Tips from Graham Nash

Music is the presiding factor in Graham Nash’s life.  He opens his book, Wild Tales with this line:  It always comes down to the music.  It is his driving force. It’s the reason he kept agreeing to Crosby, Still, Nash and Young regroupings.  From the moment he met David Crosby, he knew they had a connection and it was through their music.  He became good friends with him, which is probably why Crosby’s descent into drug addiction is the hardest part of the book to read. 

I was never a CSN fan, but appreciated their talent.  Me being a sucker for musician memoirs, I had to read Wild Tales.  I can’t say it’s one of my favorites, but it was a nice read. 

Tips from Graham Nash:

On Managing Money:

“When it was over, the entire tour made close to $12 million, but David, Stephen, Neil and I only got $300,000 each.  That Left $10.8 million unaccounted for, by my arithmetic.”

(Summer 1974 Tour CSNY.  There was crazy excessive spending on that tour and of course, lots and lots of drugs.)

On Dating:

The first date with his not-yet-wife Susan:  “I spent most of that night trying to figure out how to make myself more attractive to this woman. Aha! Now I knew what to do.  I’ll get up in a tree, I thought.  (Don’t even try to attempt to follow this reasoning.) So fifteen minutes before she was supposed to show up, I climbed into a tree outside our bungalow at the Chateau.    And, believe it or not, this stunt actually worked. 

(She told him she had been to a self-exploration conference, which prompted him to think of hiding in a tree.)

On the drama of being in a band:

I know what you’re thinking; didn’t we learn a thing or two about four superegos trying to coexist in one studio?  Why in heaven’s name were we gonna do that again?  But it’s the music.  It’s always the music.  It’s like a drug, irresistible.  And we’re both smart enough-and-dumb enough-to recognize that. 

What I didn’t know about Graham is that in 1990 he started Nash Editions, which is  a fine arts digital print making company.  

Graham will be touring on the West Coast in November.   

Howard Stern's interview with Nash.