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David Crosby: The Folk Singer Who Became an FBI Fugitive · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: story about one of the craziest rock and roll animals
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to ever do it. A man whose transgressions were as
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: low-down and wild as, I don't know, pick your wild
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: rock star, Keith Moon, Ozzy Osbourne, almost as lunatic and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: gross as Gigi Allen. Almost. But this rock star sang sweet, soft,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: harmonious music. But music that in real life soundtracked a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: gunshot to the face. A home invasion. One of the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: gnarliest freebass addictions you'll ever hear about. and an escape
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: from authorities that made this man an FBI fugitive. A
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: man who, I can't believe I'm saying this, but that's
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: what getting older does to you, I guess. A man
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: who made great music. Unlike that music I played for
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my Mellotron called Three
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Way the Hard Way, MK2. I played you that loop
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to We Built This
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: City by Starship. And why would I play you that
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: specific slice of Marconi Plays the Mamba Cheese, Could I
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Afford It? Because that was the number one song in
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: America on November 28th, 1985, Thanksgiving Day. And that was
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the day that rock star David Crosby made a fateful
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: decision to use the last couple of dollars he had
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: to hire a plane to fly him across the country
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to escape the long arm of the law. On this episode, heroin, cocaine, grass,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and LSD, guns, so many guns, even more arrests, paranoia,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and David Crosby. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: New York City, 1963. Ronald Van Emsen walked his Doberman
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: up Bleeker Street. It was after midnight, and the path
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: ahead was blanketed in shadow. But Von Emsen knew his
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: way around, as did his dog. The two took the
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: same stroll, same route, every night, just after the last
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: folk singer had plied his or her trade at Café Raphael,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the coffee house Von Emsen owned. Raphael was a hipster hangout,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: though Admittedly not as hip as Gertie's or the Gaslight
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: or Cafe Wa or the Midwestern import, Bob Dylan was
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: turning the whole scene on its head. Von Empson didn't
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: care much for Bob Dylan. If Von Empson was being honest,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: what with that nasal whiny voice of his? Instead, he
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: preferred the more traditional vocal stylings of the young 20-something
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: David Crosby, who had grown up singing harmonies in a
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: musical family. Crosby was also had an anti-authority streak that
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: a 31-year-old Von Empson could relate to. Counterculture, shit-stirring beatnik
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: that Von Empson was. But to some, Von Empson himself
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: was an authority figure. And one of those people was
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: now standing directly in front of him in his Doberman,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: blocking the way. Von Empson knew this man as well.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: An Italian immigrant in his 70s. Part of New York's
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: old guard. A man who was about to lose his
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: apartment because... The hipster, Ronald Von Empson, had plans to
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: tear it down in order to expand his burgeoning folk
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: coffeehouse empire, which sat right next door to this 70-year-old
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: dude's place. In one hand, the old man held his
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: eviction notice, and in the other, he held a. 38 revolver.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: You leave me alone, the old man was shouting. I've
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: lived here my whole life. You don't touch my apartment.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: He crushed his eviction notice into a ball in his fist,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and then raised his gun and shot Ronald Von Empson
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: right between the eyes. You had to be cold-blooded and
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: cutthroat to make it in a scene that was nowhere
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: near as harmonious as the New York folk scene of
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the early 1960s appeared to be. Cutthroat like Ronald Von Empson,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: whose ambition got him killed, and cold-blooded like Bob Dylan.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that snake in the grass who was about to show
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to the world that he didn't want anything to do
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: with the movement that made him. David Crosby didn't want
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: to be the next Dylan, as many of his peers did. Though,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: as he'd proved just two years later, in 1965 as
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: a member of the Byrds, that's B-Y-R-D-S with a Y,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: he did want to be the guy who took Dylan
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to the next level. And he did do that. Well,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the Byrds did, with their very first single, an electrified
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: version of Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man, a number one hit
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: on the pop chart that may have also single-handedly invented
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the term jangle rock, but I digress. Like Bob Dylan,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: David Crosby was a hardcore cutthroat, but of his own
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: particular California vintage. And by that, I mean a Santa
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Barbara prep school kid who spent his teenage years pursuing
