As a kid growing up in Greater Manchester, England, Graham Nash just wanted to be like Buddy Holly, as he sings on the new song "Buddy's Back."
Nash, of course, had different gifts, and went above and beyond, becoming a two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, as a member of the Hollies — note the name — and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
If it hadn't been for those outfits, the singer-songwriter was a shoo-in as a solo artist, a sort of side career he launched in 1971 with "Songs for Beginners," an album with such classics as "Military Madness," "Simple Man" and "Chicago/We Can Change the World."
Nash is celebrating his legacy with a tour titled Sixty Years of Songs and Stories, as well as the May 19 release of "Now," his seventh solo album and first since 2016's "This Path Tonight." Nash, at 81, hasn't lost the golden pipes that spiked all those classic harmonies, and he applies them to a collection that he considers to be his "most personal."
"Right Now," a dramatic rocker that opens the album, is a firm statement of purpose. The jangly, mandolin-driven "A Better Life," as he'll tell us in the interview below, is an extension of "Teach Your Children." There are love songs, notably "Theme From Pastorale/In A Dream," a delicate suite recorded with a string quintet, and there are political tunes, including "Golden Idol," an indictment of the MAGA movement.
"Buddy's Back" is particularly special, as it was recorded with Allan Clarke, his boyhood friend with whom he started the Hollies in 1964.
Q: It's pretty rare that anyone can do a 60th anniversary tour. What does that feel like?
A: Well, now that I'm in my 80s, I'm able to ... you know, I never really looked backwards. There's not much you can do about it, but because I'm getting, you know, towards the end of my life, I'm looking back, seeing the music scene come from when the Hollies first started recording, we were on two tracks, and right now I've got 150 tracks in my iPhone. Music has come a long way, particularly technology wise.
Q: I hear the phrase "most personal album" a lot. Why would you say this is your most personal album?
A: Because this is how I feel right now. I have my heart on my sleeve, as I always have it. I always try and tell the truth. I think that it's the duty of every artist to reflect the times in which we live. We have to talk about what's going on politically throughout the world, particularly the rise of the right wing, which is very disturbing, and we have to talk about environmental issues like climate change. We have to reflect the times in which we live.
Q: Let me ask you about "A Better Life." My sense from a lot of young people is that they don't feel like the boomer generation necessarily has provided them with a better life, maybe at least economically. What is your sense?
A: I wrote it with my friend George Merrill who wrote all the number one hits for Whitney Houston. I was at a funeral of a friend of mine and I met George and he had this set of changes but he had no lyrics to it. And so I wrote the song with him and in a way it's kind of like an extension of "Teach Your Children." I still believe we can leave this place a better place. My optimism's getting out of sight a little. I said that one line in one of the songs, but I do believe in hope and I do believe that we can make this a better place to live for our kids and our grandchildren.
Q:"Golden Idol" might be the first song where I've heard the term MAGA. What in particular sparked that song?
A: I saw on Instagram somebody had made a little statue of Trump into this golden idol, a solid gold Trump. And I looked at that and I thought, well, you know, yeah, he's a golden idol but there are other golden idols, particularly in the Republican campaigns — people like Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Boebert, whatever her name is. There are a lot of golden idols in the Republican Party and I'm astonished. I mean, to even be in the government, you have to have a brain, right? But why they're continually following Donald Trump and protecting him and defending him is amazing to me. I think we really only have one real political party and that's the Democrats.
Q: You were involved with so many of the anti-war protests anthems of the '60s and '70s. Do you think there still is an anti-war left?
A: Yes, I believe so. I mean, there's even anti-war protests in Russia, strangely enough, that are calling out Putin for his dream of trying to extend the Russian empire, like it was a hundred-odd years ago. Yeah, I still think there are many anti-war people throughout the world and we will make our voices heard.
Q: Going back into the album, you did the song with Allan Clarke, the Buddy Holly tribute. How did you come to do that with him?
A: Alan has been my oldest friend in the world. I've known him since I was 6 years old. So that's a 75-year-old friendship, and we've been singing together for all that time. And then, of course, Allan lost his voice and he had to leave the Hollies because he couldn't sing those beautiful songs like "The Air That I Breathe" and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," and he lost his voice. But then he called me about eight months ago and he said, "I found my voice again. I wanna make a solo record." And he sent me two songs and said, "If you like the songs, would you consider putting your voice on them?" So, I got the songs and I went over to my friend Todd Caldwell, my piano player, who has a small studio in Brooklyn. And I liked the songs and I put my voice on there and I sent them back and he loved them and he sent me two more songs and then two more and then about four more. So now I'm singing on 10 tracks of his record, and one of the songs I wrote for the album was "Buddy's Back." I mean, we were the Hollies for God's sake. We did name ourselves after him and we loved his music and I just wanted to let people know how much we really loved Buddy Holly.
Q: I actually didn't realize that's where the name came from.
A: Oh, yes. I mean, the truth is that if you could play three chords on the guitar, you could play almost every Buddy Holly song.
Q: There are some really nice harmonies on the album and I'm wondering. Who is doing all the singing?
A: I am.
Q: You're using your own voice multiple times?
A: Yeah. Every single song, every single voice on the record is me. I'm doing all three harmonies.
Q: Wow. It always struck me that when I listened to those amazing Crosby, Stills & Nash harmonies, I really hear your voice the most in there, because you're taking that high part.
A: Right.
