January 1970. Stephen Stills is about to become of the highest paid rock stars on the planet. Thanks to his contract with Ahmet Ertegun’s Atlantic Records, Stills and his superstar kings of harmony mates – David Crosby, Graham Nash and Neil Young – are on a $1 million per album guarantee. Each. Once the quartet’s Déjà Vu tops the charts two months later, they can renegotiate.
It all seems so easy. Stills bossed the critically acclaimed Buffalo Springfield and was architect of the CSN phenomenon. Next thing, he finds himself in London feted as a rock messiah. Bumping into Paul McCartney at Apple Records’ Savile Row HQ, he is told laughingly: “Leave some room for the rest of us! Don’t get too successful – this is only a small island.”