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: transgressive extracurriculars. He liked to steal his best friend's dad's
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: pink Thunderbird and take it for joy rides or break
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: into dimly lit houses just for the fuck of it.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: He was expelled from boarding school, but was soon allowed
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: back in because of that charm of his, which, when necessary,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: could take the wheel while his arrogance and punk-ass indifference
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: took a back seat. These qualities of David Crosby's were
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: often on display simultaneously, but that wasn't the only reason
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman kicked Crosby out of the Birds,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the band that David Crosby had co-founded. Crosby was looking
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and sounding increasingly like a fucking lunatic, at least in
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the eyes of his bandmates, airing his conspiracy theories about
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the JFK assassination to the crowd at Monterey Pop. And
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: he was writing songs like Triad about a threesome, allegedly
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: inspired by his own unquenchable thirst for sex, kinky, freaky
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: sex in which nothing was taboo or off the table.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the Byrds were musically progressive, but when it came
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: to sex and politics, the far-out Roger McGuinn and Chris
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Hillman were actually more aligned with the status quo. So,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: David Crosby was sacked from the Byrds. So what? It
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: was the late 60s, Los Angeles, California, and David Crosby
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: had an open road ahead of him. He traversed that
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: road at extremely high speeds on the motorcycle that his friend,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the actor Peter Fonda, had gifted him. You couldn't miss
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: David Crosby on that bike. There, he's the one with
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the bushy mustache and the long cape flapping wildly behind him.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: He raced that bike to his place in Beverly Glen,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains, and then over to
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Laurel Canyon, where he scored some acid for the Beatles,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a trip that would inspire John Lennon to write She Said,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: She Said. It was also in Laurel Canyon, at the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: house of Peter Tork of the Monkees, or maybe it
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: was at Joni Mitchell's place whom Crosby was dating. He
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: couldn't remember, but somewhere along the way, he met Stephen Stills,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: whose band, the Buffalo Springfield, had just broken up, as
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: well as Graham Nash, who had just left the Hollies.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: They sang in three-part harmony, and it was like the
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: heavens suddenly opened up. Maybe that was just the grass talking,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: or was it the jacks? Jacks were pharmaceutical junk imported
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: from the UK. Heroin. Heroin in pill form that David
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Crosby crushed up and snorted with his buddy Mama Cassa
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Elliot in secret, hiding in a closet during one of
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Peter Tork's wild parties. Maybe that was it. Because just
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: as the New York folk scene in the early 60s
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: wasn't all sunshine and roses, neither was the rock and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: roll scene in California in the late 60s just all
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: about marijuana and LSD. And David Crosby needed the harder stuff.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: seeing as he was dumped not only by the Byrds,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: but then by Joni Mitchell. And not dumped in the
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: traditional way, but in the way that only Joni Mitchell could,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: in a song. A brand new song she performed, not
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: just for Crosby, but for a room packed with their peers.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: That was awkward. And Crosby rebounded with his typical punk-ass indifference,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: with sexually liberating adventures featuring an increasingly eclectic harem of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: women and then with his new buddies and their sweet harmonies. First,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: their debut studio LP 1969's Crosby, Stills & Nash, which
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: made them all stars, and then the next year with
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the album Deja Vu, a number one smash hit that
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: generated $ 2 million in pre-sales while adding Stills' old Buffalo
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Springfield bandmate Neil Young into the mix. But for David Crosby,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: becoming one of the most recognizable players in the burgeoning
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: folk rock movement, not to mention the cuddly avatar for
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the peace and love movement, none of that could dull
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Crosby's transgressive, schoolboy-in-disgrace ways. He was busted in front of
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the whiskey at Go-Go when a cop found a key
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: of grass and a loaded gun in his Volkswagen. A
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: legal search and seizure got him off in the long run.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: And at that point, Crosby was pulling up stakes at
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Beverly Glen. The Grateful Dead sent their road crew to
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: move him out to their neck of the woods in
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Marin County to a small city called Mill Valley. Crosby, however,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: was not one to be landlocked. On the Mayan, his
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: 59-foot schooner, he sailed to Jamaica, to the Bahamas, to Panama,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: with his ex, Joni Mitchell, and her new boyfriend, Crosby's bandmate,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Graham Nash, just the three of them and some guns,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a few rifles, and some weed, and some LSD, and
