back in 1998.
Graham Nash told us prior to their 2010 Rock Hall induction, that if any English rock group deserved Hall of Fame status — it’s gotta be the Hollies: “I’m old enough now to realize and look at my history so far. The Hollies were so influential in the early-’60s through the ’60s. Very, very, influential. We were probably one of the very first bands to ever use three-part harmony constantly. I mean, even the Beatles were two-part most of the time. The Hollies were a fabulous band. Maybe they weren’t ‘cool,’ but by the time I’d left we’d had 18 Top 10 hits. I mean, how many do the Kinks have? How many did everybody else have that’s in (the Rock Hall)? I think the Hollies deserve to be in there.”
Nash was born in Blackpool, England and raised in Manchester. It was there that he co-founded the Hollies in 1962 with childhood friend Allan Clarke. Following his departure from the group in 1968, Nash teamed up with David Crosby, who had recently left the Byrds, and former Buffalo Springfield guitarist Stephen Stills — who along with occasional member Neil Young — have gone on to form one of the most important and lasting rock partnerships of the past 50 years.
Although CSN’s music and career choices have been analyzed and second-guessed by fans and journalists alike, Nash says he’s been fortunate to have never taken himself that seriously: “You just can’t spend too much time thinking in those terms, y’know, about how significant you are. You’re not, y’know? This is not brain surgery or astrophysics or Mozart — this is a very simple form of music that moves a great many people, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
Nash, who became an American citizen in 1978, has spent decades fighting for global human rights and social programs that will help leave a better world for the following generations. He told us that he never takes for granted the freedoms afforded him by being an American: “It’s amazing to live in a country like this where at least I’m allowed to speak my mind. Some of the things that this band says, we could’ve gotten into deep trouble about had we not been in America. We couldn’t have done this in other countries — they wouldn’t have allowed us. But at least we live — and we are privileged to live — in America, where we can speak our minds. Nobody has to agree, and in fact, nobody has to listen, but I have to speak my mind.”