I caught David Crosby at the lab. Not the songwriting lab where he’s been busy writing song after song with artists like Becca Stevens from his Lighthouse band, but the phlebotomy lab at UCLA where Croz, the 76-year-old rock and roll icon, is getting poked, prodded and zapped much to his chagrin.
“Yeah, they mouse-trapped me,” he says during the third of three phone calls we have during the course of a day that finds Croz coming in and out of buildings with limited cell phone reception. “There’s this team of guys here, and they are assholes. They keep dragging me back into getting more tests so they can make more fucking money. Bunch of assholes.”
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David Crosby: Always right on time — an interview (2016)
It’s a glimpse of the hilariously curmudgeonly Croz fans have come to know and love, and our hero — who arrives in Clearwater on December 9 for a sold-out show in support of another new album, Sky Trails — confirms that his health and spirits are both in pretty good shape.
“You know, for an old guy, man, I am really pretty spectacular,” he says when asked about the general state of things. “I’m very happy.”
And he should be. Sky Trails — released in September — is his third album in as many years, and he’s busy at work with various people (Snarky Puppy’s Mike League, his son James Raymond and the aforementioned Stevens to name a few) on numerous other projects.
Plus, he’s back in Florida where he met his wife Jan Dance. Croz says he’s comfortable in Clearwater (he played the Capitol Theatre just last year) and the Sunshine State, where his daughter makes a home.
“Her whole family lives there. My grandkids live there, and besides that I love the place. I loved it before he moved there. It’s kind of amazing that I kind of lucked into the family that I do have there, but I do have a good family there, and I do love it there,” he says. “Absolutely love it there.”
We absolutely loved catching up with Croz again, and you can read our full Q&A below. Get more information on the show via local.cltampa.com.
Hi Croz, how you been?
You know, for an old guy, man, I am really pretty spectacular. I’m very happy.
You’re at home in Santa Barbara, right now, I’m guessing.
I’m over at UCLA. I think they call the phlebotomy lab here. I’m getting the blood drawn.
Oh, you’re getting blood drawn?
Mmmhmm.
Oh, damn. Why are you getting blood drawn? Normal stuff? Is everything OK?
No, yeah, I do a check up before, every time, before I go on the road.
And you have this big tour coming up. I was gonna ask you had for dinner and what you watched on TV before you sat down to write some songs. I was wondering if you cooked Jan anything last night.
Hmm. Let’s see. What did we have for dinner last night. We had a stir-fry with pork and brown rice and veggies, and it was spec-freakin’-tacular.
That’s freakin’ rad — did you make it?
Uh, no. My wife made it.
You still there David? You’re kind of breaking up a little bit.
Well listen, here’s the thing. UCLA [call breaks up].
You wanna call me back? I can’t really hear you at all right now.
[Call him back.]
Hey, I’m here and I can talk to you. Let me make one more call.
[Croz calls back later.]
Hey how are you. I’m still here and they want me to do some other tests. How are you, man?
I’m awesome. Thanks for calling me back. I emailed Rob, but disregard whatever he says, I guess. So we have time to talk? Is that cool?
Yeah, sure.
Alright, so last night. You were talking about this awesome dinner you had with Jan before you started writing, but you didn’t tell me how the writing session went. I know the last time we talked you were still rolling, writing a lot of stuff and in a super-happy place and working on Sky Trails. So how was last night, still going the same way?
Yeah. I just had another, Becca [Stevens, a North Carolina composer who worked with Croz on his 2016 LP Lighthouse] just came and stayed with me again and we wrote another song.
Oh shit you wrote another song with Becca.
Yeah, I did. Haha. It was good, too.
That’s awesome.
She’s an amazing writer, man. And I’m working on songs with, let’s see. I have songs going with my son James [Raymond, who co-wrote Croz’s 2014 solo comeback album], I got songs going with Mike League [mastermind of new jazz heavyweights Snarky Puppy, who co-produced Lighthouse]. I got another one going with Becca. I got one going with, I think I’m working on another with [Estonian bassist and composer] Mai Agan. I’m definitely in a writing mode. I work at it everyday, anyway, but I’ve been really lucky lately. I am writing with great people, so it’s working really well for me.
That’s freaking awesome. That bumps me down to some of my other questions. So Becca Stevens. I’m assuming that she’s gonna tour with you again?
We’re looking at another Lighthouse band tour next year. We’re looking at doing another record together. What I did was I was so thrilled with that last record that we did that I asked Becca and Michelle [Willis, a Toronto songwriter who also worked on Lighthouse] and Mike League and this time it wouldn’t be a David Crosby record with them on it. It would be a record with all four of us on it, writing and singing.
So a new band.
Yeah.
Does the band have a name?
Uh, Lighthouse band.
Oh, OK. So you’re gonna call it Lighthouse band. So the song you wrote with Becca last night. You’re gonna take it to James or just kind of see what happens and take it to the band, I guess, huh?
Yeah, I think that’ll probably wind up to this next one. And Michael League will produce that one. And then I’ll probably — if I live long enough — I’ll probably have another record after that with James.