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: a film canister filled with cocaine. Luckily, Graham and Joni
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: weren't there when the feds raided the boat. Again, charges
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: dropped this time due to a lack of evidence. The
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: evidence being all the marijuana that had been flushed down
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the schooner's toilet, and marijuana which was now floating out
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: of sight along the coastline. The feds, the cops, these
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: people were, for a hipster turned head like David Crosby,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: just an occupational hazard. The real concern, once the 60s
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: gave way to the 70s anyway, was not law enforcement,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: but instead David Crosby's own tribe, so to speak. The hippies,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the peaceniks, All lovers and no fighters. Ever since Crazy
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Charlie Manson made it witchy up on Cielo Drive, turned
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: the place into a horror show stained with the blood
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: of a pregnant Sharon Tate and her unborn baby. A
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: place which was previously the home of one Terry Melcher,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: a man who had produced Crosby's first two albums with
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: the Byrds. Well, guilt by association and all that. It
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: was enough to make the coolest cat in the room
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: a little paranoid. And David Crosby, for one, did not
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: do cool. He had no chill. He slept in his
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Mill Valley house with one of his many guns on
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: his nightstand, his Colt. 45, which was predictably there one
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: evening when he woke violently to the sound of breaking glass,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: his pregnant girlfriend freaking out by his side, and armed
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: men in ski masks standing over his bed. Debbie Donovan
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: was screaming. Her boyfriend, David Crosby, just seconds ago, fast
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: asleep at her side, was being shaken awake by the
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: blood-curdling noise she was making. And also by the sound
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: of shattering glass. He opened his eyes to see a
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: masked man knocking out the window of a nearby French
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: door with the butt of his revolver. Crosby wasted no time.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Neither did Debbie. She was more than prepared. Her mind
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: immediately went back to all the training Crosby had given her.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: where they kept the guns, and how to load them,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: and how to shoot them, and how to count the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: rounds as the weapon was fired, and what to do
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: if someone ever broke into their place like those crazy
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Manson freaks broke into the lovehouse on Cielo. The two
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: put their training into action. Crosby grabbed the Colt. 45
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: from his bedside table, rolled out of bed, put the
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: masked man in the crosshairs, and fired. He missed. The
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: bullet pierced wood and glass along the wall. Splinters went flying.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: The shot spooked the intruder, who turned tail and made
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: a run for it. As he did, Crosby noticed that
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: there was more than one of these fuckers inside his house,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: and nevertheless, he was undeterred. With the. 45 warm in
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: his hand, Crosby took off at a spring, and as
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: he did so, his bare feet were torn into a
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: bloody mess by all the broken glass on the floor
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: beneath him. But the pain did not stop him. There
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: was no pain. Only adrenaline. Debbie felt that rush of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: adrenaline too. But more acutely, she was six months pregnant.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Her belly bulging. She easily located the shotgun and readied it.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: She also prepared a fresh clip for the colt. And
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Crosby quickly returned to the bedroom. Bloody footprints in his
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: wake had accepted Debbie's reinforcements. At this point, however, the
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: crisis was waning. Within seconds, they could see men in
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: masks and warm-up suits running from the house, across the lawn,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and into the winding canyons of Mill Valley. Fending off
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: would-be attackers was the most exciting thing that had happened
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: in Crosby and Debbie's relationship for a long time. Even
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: though she was close to delivering Crosby's child, the flame
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: had long since gone out. Their inevitable end was as
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: drawn out as the end of Crosby's previous relationship. had
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: been sudden. In that relationship, Christine Hinton was only 21
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: years old when she died instantly, head-on, in a car crash.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Crosby routinely surrounded himself with women. Many women. Women on demand.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: And when they didn't want to be on demand anymore,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: they were replaced by other women. But there was always
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: a number one. In his house. In his bed. And
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: that had been Christine once. And when she died unexpectedly
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: and violently... Crosby turned to drugs to dull the pain. Cocaine, heroin,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: all that had been readily available as early as the