Q: I was listening to "It Feels Like Home" on the record and it was struck me as a sort of follow-up to "Our House."
A: How interesting. You're the second reporter I've spoken to that feels that way. That's fabulous because, in a way, it's an ordinary moment. And I love ordinary moments. I mean, "Our House" was a perfect ordinary moment of me taking Joni [Mitchell] to breakfast and passing an antique store on the way back to her car and her seeing the vase that she wanted to buy. It was a sh—y day, towards the end of winter, cold and miserable and rainy. And we got in Joni's car and went down to her house in Laurel Canyon that we were sharing, and we went through the front door and I said, "Hey Joni, why don't I light a fire? And you put some flowers in that vase that you bought today." What an ordinary moment. But look what I turned it into, I turned it into a beautiful song.
Q: So, you have this combination of protest songs, topical songs, tender love songs on the record. Does that present a challenge to you when you're putting it all together on one album?
A: No, it doesn't present a problem. I often vacillate between being in love and being totally pissed off, and I have to write music that reflects that. And so when you're combining them to make an album ... I like to make an album that goes on a journey. It used to be that when you put an album out, it was like seven A sides and five B sides, just to make money for the record company. But it was when you heard "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper" and "Pet Sounds," you realized that an album could be a journey. And that's why I wanted to start this album off incredibly strong, to my way of thinking. The opening line is, "I used to think that I would never love again." I mean, don't you want to hear the rest of that song, and therefore the rest of the album? And you're not gonna get up and take the needle off the record.
Q: Working with the Hollies and CSNY, there was a lot of collaboration. Tell me about the collaboration on this record, in terms of other people bringing energy to your songs.
A: My keyboard player, Todd Caldwell, co-produced this record with me, and we were about 95% done. And I was over at Todd's studio and he started to play these changes on the piano and I went, "Wait a second. Those are beautiful. What's that?" He said, "Oh, it's just the piece I'm working on." I said, "What are the lyrics?" He said, "Oh, there are no lyrics, just these changes." Well, I'm a musician, you know, and when I hear a set of changes that doesn't have words, I want to put words to it. So, that became the very last song on the record, "When It Come Down to You."
Q: Obviously, we were very sad when we lost David. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the lost time between you.
A: The fact is that David and I were ebbing together towards the end of his life. He emailed me and said he wanted to talk and I wrote back and I said, "Fine, let's set up a time to talk." And then he left me a voicemail, which I will never erase from my phone, which said that he wanted to talk and he wanted to apologize for shooting off his mouth, particularly about Neil and Daryl [Hannah]. I set up a time to FaceTime each other, so we could see each other when we were talking, and it was set it up for two o'clock my time. I'm in Manhattan, of course, and David was in California. So his time was 11 o'clock. So, 2 o'clock came around and I waited and I waited and I waited, but he never called, and then two days later he was dead.
Q: Oh, my, that's so sad.
A: Yeah. So we did have a couple of rough years there at the end, but don't forget, he was my best friend for over 50 years. And his death is very much like an earthquake, you know, you get this initial shock of the fact that he had passed and, you know, I do my social media stuff and I keep seeing his face and the aftershocks keep coming. I'll think of David and miss him for the rest of my life and I will certainly miss the music. But one of the things that I've chosen to do is to only remember, try to remember the good times and the good music that we made together, because the other side of David was often cruel and not so nice.
Q: Stephen said in his statement that David was the glue that held you guys together. And I'm wondering what the three of you would even sound like without his voice in there.
A: We wouldn't be the same at all. I mean, you know, I've sung with Stephen, particularly on like the last verse of "Woodstock" where he and I sing together. And that's an interesting blend but it's not the magical blend that the three of us created when we turned our three voices into one.
Q: You think you'll do any work with Stephen and/or Neil going down the road?
A: You never know, kid, you never know. I've never known. You know, I mean, I've been totally pissed at Stephen and then he sends me two songs that break my heart, and I'm a musician and I wanna hear good songs, and when I hear a good song, I wanna put my harmony on there. So, you never know. I mean, if Stephen or Neil ... One day, Neil came over to my house in San Francisco and he said, "Hey man, listen to these three Stephen Stills songs and listen to these three of mine. would you and David come to Miami and put your voices on on this album that we're doing?" And David and I went to all the way to Miami and we sang on the entire record and then they were doing an album [1976's "Long May You Run"] to promote a tour that they were going on as Stills-Young and they took our voices off and put it out. I don't know why they did that, but anyway, my point is, you send me a good song, I wanna sing on it.
Q: Lastly, can you just reflect on the Spotify situation, now that we're down the road about a year? What are your thoughts on that looking back?
A: Well, you know, Crosby was always on Spotify's case before, you know, being a billion dollar company and all they do is play other people's music and don't pay them a lot. So David was always on their ass about that. And then Neil was disgusted with Joe Rogan's disinformation and misinformation about COVID and about the pandemic. And so we decided that we would take our music off there. So what they did is, I think on [some of] the podcast pieces, they put a disclaimer on the bottom saying that if you want the real truth, go here. And once they did that, we realized that we should probably go back to Spotify because, you know, as little as they do pay people like Neil Young, they will be streaming Neil Young albums forever, because, I mean, he makes an album a day, right? So that's what happened with Spotify.
Q: Well, good luck with the tour and congrats on the album. I think your fans are gonna love it.
A: I am getting some remarkable responses to the album. But thank you.
