This story was originally published in September 2018.
As perhaps the world’s most identifiable hippie, David Crosby says his face belongs on a package of pot.
The 77-year-old singer-songwriter is pursuing a cannabis licensing opportunity under the working name “Mighty Croz.”
“My face, my mustache, my balding head and my white hair have been on all these records for 50 god---- years, so I’m hugely recognizable; more so even than I am famous,” the co-founder of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Byrds tells Benzinga.
The number of people who recognize Crosby far exceeds the number who can name the bands he played in, he says.
“I figure, why not put that on the front of a pot package? If you’re walking into a dispensary and you see my face smiling up at you, you’re likely to try it. And that’s a good thing.”
A Lifelong Relationship With Weed
Crosby’s career is shrouded in pot smoke, from songs like “Eight Miles High,” “Wooden Ships” and “Almost Cut My Hair” to playing the major festivals of the 1960s: Monterey Pop, Woodstock and Altamont.
Crosby has been on a prolific songwriting run since Crosby, Stills & Nash disbanded two-and-a-half years ago.
His fourth album since 2014, “Here If You Listen,” is a collaboration with Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis and Michael League that’s set for an Oct. 26 release. Crosby kicks off a fall American tour Nov. 2 at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle.
The musician’s move into the cannabis business follows other lifelong pot enthusiasts-turned-cannabis entrepreneurs such as Tommy Chong, and comes as the recreational weed industry is scaling up and consolidating — a factor Crosby says is fundamental to the stability and long-term potential of his brand.
“I’m going to approach it from the highest level. I’m going to market and advertise my brand a level to people who are intelligent and have sophisticated taste,” he says.
Croz Predicts Massive CBD Opportunity
“Mighty Croz” is aimed at both baby boomers who grew up with Crosby’s music and their children.
While it’s a recreational marijuana brand, Crosby is also eyeing the mass therapeutic potential of cannabidiol, or CBD.
“As much as people just want to get high, I think you’re going to find that CBD — once it’s refined, concentrated, packaged and marketed — is going to become a hugely successful painkiller,” he says.
Opioid addictions can take hold in a matter of weeks, and NSAIDs like aspirin and ibuprofen are hard on the kidneys and liver, Crosby says. He termed CBD products “a new family of painkillers” that are coming to market without the potential for addiction or organ damage.
“If you’re going to get high, I think marijuana is the way to go,” Crosby says. “It doesn’t seem to have any real serious side effects and it does definitely help me go to sleep. I know that’s what I use it for.”
Benzinga editor Dustin Blitchok contributed to this story.
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Photo: David Crosby performs at City Winery in Chicago July 22, 2014. Photo by Dustin Blitchok.