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: first Crosby, Stills & Nash record back in 69. Only now,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: five years later, blow and junk weren't just readily available.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: They had become necessary to David Crosby's daily routine. They
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: were a line item on the huge Crosby, Stills, Nash &
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Young tour that year in 1974, the so-called Doom Tour,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: as Crosby put it, because doom was everywhere you looked.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: It was in the packs of Marlboro Reds, which had
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: been painstakingly emptied of tobacco and replaced with weed. It
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: was in the vitamin C capsules, which had been liberated
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: of vitamin C and filled with cocaine. It was on
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the lips of the multiple women who were providing oral
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: service to David Crosby, even while he was busy rolling
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: another joint. And doom was there in David Crosby's home
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: where Christine Hinton was dead. Where Debbie Donovan was now gone.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: That shotgun-wielding mama taking her newborn baby girl with her.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: In her place came Jan Dance, Crosby's new number one.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: The one who got on the ride with him. You
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: didn't have to be this tall to ride the ride,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: but you did have to have no fear. Because this
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: ride was never-ending. It was a plunge forever. A wooden
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: roller coaster on rickety old tracks from eight miles high
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: all the way to ground zero. A trip of paranoia
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and delusion, of open sores and open wounds, fingernails blackened,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: torsos either bloated, that's Crosby, or emaciated, that's Jan, and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: now increasingly burn marks on the hands and burn holes
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: on the mattress because David Crosby and his ride-or-die Jan
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: had become Freebase addicts. Freebase was the way to go because...
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Crosby had blown a hole in his nose from starting
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: so much cocaine. You could dissolve the drug in distilled
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: water or wine and drink it, but the high just
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: wasn't the same. Not like a base high. Freebase, when
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: done regularly, took Crosby to that place. Place where the
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: wind rattled the leaves in the trees and where birds
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: flapped their wings. But wait, was that a bird or
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: was that an angel? David Crosby's eyes opened and he
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: tried to stand. And as he did so, he felt
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: a pair of hands hold him down on the bench
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: where he was sitting at a piano. And he looked around.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: He knew this place. Warren Zevon's house. He looked at
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the 88 black and white keys in front of him.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Warren Zevon's piano. But where was Warren? Didn't matter. Crosby
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: just wanted to hit the pipe. But every time he
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: tried to stand up to do so, those hands pushed
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: him back down. And he turned his head and locked eyes...
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: with Jackson Brown standing behind him. Dark hair, handsome face,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the face of the new Laurel Canyon, the new guard,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: just like Ronald Vaughn Empson had once been the new
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: guard back in New York City's village scene. But Crosby
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: didn't want to shoot Jackson Brown dead. He just wanted
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: to get high. Jackson increased the resistance and sprinkled in
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: some compliments for good measure. The song you're writing is
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: really good, David. Jackson was saying as his hands bore
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: down on Crosby's shoulder, Don't get up until you finish it.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Fucking Jackson Brown. Goody two-shoes, motherfucker. Crosby closed his eyes
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: and heard that wind again. The sound of the angel's
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: wings calling out to him. It kept calling to him
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: as he finished writing the song. The one Jackson Brown
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: thought was so worth it that it was calling to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: him again when he was in the studio trying to
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: cut the damn thing. And the engineer wanted Crosby to
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: do another take. And as the tape rewound to the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: beginning of the track, Crosby went to another place. That
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: desperate place. Where he, the one-time cuddly avatar of the
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: peace and love movement, he of the birds, he of Crosby, Stills, Nash,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and sometimes Young, he who sang sweet three-part harmony like
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: no one else, was once again broke and needed a score.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: He picked up the phone in the studio and called
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: a guy. And he kept the call real brief. You
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: owe me a hundred bucks, motherfucker. He picked the scabs
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: on his face as the guy on the other end
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: of the line told Crosby to go get fucked. It
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: was humiliating. But not as humiliating as the solo tour
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: David Crosby soon embarked upon. One where he was openly mocked, heckled,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: even spit on by the audience. Kids who called him
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: a has-been. nothing but a fat, washed-up, burnt-out casualty. A
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: tour which took place at a van with a gross
