David Crosby’s last tweet was to say Eleanor Rigby was his favourite Beatles song to listen to on a rainy day
(Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)Singer-songwriter David Crosby has passed away aged 81, his heartbroken wife has said.
Crosby, one of the most influential rock singers of the 1960s and ‘70s, played guitar for iconic hippie group The Byrds and later formed Crosby, Stills and Nash.
“It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away,” Variety quoted his wife as saying.
“His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music,” the statement added.
Crosby came to fame in the mid-’60s as a member of The Byrds, with hits like, “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)” and a cover version of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Crosby brought to the group a penchant for constructing lush vocal harmonies, a feature that still marks his music today.
Upon leaving The Byrds in 1967, he formed the super-group Crosby, Stills & Nash with fellow songwriters Graham Nash and Stephen Stills. They became hugely influential in the late-’60s and early-’70s, spearheading the folk rock movement and unabashedly getting involved in political activism.
He was still touring up until last year, telling Howard Stern he was losing his ability to play his signature fingerpicking style.
“I am losing my ability to play guitar – that’s kinda tough,” Crosby told Stern.
“They have trouble doing the picking thing that’s my thing.
“I’ve got another year or so of being able to play. And I can teach my parts to somebody else if I really wanna play that bad … but I don’t know if I’m gonna play anymore. You think I ought to?”
Rigby https://t.co/WSS4ZPMuJk
— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) January 18, 2023
After being encouraged to continue to be a storyteller, he told Stern: “I am [at] the end of my life … and it’s a very strange thing,” Crosby told Stern. “And here’s what I’ve come to [think] about it: It’s not how much time you got, because we really don’t know. I could have two weeks, I could have 10 years. It’s what you do with the time that you do have. And so I’m trying to really spend it well.”
