The ByrdWatcher Interview: David Crosby Part 6

BYRDWATCHER: A Field Guide to the Byrds of Los Angeles

THE BYRDWATCHER INTERVIEW:
DAVID CROSBY -- PART SIX

Back to Part Five.

Between Clark and Hilldale

BW: It's funny what a fertile period, what a fertile scene that was, LA in those few years there. I'm wearing a Rising Sons t-shirt right now that I got from Gary Marker of the Rising Sons. He told me about you being in a bar saluting the Rising Sons back in the early days of that band. Leading a toast or something. And Love, another band that has gotten a lot of recognition lately, but didn't get too much at the time.

DC: Well, Brian MacLean, who was in Love, was our roadie for a long time.

BW: Right. He has a new CD out of old demos on Sundazed, which is Bob Irwin's label. [ifyoubelievein (Sundazed, 1997).]

DC: He's still alive?

BW: He's still alive.

DC: He and I took acid together one night and went down to the Whisky A Go Go and Jim Morrison jumped me. (At this point Crosby starts laughing so hard that his next couple lines are difficult to decipher, but it sounds like:) What was that? I couldn't believe it! (Sighs, regains his composure:) Oh, fuck.

BW: Well, in the liner notes Maclean basically says that you and he struck up a friendship, which was how he came to be your roadie.

DC: Yeah, I liked him a lot, he was a good kid.

BW: You know his sister's Marie McKee, from Lone Justice.

DC: No, I didn't.

BW: I think she's his half-sister. Yeah, he has a new album out, maybe five months old on Sundazed and it's pretty good. A couple versions of "Alone Again Or." So what do you think was in the water in LA in those days?

DC: [Laughs.]

BW: I guess it was acid!

DC: Yeah, there was lots of that.

BW: Do you find it gratifying to see how every phase of the Byrds while you were there, and in some cases after -- Sweetheart, for example -- have spawned whole movements, many movements, I guess, since 1965, and right now, too.

DC: I don't know about that. There are a number of bands that you can hear our music in, that's for sure. You could hear our influence in a number of bands, and that makes me happy. But you know, nobody owns music. And we learned it from other people, too. You can certainly hear where we learned it. And if some of it influenced other people down the line, then yes, I'm very proud of it.

BW: Which I guess brings us to your son and your current project, CPR.

DC: The influence is still there.

BW: Speaking of DNA...

DC: Yeah, it's pretty astounding. Are you gonna to come to the show?

BW: Oh yeah.

DC: Well, then you'll probably like the ending. [Here he's referring to CPR's encore that night, a reworking of "Eight Miles High," which I did indeed like.]

We Have All Been Here Before

BW: You know, my daughter was born on November 20, 1994. I think that's at or near the time when all these things were happening for you.

DC: Two days after they transplanted me.

BW: Yeah, so I always think about that -- that a new phase started for you, several new phases.

DC: Yeah. [Goofy surprised voice] "Hey, look, he didn't die. Alright!"

BW: And you found a new old son. You had a new, new son soon after.

DC: Yeah, Django.

BW: You realized you were about to be a grandparent.

DC: Yeah, James actually, his wife Stacia gave birth to their daughter, Grace, the day after they met me. So he met his father and became a father in twenty-four hours.

BW: That must have been quite something for everybody.

DC: Yeah. [Chuckles at the understatement.]

BW: Maybe all these things are the reason for this, but I've noticed in looking at interviews with you, from about when people started to do real interviews with musicians, maybe '67, '68, the days of Rolling Stone and Creem, up to the present, it seems like I detect a shift in your personal spirituality or something. I notice you mentioning God now, and you didn't used to, way back when. Do you really look at this as a second chance, and has it really altered your spiritual views?

DC: I've been on, sort of what the Indians used to call a "vision quest" from my earliest times, and like most people, you know, I really was not and probably am still not sure that there is a God. But I like to believe that there is. And I can believe in anything I want, so I do. I had some contact with Buddhism repeatedly during the arc of my life. And it appeals to me. I have always felt that -- and this is, purely based on feeling, it's not based on any academic pursuit -- I believe that reincarnation happens. I always have felt that. That's why I wrote "Déjà Vu."

And probably some of the steps from the twelve-step program have crept into my life too, insomuch as I really think that a spiritual part to your life is valuable. I think your life is barren without it. Sorry, let me rephrase that: my life would be barren without it. What form that takes, I really can't describe to anybody else. To me it's a very inward thing. I am not a fan of organized religions in general. I think they are too manipulative and too dependent on dogma and too dependent on hierarchy. But I think that a spiritual content in your life is a valuable thing, an elevating force, and certainly, nearly dying certainly makes you look very closely at life. You know, I treasure it. I treasure every damn minute of it.

I'm grateful I woke up every morning. And I feel enormously grateful, A.) I'm not dead; B.) I'm married to a woman I've been in love with for twenty-one years, still am. My little boy Django is the greatest joy you could possibly ask for in life. My daughter is a sweetheart and tremendously talented. And James is like a lightning bolt, "Zzzzt," out of the blue. Here is this incredible young man, hugely talented. He's a way better musician than I ever was, or ever will be. And I feel hugely lucky, and I think rightly so. I'm having a lot of fun with life. Writing a ton of music, writing a book, making a documentary, working with two bands, raising a three-year-old, learning how to fly, sailing my boat, diving. I am having a lot of fun. And it's a better grade of fun than I used to have. [Laughs.] You know, the main fun is still that I got the best job in the world. I love making music, man. I truly do. Every single night that I get to go do it, I'm just thrilled. I just get higher than a kite, playing music.

BW: Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate your willingness to sit down and talk.

DC: It's cool. Thanks for the book. [A copy of The Sparrow I picked up for him when he let me go out and buy some new batteries for my tape recorder in mid-interview.]

Earlier I had told David how great it was that he was willing to talk to me about the Byrds. "No problem," he said. "I'm a Byrds fan, too."

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THE BYRDWATCHER INTERVIEW: DAVID CROSBY -- PART SIX

THE BYRDWATCHER INTERVIEW:
DAVID CROSBY -- PART SIX