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: amount of McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts trash in the back,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: right next to the equally disgusting bed on which Crosby slept,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: a mattress riddled with burn marks from all of his
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: reckless freebasing. A tour on which David Crosby suffered his
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: first grand mal seizure, brought on by his non-stop drug use.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: A tour which concluded with an intervention by his friends,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, whoever they could beg and plead
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: with him all they wanted. David Crosby wasn't going back.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Not to the old Crosby, the one who was not
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: yet a pathetic drug addict. Not to the fabled garden
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: that his one-time girlfriend Joni Mitchell sang about. David Crosby
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: was not stardust. He was not golden. He was riding
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: in a van, sleeping on a mattress riddled with holes,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: sleeping next to a pile of rotting fast food, hooked
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: on freebasing cocaine with no end in sight. It was 1982,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and it would be another three years until things got
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: any better. Until then, things just kept getting worse. We'll
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: be right back after this word, word, word. David Crosby
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: was holding. He figured no one here would be the wiser.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: But that was just the twisted logic of a junkie talking.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Because here was Fair Oaks Hospital, a drug rehabilitation center
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: located in Summit, New Jersey, where a judge had ordered
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Crosby to go after numerous run-ins with the law. First,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: there was that incident on the 405. Crosby and his
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: red Ford Granada on the way to perform a set
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash at a no-nukes rally
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: in Orange County. Crosby's knees hugging the wheels so that
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: he could use both hands to freebase while doing 65
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: miles per hour. And the seizure hit him hard and
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: fast and out of nowhere as usual. Next thing he knew,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the blood was running down his face and the Granada
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: was up against the center divider and a cop was
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: confiscating his stash and his loaded. 45. Just a few
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: weeks later in a Dallas nightclub, backstage in a shitty
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: green room before a solo show, he was busted again.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: This time by a couple of good old boys who
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: waltzed right in while he was freebasing, and once again
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: with that loaded. 45 by his side. Why do you
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: carry a loaded weapon at all times? People wanted to
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: know of David Crosby. And Crosby replied with just two words.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: John Lennon. It was 1985, and five years had passed
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: since Beetle John was gunned down in the street by
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: a lunatic. But David Crosby wasn't thinking about any Beatles
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: right now. He wasn't even thinking about his girlfriend, Jan,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: who had taken the fall for his drugs while at
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: the airport and was currently going through her own legal ordeal.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: He was thinking solely about himself. He was thinking about
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: his luck, seeing as how his backstage bust in Dallas
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: had since been deemed unconstitutional, unreasonable search without a warrant
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and all that. but also thinking of how the overturned
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: conviction didn't stop the judge from ordering him to a
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: rehab facility. And finally, as he was being admitted into
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the Fair Oaks Hospital, he was thinking specifically about the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: cocaine and heroin he had stashed. In his cheeks. In
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: his cheeks, while walking into a drug rehab center. Cocaine
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and heroin. Of course, he was wrong. People were the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: wiser about what he was doing. I mean, just look
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: at him. His skin infections, his ankle infections, his fucked
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: up teeth. The staff immediately clocked the contraband Crosby was
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: trying to smuggle inside and then got to work getting
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: him clean. Weeks went by. Seven long weeks. Sober weeks.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Weeks in which David Crosby, a man who did not
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: like to be told what to do, not by Stephen Stills,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: not by Neil Young, and most certainly not by some
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: haircut at Fairfuckin' Oaks in Summitfuckin' New Jersey. He just
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: wanted to get out, get back to the grind. play
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: some shows, make some money, buy some cocaine, and freebase
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: his brains out. So Crosby did the good behavior thing.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: That good behavior, in turn, afforded him some privileges, like
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: walks around the yard, like phone calls. And the most
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: important phone call he made wasn't to Jan, and it
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: wasn't to his buddy Graham Nash either. No, David Crosby
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: called the sketchiest dude in his little black book and
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: told him to drive around back of Fair Oaks and,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: for the love of God, keep the car running. At
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the agreed-upon day and time, David Crosby, on one of
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: his daily walks around the yard, kept on walking. Right