Well it sounds like you’re taking care of yourself, so I’m assuming that you’re gonna live longer, you know? I’m hoping that you do.
Yeah, me too.
Hey, I wanted to ask you. I was gonna ask you if you miss Michael League after Sky Trails, but I guess not because you are still writing songs. Can I ask you…
Well, I do miss him. The toughest part about Michael League is getting on his dance card. He is probably one of the busiest musicians in the world, and he likes it that way. He’s so in-demand, he’s in like five different bands.
Yeah I love that version of “Somebody Home” that you did on Sky Trails. So last time you played Clearwater, I don’t know if you were making a joke, but you loved the room you were in so much, Capitol Theatre, that you joked about wanting to do a residency. I think you’re wrapping the tour here in Tampa Bay. Last time you were here you talked about having burritos at your daughter’s place before the show. Can you talk about how much this area means to you. It seems like, geographically, Clearwater and the Tampa Bay area is special for you.
Well it is because I have family there. I mean my daughter lives there. Her whole family lives there. My grandkids live there, and besides that I love the place. I loved it before he moved there. It’s kind of amazing that I kind of lucked into the family that I do have there, but I do have a good family there, and I do love it there. Absolutely love it there.
So you go to the beach and stuff and it’s kind of a place you can relax.
It is. I am very comfortable there. Of course, my wife is from Florida. You know that, right?
Nah, I didn’t.
Jan’s from Florida.
Yeah, sure. I didn’t know that.
Raised in Homestead. I met her in north Miami at Criteria Studios.
Oh, that’s awesome. I did not know that.
Hang on one sec, I gotta talk to the driver.
OK.
[Background: “Hey, I have one more test — can you wait a half-hour?” I’ll be back.]
Alright, so. Oh my God.
David?
I am having a religious experience.
Oh, I don’t wanna take you away from that.
Oh no [phone breaks up].
Where are you right now?
UCLA.
Oh, you’re still up there.
Yeah, they mouse-trapped me. There’s this team of guys here, and they are assholes. They keep dragging me back into getting more tests so they can make more fucking money. Bunch of assholes.
Yeah, it’s confusing right. It’s like, “Man, I wanna take care of myself, but how much can I trust the insurance company?” and I think I know how you feel about insurance companies, but…
Oh God, they’re a horror show.
I know, man. I’m sorry you’re having to go through that. So you’re still not done up there is that what you’re saying?
No. They dragged me back in, and they’re taking me to another test.
Geez. Do you wanna talk later?
No, we can keep talking for a while here.
OK. I wanted to ask about an older album. How much did you reach back to If I Could Only Remember My Name when you were in the studio putting Sky Trails to tape — a lot of people say the albums are spiritual siblings, and there some parallels…
Well, that’s definitely true. When I was getting ready to make that record, the Lighthouse record. I had asked Mike League, “How do you wanna do this?” I had envisioned, because he has that enormous band there. It’s sort of like hiring somebody who has a gigantic toolbox.
OK.
But when I said that to him he said, “Well I really loved that record,” If I Could Only Remember My Name, that record, “And I was hoping that we could do acoustic guitar and vocal stacks,” which is right in my wheelhouse.
Yes, it is.
And so, I said, “Fine — sounds totally great.” James, when he’s producing he tends to use all the tools. He tends to go as large as he can go. Mike deliberately wanted to do a more acoustic record, so he did.
[Starts talking off to the side. “I see this. I’m not gonna do it. Haha.”]
Um, so it was on purpose. The one record was deliberately shaped itself after the other record. Hello?
I can definitely hear that. You mentioned that James like to use a bunch of different stuff, or if anybody was giving you shit — you know like Chance the Rapper — was giving trouble for using auto tune, some vocoders and processed vocals on the new one.
Haha. No hell no. I do like him though, and I do think that was a fun thing to do.
Oh yeah, that Twitter commercial was awesome. I like the vocoder, I love the auto-tune, I love the spirit of the new album, I love the spurt I think everybody does. So I was wondering, when you were a kid you used to live and breath Brubeck, Chet Baker, Mulligan do any of these jazzy arrangements or progressions on Sky Trails make it hard to play live, or do you think the band is up to that already? I don’t even know if you rehearsed.
The band are all pretty much jazzers anyway, they’re all advanced players and they love it; the more complex music you think up, the more they like it. So there’s no real problem there. They admittedly, occasionally I do write weird shit, and so does Michelle. All of us love complex chords and intricate music. So, it’s kind of a natural thing for all of us to go that direction.
Now, I know the tour hasn’t started yet, but is this how you kind of imagined this particular run going, allowing yourself a little bit more space and giving the songs even more room to breathe than you already do?
Well, How do you mean?
Like, you know, the last set was a great set, you kind of told all of your stories, did your songs; but this album has got these sort of jazzy arrangements, and like you said all the band and jazz. ..
Are we going to stretch them out and play more? Yeah.
Yeah, are you going to let the songs kind of breathe a bit and kind of get lost in the music and not…obviously everyone likes when you stack, you know, vocals, and I was going to ask you something about that but I’m guessing some of these songs from Sky Trails are going to live and breathe a little bit and evolve on the road.
