David Crosby is Dying, But He Wants You to Remember His Name

Veteran rocker David Crosby has eight stents in his heart. He told The Wall Street Journal, “I’m going to have a heart attack in the next year or two, and that’ll be it.” He says he wants to “get the music out of my head first.”

That’s why Crosby has been recording lots of new music, something rock and rollers of a similar vintage don’t normally do.

Crosby’s life is being detailed in a new documentary titled “David Crosby: Remember My Name.”

The film will be released in New York and LA on July 19, and is produced by Cameron Crowe. The Wall Street Journal’s Alan Paul discusses the relationship between Crosby and Crowe, writing:

“Remember My Name” probes Mr. Crosby’s failings as a lover, friend and bandmate almost as much as it does his musical genius. He seems a better romantic partner than he used to be, as evidenced by his 42-year relationship with his wife, Jan. But Mr. Crosby no longer speaks with Graham Nash, Stephen Stills or Neil Young.

Mr. Crosby attributes the film’s pointed honesty to the influence of his longtime friend Mr. Crowe (known for films including “Almost Famous,” “Say Anything” and “Jerry Maguire”), who first made his mark as a teenage music journalist for Rolling Stone, including a 1976 profile of Mr. Crosby and Mr. Nash.

Mr. Crosby understood that his relationship with Mr. Crowe would change once they started working on the movie. “He’s a real artist and journalist, so when he starts making a film about you, you’re not his buddy anymore,” says Mr. Crosby. “He gave me nowhere to hide. Documentaries usually just ask everybody famous you ever met to talk about how cool you are, and the result is a listing of their accomplishments and a polishing of their mistakes. I want to know why a person did things, what’s going on in their head. I knew that would be uncomfortable for me, and Cameron asked me the hardest questions I’ve ever been asked.”

Mr. Crosby didn’t know exactly where the movie was headed or have a say about its final form. By confronting his tumultuous life, the film gets at a painful contradiction: Mr. Crosby’s music has provided so much peace, harmony and joy to so many listeners, even while many of his own relationships have been tempestuous at best.

“I don’t know how to explain that,” Mr. Crosby says. “I celebrate the one, and I suffer the other. I can’t make sense out of that for you, but it’s true.”

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