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: out the front door and into the waiting getaway car.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: And 100% not what the doctor ordered. David Crosby couldn't
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: believe how easy it was. As easy as harmonizing with
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: his on-again, off-again musical brothers. His acquaintance put it in
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: gear and peeled out. Then they hit the city, and
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Crosby made his next call. This one to his guy, Mort.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Mort was a somewhat recent addition to Crosby's circle and was, well,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know what you call Mort exactly, a dealer
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: slash manager, an enabler, a leech? David Crosby and Mort
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: had a joint bank account into which Mort would advance
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Crosby cash in addition to providing him with drugs. And
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: in return, Mort received a hefty chunk of Crosby's future
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: royalties and income. Even some of that big Crosby stills
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and Nash and sometimes young money ended up going to Mort.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: And seeing how Mort was back in California, Crosby asked
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: him to find a hookup pronto so that he could
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: put his forced sobriety bullshit behind him. And Mort did
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: as he was told, and Crosby was soon back at
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: that place where the wind blew through the trees and
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the wings of angels rustled next to his head. But
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: soon the winds and the wings died down. Not even
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: 48 hours after his escape, the DEA, with the help
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: of the NYPD, found David Crosby. And once again, he
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: was doing mandatory cold turkeys. He spent two weeks at
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Rikers before he waived extradition. And Texas put their big
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: ugly mitts on him for that thing back in Dallas.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: And now, the prison in Dallas, it had no windows.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: And the fluorescent lights hummed at all hours of the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: day and night. And Crosby thought he was losing his
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: fucking mind. And Graham Nash took pity and put up bail. Nash,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: along with Steven Stills, needed David Crosby for another tour.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Even if Crosby's involvement came with a series of conditions.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: And the conditions were this. One, during each show, he
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: was allowed to leave the stage twice while the others
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: carried on so that he could freebase backstage. Two, when
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: he went backstage, there could be no one in uniform,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: no security guards, no janitors, no nothing. Crosby's paranoia was
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: at a fever pitch, and if anyone so much as
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: looked like a cop, he would lose it. And three,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Crosby needed to be pulling down like five grand a
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: day just so he could pay for his drugs daily.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: For his girlfriend Jan's drugs, too. And for Mort's drugs.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Don't forget about Mort. Also for Mort's sister's drugs, if
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: you can believe that. And drugs for whatever chick Mort
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: was fucking that week. David Crosby got what he wanted.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: But he also got what he didn't want. Shame and humiliation.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Delivered in the form of a bucket of ice water
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: that Stephen Stills dumped all over him after one show
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: in which Crosby left the stage to get high and
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: never came back. The tour ended a few months later,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: and David Crosby, perhaps without purpose, or at the very
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: least without a distraction, was once again in trouble. And
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: this time, not just for possession and a. 45 pistol,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: but for a hit and run after he ran his
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: car into a fence and fled the scene. He knew
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: if he showed up for his day in court, he'd
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: get sent back to Texas and back to that same judge,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: that judge who would show him no mercy this time.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: This time would be real time. Hard time. It was
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Thanksgiving weekend, 1985, and David Crosby was now wanted for
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: failing to show up at his own hearing. Authorities descended
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: onto his Mill Valley home, where they found the piles
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: of dirty dishes and the unclean cat litter boxes and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the rotten stench. But no David Crosby. Crosby was long gone.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: He'd offloaded one of his last personal effects that he'd
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: yet to sell for drugs. a grand piano, in exchange
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: for $ 5, 000. And with that money, he chartered a plane.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: So while the cops were scratching their heads in Mill Valley, California,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the now fugitive David Crosby was in the air, with
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Jan by his side, the freebase pipe in his hand,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: en route to Florida, where he planned to get on
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: his boat and flee the country. At the end of 1985,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: 20 years after the Byrds first pioneered the so-called folk
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: rock sound, and 16 years after Crosby, Stills, Nash, and
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Young played their second public show ever at Woodstock, After
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: selling millions of records, sleeping with hundreds of women, smoking
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: an unknowable amount of cocaine, 44-year-old David Crosby was in
