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While their music was known for transcendent vocal harmonies,

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's relationships with each other were anything but harmonious.

A toxic mix of ego, drugs, and even romantic conflict got in the way.

David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash were all known musicians by the late 1960s,

because they'd all been in successful bands. Crosby was a founding member of

the American rock group the Byrds. Rolling Stone contends that it was Crosby's work

that was central to the band's popular sound, but tensions led to its dissolution by 1967.

Also an American, Stills had been a member of Buffalo Springfield since the band's inception

in 1966. But it was a group not long for the world, splitting up only two years after coming

together. Even in that short time, Stills and his bandmates scored an era-defining hit with

"For What It's Worth," and all were names of musical note when they went their separate ways.

Over in Britain, Nash spent the 1960s as a member of the Hollies,

a musical group out of Manchester. They were still active by the time

Nash encountered Crosby and Stills, and he told The Guardian years later that

his decision to leave the Hollies was a difficult one. He said of The Hollies,

"They were my friends for many, many years. But when I heard myself singing

with David and Stephen that first time [...] I needed to sing those songs."

Crosby, Stills, and Nash had all met each other on the music scene before joining forces. According

to author Dave Zimmer's "Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Authorized Biography," David Crosby and

Stephen Stills were aware of one another when they became professionally associated following

the breakup of Buffalo Springfield. But the association wasn't especially professional,

at least not at first. Crosby describes them spending their days getting high and jamming,

but they immediately found a musical rapport with one another. Graham Nash,

speaking at the Hudson Union, remembered visiting America around the same time when he

was introduced to Crosby by a mutual friend, and then Stills through Crosby.

It wasn't long until the three men first played together. While all parties agree

that their first time making music as a trio came at the end of the 1960s when

they were at a house in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles,

they don't agree on whose house it was. Stills insisted to Vanity Fair that it was Cass Elliot's

home. Crosby and Nash say that it was at the home of Joni Mitchell, a claim she supports.

According to Dave Zimmer's "Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Authorized Biography," when David Crosby,

Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash first decided to come together as a band, one of their first

auditions was for the Beatles' Apple Records. Decades later, Crosby tweeted that they had

played an entire album's worth of content live for George Harrison himself. Stills added in the book,

"After we finished, [Harrison] went, 'Wow!' Then he turned us down!"

Stills put the rejection down to British hostility toward American competition in the rock scene,

but Apple passed on many acts. According to Far Out Magazine,

fellow Brit David Bowie was also turned away. Years later, Nash said that Harrison had told

him it was for the best. Apple was a disaster as a label and had CSN been signed there,

they very likely would have been lost amidst its myriad problems.

Neil Young has always been the most distant of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's members.

Over the decades, Young has often proved unavailable or unwilling to participate in

tours or albums. His mercurial attitude toward work is a well-known trait, and it was among

the reasons that his three bandmates hesitated before bringing him aboard in the first place.

Stephen Stills had already been in a band with Young, Buffalo Springfield. Observer notes that

Stills had experienced Young's tendency to decide against performing at the last minute in that

band. So in 1969, Stills looked far and wide for someone else when he decided they needed a fourth.

"I didn't want to be a folk group. I wanted to be-- play rock 'n' roll as well."

According to Mojo, Stills approached Eric Clapton and George Harrison,

among others. When Young's name finally came under consideration, Crosby told the BBC,

"We didn't — at first — want him. We knew that Buffalo Springfield had imploded."

Apart from Young's behavior, there were issues of pride and ego among the three bandmates to

consider. But Young was eventually signed, for better or for worse. Nash told Mojo,

"It was like lobbing a hand grenade in a vacuum."

Some band names are inside jokes. Some are literary references. And some are

very straightforward. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is as self-explanatory as they come:

the last names of the four featured players. It came out of the experiences David Crosby,

Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash had as members of bands with less

specific names. Crosby said in "Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Authorized Biography,"

"We were proud of ourselves and didn't want to get lost behind some dumb band name."

