David Crosby has revealed he has quit touring. During a new chat with Best Classic Bands, Crosby was asked if he was planning on hitting the road and answered, “No. I'm not, because I'm 80. It's because I’m old. Being on a bus tour is a daunting task. It's very hard. It takes it out of you. I'm too old to do it anymore. I don't have the stamina; I don't have the strength.”
Crosby, who turns 81 in August, has struggled over the years with heart ailments, a liver transplant, and diabetes among other maladies, shed light on his own brush with Covid: “It has been awful. Covid is a very weird disease. It makes you feel absolutely freaking awful. It has been thoroughly unpleasant. . . it’s no fun at all. You want to avoid it if you possibly can.”
When we last caught up with David Crosby, we asked him to describe what he thinks are the key elements to his best songs: “There's a certain kind of song — 'tends to be ballad-y, mid-tempo song. Very personal and slightly mysterious lyrics, with dense and contrapuntal harmonies.”
Crosby told us that his songwriting is a natural extension of his heart and mind: “A sense of humor is necessary to stay alive and a sense of what do you love, what do you care about, what really has worth in this life. And I wind up writin' about that. There are things I'm very angry about — I wind up writin' about those.”
Last July, David Crosby released his latest solo album, For Free. The collection — named after “Croz's” cover of the Joni Mitchell classic — features a new cover portrait by Joan Baez, and contributions from his son and bandmate James Raymond, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, and the Doobie Brothers' Michael McDonald.