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: sunny Florida, where he'd been flown on a chartered plane
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: he paid for with the last of his money. He
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: didn't know how much time he had. He did know
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: that it was only a matter of time before the
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: feds caught up to him, and he had to move fast.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: But moving fast at this moment was a challenge. The
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: money was running out, as were the drugs. He had
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: no place to stay, as any friend who would normally
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: have taken him in was afraid to do so, what
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: with the risk of aiding and abetting and all that.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: He looked out on the water at his schooner, the Mayan,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: which was docked here, waiting to take him on the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: next leg of the journey, all the way to Costa Rica,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: where Crosby hoped he could elude capture indefinitely. Jan stood
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: next to him. Months earlier, the crew on the Crosby
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Stills and Nash tour came up with a new pet
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: name for Jan. They called her Death Crosby. They called
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: her Capital D Death because she looked like death, standing
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: there in 90 degree heat, clothed in a heavy jacket,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: long sleeve shirt, a wool cap, the kind of outfit
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: one would wear in the dead of winter, not on
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: a sweltering summer tour. And despite this outfit, despite the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: humid conditions outside, she shivered uncontrollably. And now Capital D
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Death stood next to David Crosby, the two of them
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: shivering not just from the dope sickness, but from the
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: crushing realization that Crosby's schooner was in just as bad
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: shape as they were. The vessel was far from seaworthy,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: and if Crosby couldn't take the Mayan out on the water,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: he couldn't sail to Costa Rica, and he couldn't escape
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: the long arm of the law, which, minute to minute,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: hour to hour, was getting closer. The fact that Crosby
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: was standing on the edge of the earth, his boat
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: unable to take him any farther, was a fitting metaphor
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: for Perez wrote later in one of his memoirs, it
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: wasn't that he simply couldn't continue down this path. It was, quote,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: there was no more path, unquote. The open road that
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: once stretched out in front of him, the one that
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: he took at high speeds on his motorcycle back in
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the 1960s, that cape flapping in the wind behind him,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: a road of free love and hard dope, that road
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: was gone. All that was left was the road's heavy toll,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: and payment was due. David Crosby, the transgressive prep school kid,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: the arrogant punk, the anti-authoritarian. That guy now had to
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: do something that went against every fiber of his being.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Because at this moment, faced with the vastness of the
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: sea and the horizon bearing down, standing in the shadow
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: of death which would gladly cut him down with one
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: more false move, Crosby had only one choice. He didn't
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: even put on his shoes. He walked away from the ocean,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: and bummed a ride to West Palm Beach, where he
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: walked into the local branch of the FBI and turned
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: himself in. From there, it was Texas and prison, where
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: David Crosby began to see another road materialize, as his
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: body slowly came down from years of abject cocaine and
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: heroin abuse. This road would take Crosby somewhere new, somewhere far,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: far away from the ultimate disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: this is Disgraceland. All right, guys, thanks for checking out
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: this episode on David Crosby. I want to know from
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: you guys, what's your favorite super group? If it's not Crosby, Stills, Nash,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: and Young, it doesn't have to be a massive band
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: like that. It can be just an indie band. It
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: doesn't have to be Van Hagar. It can be just
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: I'm more interested in different really great super musicians coming
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: together and banding in a new form. Who do you got?
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Hit me up, 617-906-6638. Question is, what's your favorite super group?
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Voicemail and text. You might hear your answer online. on
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: the upcoming bonus after-party episode of Disgraceland at DisgracelandPod on
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: the socials DisgracelandPod at gmail.com email. Here comes some credits.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at DisgracelandPod.com. If you're
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: you can become a member right now by going to
• 34:10
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• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland ad-free. Plus, you'll get one brand new exclusive episode
• 34:20
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• 34:24
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• 34:30
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• 34:33
  Speaker 1: on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at disgracelandpod and on
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: YouTube at youtube.com slash at disgracelandpod. Rock-a-rola. He's a bad,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: bad man.