It was 1969 when CSN, at the urging of record executive Ahmet Ertegun, recruited Young to become their fourth member. During a recent appearance on The Rockonteurs podcast, Nash recalled meeting his future bandmate for the first timeas UCR reports.
“I know Neil's a decent writer and I know he's a decent singer, but I've never met him,” Nash recalled thinking. “I don't know whether I can be his friend, whether I could tell him secrets, whether I could hang with him. I’ve got to meet this guy before we fucking invite him into this band."
Impressed by Young’s talent and charmed by his personality, Nash agreed to Young joining the group. The first album by CSNY was 1970’s Deja Vu, a landmark release that was both a commercial and a critical success. While Young’s addition garnered plenty of praise, Nash believes the album would have still been a hit without the fourth member.
“I mean, the truth is that, in a way, that Deja Vu album should have been the second Crosby, Stills and Nash record,” Nash noted. “We already had ‘Almost Cut My Hair’. We already had ‘Teach Your Children.’ We already had ‘Our House.’ We already had ‘4 + 20.’ We already had ‘Carry On.’”
“We only got two songs from Neil and he never played one note or sang a note on ‘Teach Your Children’ or ‘Our House,’” Nash continued. “So in a way, the best thing that ever happened to CSN was Neil, and the worst thing that ever happened to CSN was Neil.”
“I have great respect for Neil. I know he's a wonderful musician, you know, but he does things occasionally that really piss me off,” Nash confessed. The singer pointed to Young’s refusal to travel with his bandmates as one such infuriating move.
Decades after the final CSN release, Nash reflects on the rise and fall of CSN and lost years of making music with the band.
“It was about my emotional feelings toward Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,” said Nash. “I reached incredible heights musically with them, and the opposite has been true with them, too – saddened that we didn’t make more music. We do, though, know that the music we did make is the most important part of our relationship.” (VMZ reports)
He added, “This is about the thrill of having made music with David [Crosby], Stephen [Stills], and Neil [Young]. I wish it could have continued.”
Nash explained he’d “accumulated 28 handwritten documents by Neil Young containing original lyrics they had had left behind at studios or given to me,” He continued: “A year or so ago, he decided to sell his archive to a university in Canada and he asked me if I still had those lyrics.
I said I did. I’d valued them at $800,000 but I realized that Neil wanted them, I realized how much money I had made because of his talent, and I gave them to Neil with a good heart.
If Neil wanted his stuff back, he could have it.”