The band only existed because of its members. Naming it so would not only

declare the music as theirs, but it would also keep anyone from being easily replaced.

"We used our own names because we intended to be able to work in any combination,

and all of us had in mind doing solo stuff."

As for the order of the names, Crosby disavowed any part in the

choice. Nash appeared to take the credit, telling author Dave Zimmer that Crosby,

Stills & Nash offered the most pleasing rhythm and cadence.

While the band members listed in the name weren't easily replaced,

others who played with them weren't so lucky. An early supporting player was Bruce Palmer,

once a bandmate of Stephen Stills from their days with Buffalo Springfield. But Palmer, who played

bass on tours, was a heavy drug user who began to behave erratically. According to "Crosby,

Stills & Nash: The Authorized Biography," he became disruptive during setups and once

abandoned a show. His arrest and deportation on drug charges took him out of the lineup.

A similar fate was in store for bassist Greg Reeves. Dave Zimmer notes that there were drugs

and strange antics behind his dismissal too, though Graham Nash named another issue, saying,

"Greg also wanted to sing some of his songs on the CSN&Y show,

which I thought was ludicrous, only because the songs weren't good."

Reeves' firing necessitated a last-minute replacement ahead of a tour, and the

bassist hired — Fuzzy Samuels — was another associate of Stills, making songs written by

Stills the most polished. This increased tensions among the named band members.

There were divisions among the members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young from the

very beginning. Speaking at the time of a 1977 reunion with Rolling Stone,

David Crosby was open about his issues with Stephen Stills' ego, saying,

"He and I used to go nose to nose about once every 15 minutes."

Graham Nash, meanwhile, claimed that Stills shoved his and Crosby's songs off of the band's playlist.

Beyond the ego-driven conflict, Stills' relationship with his bandmates was also

complicated by his excessive drinking and drug use, which often left him incoherent.

Not that he was the only one indulging. Speaking to The Guardian in 2022, Nash blamed cocaine

for worsening the clash of egos. His reputation among fans was that of the relatively sober one

tempering Stills and Crosby's appetites, but that wasn't quite true. In his memoir "Wild Tales: A

Rock & Roll Life," Nash included himself among the members who were "coked out of our minds" during

the recording of 1970's "Déjà Vu." Following the tour for that album, the band split up.

Graham Nash both praised and blamed drugs for various aspects of his own career and

the trajectory of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in an interview with The Guardian in 2022. Everyone

involved with the band had their chance to indulge for good and ill. The presence of drugs,

cocaine in particular, hovered over a 1974 venture David Crosby later dubbed the "doom tour."

Rolling Stone explains that the tour was the group's reunion after their first split four

years prior. Everyone was well-supplied with cocaine and other drugs, carefully packaged to

avoid customs agents. While Neil Young maintained some distance in a separate bus, Crosby, Nash,

and Stephen Stills carried drugs and other vices to excess, justifying their behavior

with a need to relieve the pressure of rock and roll careers at their peak.

Large portions of the tour went unrehearsed as the four musicians wrote new songs and tried them out

on the road. A similarly lax approach to watching the money meant that a large chunk of the tour's

gross was spent or taken by others. The music itself was often compromised by technical issues

common to the era. And a feud between Young, Crosby, and Nash killed plans for a live album.

After the 1974 tour, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young once again went their

separate ways. Attempts to reunite proved difficult. Rolling Stone reported that

a 1976 effort instigated by Neil Young turned into a project with only himself

and Stephen Stills, to David Crosby's great annoyance. Crosby said at the time,

"I have nothing but contempt for those two."

By the following year, Crosby and Stills were prepared to mend fences. Graham

Nash had remained connected with Crosby all the while. But Young was still out.

"If the love was suffering because the situation wasn't right,

I wanted to take the love somewhere else where it would do better."