Yeah, we have two people maybe three people who are capable of solo, actually four if you count the bass player; we have Jeff Pevar, who’s like a master class guitar player, and he definitely likes to stretch out more, so there’s more instrumental stretch out because of him. And of course my son, James, is a monster keyboard player and he does take some time and develops some stuff too, a little more than we would without him.
So, I know that you work on a lot of stuff and I was going to ask you about your new stuff, but have you started to go back to some of your older songs and make more stacks out of the vocals, or is that going to kind of take…
Yeah, absolutely we are, we just did that with “Wooden Ships.”
Oh, you just did that with “Wooden Ships”?
Uh, huh
You made horn stacks out of the vocals from “Wooden Ships”?
No, we’re going to do vocal stacks in “Wooden Ships”, we’re going to do “Wooden Ships” with this band.
Oh, right on. Perfect. That’s awesome man.
We’re not going to change them, the difference will be that the top part of it will be Michelle Willis, you know, a girl singing the top. Girls are different up there because they don’t have to work for it, they can just land on those high notes and they don’t have to strain to do it, they sound so good up there, she sounds terrific up there. Michelle Willis is the keyboardist and harmonies in the Sky Trails Band. Michelle and Becca are both in the lighthouse band.
You love love Hamilton, and I know you love melody and harmony, I’m going to ask you about Lin-Manuel Miranda, is he one of those guys that makes you want to work harder at creating this singular piece of art that reflects the zeitgeist or times we’re living in?
Yeah, he’s what I would call an inspiring wordsmith.
OK, so it’s the words that get you with him.
Yeah, he’s an amazing rapper, he’s insane. Hold on a minute. I’m going to have to call you back, want to zap me one more time.
Don’t get zapped too hard, just call me back.
OK, I’ll call you back in about a half an hour
[David calls back]
Hey Ray, let’s finish the longest interview ever.
Haha, I didn’t want to ask you anything political, but maybe because I was having a kind of crisis myself, have you quit the democratic party yet?
No, and I feel like they let me down, I mean, them going for Hillary Clinton was a mistake, she’s not an evil person, but she’s not a great candidate. And, them assuming that they could pull it off, the Clinton Machine, and completely underestimated the situation, and completely not knowing what the hell they were doing, and completely fucking it up so that we’re left with this imbecile as president. They did a freaking terrible job, and unless the democratic party come so strongly, spends every nickel that they can get in the world, anywhere, by any means this next midterm and wins it, we’re fucked. We have a loss of our democracy to the corporations, and we’ve lost our presidency to the imbecile who I blame, and we’re in deep trouble. And the democratic party, I think, completely failed us. So, have I left the democratic party? Yeah pretty much, but I need them, I need them to get their shit together and do a decent job finally. They failed the last time, yes, Trump won, but, he won because we lost, that’s the way I see it.
Yeah, I can’t disagree with you too much there, I might disagree with you a little on the money thing, what would be scary is if they spent a bunch of money and still did poorly in the midterm. I wanted to ask you about, “Here It’s Almost Sunset”, and I know there’s a lyric in there about being careless with somebody’s heart, and there’s a little bit of regret in that song. I know that you said it was meant to describe this hurt that you caused yourself and others, are you willing to talk about that?
The phrase that caught you was?
There’s a lyric in there that’s just like a big sense of regret..
What was the lyric?
The lyric was, exactly, it was about being careless with someone’s heart
“Why was I so careless with your heart?”, that’s in the title song, that’s in Sky Trails.
Oh OK, so Sky Trails. OK, sorry about that.
No, you know, I think you can make a case for being pretty careless with a number of people’s hearts over the years; but I don’t think that’s really what that song was about. That song was about being lost. This thing that happens to you on the road, when you’re out there on the road, you’ve been out there for three weeks, you don’t know where the fuck you are. You have no idea where you are. Is this Illinois? Is this Indiana? Or did we cross the border into Mars? You really don’t know, and you can figure it out from the signs, or the tour book or something, but you don’t really know. And that feeling of disorientation, that feeling of being lost out there in some kind of, that’s a really disturbing feeling, that feeling of being washed out there in some kind of wasteland, that’s a very disturbing feeling, and it happens to all touring musicians to one degree or another and that’s where we were trying to start from. Then, of course we projected it to larger feelings, so being lost in life, which happens to everybody, not just touring musicians.
Right on. You’ll know when you’re in Clearwater because you have a special place for us, so you at least know that. I guess just to close it out, I’m assuming you’re driving around in the tesla that you had just bought last time we talked, are you still driving that car?
I am not in that car, I’m in another car with a driver, who’s driving around to all of these appointments that I had to do. When I get ready to go out on tour I have to go see several doctors and let them poke me and proud me and say “yeah, lookin great.”
You’re still Croz, you’re still doing good.
Yeah, sorta.
That’s awesome, well, thanks for your time, and thanks for calling me back
My pleasure, I’m sorry that it had to be so piecemeal, but it’s a pleasure talking to you again and thank you.
This article appears in Dec 7-14, 2017.
