David Crosby: On politics, death and the end of the human race

Update: This interview took place in 2019. David Crosby died on Jan. 19, 2023. He was 81.

David Crosby has been wrestling with his own mortality while working on what his old friend George Harrison would call "The Art of Dying."

It certainly haunts "David Crosby: Remember My Name," an acclaimed documentary by director A.J. Eaton that premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

In one particularly poignant scene, the singer softly tells us, "I'm afraid of dying. And I'm close. I don't like it. I'd like to have more time. A lot more time."

He turned 78 in August, a diabetic with eight heart stents who's spent a large part of that lifetime struggling with addiction.

And yet, that legendary singing voice has somehow weathered every storm in Crosby's life, its ageless nature lending extra pathos to a line that leaps off Crosby's latest album.

"I've been thinking about dying," he sings, "and how to do it well / How to stand up and face it or just lie where I fell."

The singer is as candid as expected when he calls to talk about the Sky Trails Tour that brings the twice-inducted Rock and Roll of Famer (as a member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash) to Phoenix in support of a brilliant new album called "Here if You Listen."

He's playfully cantankerous but also very warm and friendly, even after shutting down an inadvertent interruption with "You talk a lot."

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He speaks softly and laughs freely, often after saying something most would have a hard time laughing at — the thought of his own death, for instance.

He apologizes when it's time to go while making it clear that it is time to go and your "last question" will just have to wait.

In short, he sounds like David Crosby. And he wears it well.

Question: "Here if You Listen," which is great, is your fourth album in five years. And I hear you have another one in the works.

Answer: Yeah. I’m halfway through another one (laughs). I am. I don’t know why I'm doing it, man, because they don't pay us. You know, this streaming thing is like you did your job for a month and then they gave you a nickel. So we're not getting paid for the records. It's insane. But it's my art form. It's the thing that I love to do. And I’ve got the songs coming. I can't resist it, you know. And yeah, we're halfway through another one.

Q: That's amazing.

A: Well, they bring joy to people and they bring joy to us. And that's what I get to leave behind. Since I'm not gonna be here too much longer (laughs), I’m trying to make every bit of music I possibly can. It seems to help.

Q: When you talk about how you're not gonna be here much longer …

A: I’m 78 years old, man. What do you think?

Q: Right.

A: Seventy-eight is near the end of your life. If you haven't figured that out, you should know that.

Q: In "Your Own Ride," you sing, "I've been thinking about dying and how to do it well." Does it feel like these albums are part of the process?

A: Yeah, sure. Absolutely. If you have a certain amount of time, right? No matter how much it is. Whatever amount of time you have, what’s significant about it isn’t how long you have, it's what you do with it. So. I don't know whether I got two weeks or 10 years. I know that I'm short. Right? I'm 78. That's the median time that people die. So I probably am going to fairly soon. I’ve got a lot of stuff wrong with me, health stuff, the way everybody old does. The only thing you can do anything about, man, is what you do with the time. What I'm doing with the time is because I can still sing, I'm singing all I (expletive) can. And I'm making all the music I possibly can. It seems to me to be the one place if I can make anything better for anybody, that’s the one place I can do it. So that's what I'm doing.

Q: And it makes it better for you as well, not just for the other people?

A: Yeah, sure. Absolutely. It’s my favorite thing to do.

Q: Was there a certain point at which you did come to the realization hey, I’ve got to make the most of this remaining time? Was it before the first of those four albums?

A: No, it’s just really the realization that comes to you in your 70s, you know. You realize this is what the situation is. And you have to look at it, unless you're too dumb. If you want to just stick your head in the sand and pretend everything's gonna be fine until all of a sudden you keel over, well that’s one way. You can do it that way, too. I don't want to. I want to use the time. Look. It's not a good time here in the United States right now, man. It is unhappy as (expletive). We’ve got an idiot for a president. We’re not addressing global warming. And we have to. There’s a lot of stuff wrong. So a lot of people are very unhappy, very upset. What does music do? It makes them feel better. It makes them feel good about themselves. It gives them hope. So what we need to do is make a whole (expletive) load of music.

