Just One Look: Graham Nash at 84

By Lauren Taylor Carr & Kevin Murphy Wilson • Photos By Amy Grantham & Misti Layne

We recently caught up with Graham Nash—the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and veteran of the British Invasion, the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair, the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, and the Laurel Canyon music scene—to discuss his legendary work with the Hollies and Crosby, Stills, & Nash, as well as the solo storytelling tour that lands him in the Bluegrass for an intimate performance at Lexington’s Kentucky Theatre on October 06.

VOICE-TRIBUNE: Your autobiography and books of photography tell quite a remarkable story. Does it ever seem surreal to you that this has actually been your life?

Graham Nash: “Absolutely. I think a song called ‘Cold Rain’ [which was recorded by Crosby, Stills, & Nash in 1977] that I wrote when I went [back home] to see my mum while she was a little poorly, tells the story of ‘Why me?’ You know, why was it me who formed the Hollies with Allan Clarke? Why was it me who got out of Manchester? To this day, I’m still amazed that I’m here doing what I do.”

VT: Looking back, was there a particular moment when you realized you were going to make it as an artist?

GN: “Yes, there was a particular moment. In late 1963 or early 1964, the Hollies were walking to a studio in London and we passed a storefront where two workmen were putting in a brand-new window. They had a very small transistor radio with them. As we walked by, our single—which I think was ‘Just Like Me’—came out of their radio. I knew then that if we were on their radio, we had kind of made it.”

VT: At this point in your life, what is one piece of music that still stops you in your tracks? It doesn’t have to be one of your own.

GN: “I would say two pieces. Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings,’ an incredible piece of classical music, and ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ [from the eponymous 1969 Crosby, Stills & Nash LP]. When I first heard Stephen [Stills] play that song—which was four different kinds of music that he had combined into the suite—I thought he was from Mars. I didn’t think anyone could write songs like that.”

VT: What about David? Was there anything about Crosby, the musician, that got overlooked because his personality was so large?

GN: “David was a very large personality in many ways. When he passed away, the loss of the music and of my best friend was devastating to me. One of the things I realized was just how much fun we had and how much faith we had in each other’s music. That was very obvious when David and I were singing together. There is, I think, a six-song BBC television performance that David and I did in the early ’70s [as a duo, currently available on YouTube]. Watching that, you can really tell that we loved each other and loved the music we were making.”

VT: What did you think of the film “Echo in the Canyon,” for which you were interviewed? Was Jakob Dylan, as a musician himself, able to pull more out of his interview subjects than, say, a professional journalist?

GN: “Yeah, because he was a musician—and obviously the son of Bob Dylan—he was able to ask questions that a normal journalist who was not a musician might not ask. I enjoyed talking to him, and I enjoyed that movie. Living in Laurel Canyon was a very important part of my life, you know. Even today, when I go back, I still get a really warm feeling inside.”

VT: “I Used to Be a King” [which adorns Nash’s 1971 debut solo album] laments the end of that era. What do you remember about writing and recording that track?

GN: “I wrote a song earlier called ‘King Midas in Reverse’ when I was in the Hollies. We made a pretty good record of it. It was a kind of psychedelic thing with a full orchestra, and that’s the king I used to be. But I wrote ‘I Used to Be a King’ for Joni [Mitchell] after we had broken up. I love that song. I sing it every night.”

VT: Your current tour highlights 60-plus years worth of songs and stories. What can you tell us about these shows?

GN: “I get to play a lot of songs that people want to hear [including classics such as ‘Bus Stop,’ ‘Our House,’ and ‘Wasted on the Way’], and in the process the audience gets to find out where my head was when I wrote ‘Teach Your Children,’ for example, or how I came to write ‘Just a Song Before I Go.’ Some of those stories are very interesting to people. And one of the things that occurred to me recently is that some of those songs—like ‘Immigration Man,’ which I wrote [over] 50 years ago—are still on the front page of ‘The New York Times.’ They’re still relevant today.”

For more information visit GrahamNash.com.