So Crosby, Stills & Nash reformed as a trio to hit the road and the recording studio. The

group continued on in that configuration for several years. Looking back in 2022,

Nash told The Guardian he was more fond of the work the group did without Young.

Even so, tensions between the members remained. Years earlier, Nash and Stills had competed for

the affections of the same woman, Rita Coolidge. Nash contended that this love triangle played

a role in the group's initial breakup, though Coolidge insisted otherwise to People. A hostility

over that conflict lingered, but it took a back seat to Crosby's escalating drug use. Stills

and Nash were prepared to continue without him according to Crosby's memoir, "Long Time Gone."

In 1983, Crosby was arrested on drug and weapon charges and sentenced to five years in prison.

While he initially fled across state lines, Crosby ultimately surrendered, serving five

months before he was paroled. The Los Angeles Times reported that Crosby declared himself

drug-free on release and set about reuniting with his bandmates. This included Neil Young, who had

long been absent from the group. A backstage encounter before Crosby's incarceration had left

an impact on the prodigal player. According to Peter Doggett's "CSNY: Crosby, Stills,

Nash and Young," Young made Crosby an offer: If he cleaned himself up, Young would rejoin.

The group's full reunion only had a modest impact. Their first album after Young's return,

"American Dream," didn't make waves. And Young's return proved only temporary. By 1990,

according to All Music, the group was again a trio, although Young

would periodically come back during the decade for certain tours and records.

Age did nothing to soothe the tempers that often threatened the fragile balance of Crosby, Stills,

Nash & Young. Well into the 21st century, they found things to fight about. In 2014,

just a year after the group's last tour, an audience member at one of Neil Young's

solo concerts asked the musician about the next one. Young replied,

"CSNY will never tour again, ever, but I love Stephen Stills."

In an interview on The Howard Stern Show the following year,

Crosby revealed what seems to have been the source of the hard feelings. He offered an

apology for comments he made about Young's girlfriend, Daryl Hannah,

and offered well wishes to Young. Crosby was in a less conciliatory mood when he spoke to

The Guardian in 2021. While repeating that he was in the wrong to insult Hannah, he said of Young,

"He's probably the most self-centered,

self-obsessed, selfish person I know. He only thinks about Neil, period."

Crosby, Stills & Nash endured as a trio until 2015. But by 2021, David Crosby told The Guardian

that Stephen Stills was the only one of his former bandmates he remained in contact with.

Crosby and Graham Nash had long been close, but they finally had it out. Crosby said,

"Graham just changed from the guy I thought was

my best friend to being a guy that is definitely my enemy."

Nash had his own interview with The Guardian the following year. Acknowledging that he and Crosby

had once been best friends, Nash insisted the acrimony was Crosby's fault, saying,

"When he goes on social media, says I wasn't his friend,

and all I was in it for was the money, that's absolutely heartbreaking for me."

He was firm that any potential reconciliation was not in the cards.

"Stephen and Neil and I are great. We talk often."

"Yeah."

"We don't talk to David."

By the end of his life, Crosby seemed to have alienated most of his former bandmates. The

Los Angeles Times' obituary for Crosby noted he was also estranged from most

of the members of The Byrds. But it also noted that Crosby's many Twitter followers

never stopped asking about a CSNY reunion, which Crosby never completely shut out.

David Crosby died on January 18, 2023, ending hopes of a Crosby, Stills,

Nash & Young reunion for good. Despite the acrimony they'd experienced with Crosby over

the years, all of the surviving members of the group paid him a moving tribute.

Graham Nash posted a farewell on Instagram, writing,

"People tend to focus on how volatile our relationship was at times, but what has

always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we

created together [...] and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years."

Stephen Stills issued a statement of condolence on Twitter and offered a more

personal statement to Rolling Stone in which he said he and Crosby had been "at peace."

On his website, Neil Young described Crosby as the heart and soul of CSNY

and praised his songwriting, singing, and playing. He ended with a declaration that

he would only remember the good experiences they'd had together.