Q: Are you able to stay hopeful when you look at everything that's going on around us?

A: Mostly. I have to limit the amount that I watch the orange-headed idiot, you know. I don't pay a lot of attention to him. But I'm aware of what's going on in the world. And if you are intelligent, you can see that we have a problem and we have to deal with it or we're not going to be able to live on this planet. And since we can't live anywhere else, that means the end of the human race. Oops. That would not be good. So I do it for the same reason everybody does it, man. If you're an activist, you do it because you have children. We can’t roll over and put our paws in the air and not fight. We have children. Do you have children?

Q: Yes, I do.

A: Well, then get your (rear) in gear and fight. Because that's really what we have to do.

Q: You've often sung songs reflecting on the times and trying to get listeners to lead a better life. Are there points in your career where it's really felt like that was having the effect that you want it to have?

A: Yeah. How it works is this, man. Our job, basically, is to take you on little emotional voyages. And make you boogie. That, too. Make you want to dance. As simple as that. And every once in a while, it’s being a witness. If your country starts shooting its own children in the middle of their schoolyard, unarmed and protesting legally with a constitutional right to do so and you start killing them for it, then you probably should write "Ohio" and sing it real loud, you know? That's part of the job. It's only part. But it is part of our job. And that's probably the best song we did.

Q: What was it like to see that song have such a presence in the culture?

A: It was great. It lit everything up. After Kent State, there were protests on every campus in America. And all of them were playing that song.

Q: Does it feel like music that weighed in on what's going on in the world had a better shot at getting out there to where people could hear that ...

A: It does. Music is a very, very good way to transmit ideas. Really good. So yes, it's a very good way for us to do it and every once in a while when you are confronted with a situation like the one we're confronted with right now, being witnesses is a reasonable thing.

Q: When you were talking about making the most of the time that you have in this life, have you noticed any changes in yourself other than in your creativity as you think about that?

A: Well, sure there’s lots of changes, man. Didn’t anybody explain to you about what happens when you get old?

Q: (Laughs) No, I mean have you made changes?

A: I’m not going to spend the rest of the interview telling you all the gruesome things that happen to you when you get old, but you can look it up. It ain’t funny.

Q: I meant have you made any changes in the way you approach things?

A: Yeah. I don’t do any hard drugs. I haven't for about 30 years. What other changes? I've narrowed it down to what really matters to me. What really matters to me is my wife and my son, the rest of my family and the music. That's all I really give a (expletive) about.

I’ve gotta move on to another one of these calls, buddy. I can't stay with you. So what’s your last and most important question?

Q: I was hoping you could talk a bit about the movie, 'David Crosby: Remember My Name' and what it was like to go through the process of making that and what was like to watch that?

A: Well, it's strange being naked in public, right? It’s a new experience. Most people have not done it and it is odd. But (producer/interviewer) Cameron Crowe and A.J. Eaton did a really good job, man. It's a very startlingly honest film. And that's its most, important quality. It's the thing that everybody comes away from it saying. "Oh, my gosh, you didn't lie." It's really kind of stunning that way. Normally, documentaries are very, very much manipulated. They're shine jobs. They try to make the person look better than they are. And they’re shallow. They’re about as deep as a bird bath. And this isn’t it. We did a very honest piece of work. And everybody that’s seen it so far loves it. So I'm guessing you will love it.

Q: Oh, I love it. I have seen it. 

A: Oh, you saw it. Then you understand. It's kind of a gritty thing, but I think we did it right.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

David Crosby

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12. 

Where: Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix.

Admission: $40-$85.

Details: celebritytheatre.com

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: David Crosby reflects on 'Remember My Name' before tour hits Phoenix