. good evening from los angeles i'm travis smiley. tonight conversation with a true legend david crosby. and one-fourth of the a i claimed group crosby stils nash and young. she just released his latest album in 20 years. entitled kroz. a conversation with rock and roll hall of fame inductee david crosby coming up right now.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. it is easy to fall back on the shorthand and describe people as legends in their fields but david crosby truly deserves that monoke s thas ths. he's among rock's elite inducted

not once but twice into the rock and roll hall of fame. new album called kros. and we'll start our conversation. ♪ ♪ you still got it, man. you still got it.

after all these years you still got it. >> thank you. >> when you were supposed to be here some time ago. we got a call just before your appearance that you had to be rushed to the hospital for a surgery. >> it wasn't quite a rush. but i did that thing you do and do all those tests and one of the tests came back, wait a minute. a little red light went on. and i -- it's just science fiction what they can do nowadays. to operate on your heart they go in through your femoral artery and they can even operate on your brain from there. and they went up and took a peek and that's almost closed. and they make it open and slip a piece of macaroni in there and all of a sudden your blood flow is terrific. >> you have had some serious health concerns and had they not caught that blockage we might not be having this conversation.

>> we would not having this. >> yeah. so has that changed your viewpoint or anything? >> well, you know, anything like that of course shakes the ground a little for you. i, you know, had a couple, as you say of things that, you know, make me try to take it more seriously. but i've been working at it for a long time. it came as a surprise because i didn't any -- i didn't feel bad. i felt great but that is why you go, you know, once a year and check in with the docks. >> you lost a lot of weight. >> i did. i lost a ton. about over the last ten years or so about 60 pounds. >> you look fine. how are you feeling? >>, you know, an elderly person i feel pretty good. >> has any of the weight loss and the health challenges that you have gotten through, has them in any way -- i said you still sound great. has it impacted your sound?

your style? the way you feel when you are on stage? >> not a damn bit. and i don't know why i can still sing. i have no idea. but, you know, i'm grateful. i'm very grateful. believe me. >> by your own admission when you say you don't know why you can still sing, i think by you own admission you would be the first the tell us that you haven't always taken care of your instrument. >> that's a nice way of putting it. he's a nice man. i want you to know that. >> i'm trying to be charitable and generous but you have pushed your give to the limit. >> i did. yes. and that was 25, 30 years ago and i've had time to think about it and work my way up. >> so it leads to a project like kros. why do this one? >> you know, i haven't dean solo

album in a long time. that's largely because of my son james. you probably know this story but james was put up for adoption by his mom and i knew he existed but i didn't meet him until 20 years ago. just after i had the transplant. i met him and he was very kind and gave me a shot at, you know, earning my way into his life. and we started writing together. he's a better musician than i am by a long shot. and we communicate really well. and so he -- this album certainty wouldn't have happened without him. and i think it's happened twice or three times the level i could have done by myself. he loves, you know, jazz and, you know, dense cording and intricate melodies and harmonies and that is why i live.

so we pretty much went crazy on this. and i think the writing is pretty high bar. i'm very happy with it. my younger son took the cover pictu picture. >> it is a family affair. >> it is a good shot. >> it is a very good shot. >> i makes me look 15 younger than i am. do you know where i got that look? >> where? >> from the statues of the lenin. looking out over. >> worked out for a while. >> there never been a communism that's worked. whether dictatorship or oliga h oligarchs. >>fy get a bunch of mail. you used a the beautiful phrase when you said after meeting him 20 years ago, after his mom had put him up for adoption, that he

gave you chance to earn your way back into his life. unpack that for me. >> you know those meetups most commonly go wrong. both sides bring too much baggage. and he didn't. and that was an act of generosity, an act of very high ground. and very appealing. and it allowed us a chance to build something good. and i will be grateful for that forever. you know, he's the keyboard player for crosby stills and nash now and my own band when i can go out. i think it's unusual. i think most times it doesn't go that way. and again, you know, i added to the list of the things for which i am very grateful. >> yeah. i think you said that got my

attention immediately kroz, which i of course new but you talk about ate little different. and that is this notion that his mother puts him up for adoption. you meet 20 years ago. but when you meet he's already musically inclined. >> very. >> that's funny to me. >> anybody says to you it is not genetic, you send him to me. >> this guy is nowhere around you and you connect and he's a music lover and a writer. that's amazing. >> yeah. and he had no idea. now mind you, he liked elton and billy joel better because they are keyboard players. >> right. i get that. >> but he definitely knew crosby stills and nash. when he looked at the paper he said no, couldn't be. but it was. >> i don't want to overstate it. i don't want to understate it either. does that make this collaboration all the more sweeter? >> yes. >> given the back story? >> very. yeah. and given that we wrote together all through that thing.

there are songs we each wrote separately. but mostly that is co-writing. and you know, his production talents, i'm surprised there is ant line of people out the door waiting for him to produce their records because he's brilliant. >> i wish he were here so i could ask him because i'm curious as to how one. >> he'd love to come on. he thinks you're cool. he loves a fast mind. >> fast -- my mouth is fast. i don't know how was my mind was. i wish he were we're but i'll put it forth anyway. which is how anybody writes with you, even if he's your son and not be intimidated by writing with david crosby. >> believe me. he is anything but intimidated. he knows what a bozo i really am. >> i'd be scared to death and sit and write with you or attempt to write with you. >> no no. he's definitely not intimidated. he's not over yawed at all.

he likes it when i come with something good. he's like yeah that's pretty good. but nothing more than that. you know i've made as many mistakes as i've done good shots and he knows them all. all of my close friends do and i think that's a good thing. i don't want to look at myself as bigger than life. i put my pants on one leg at a time and i'm struggling along here trying to make sense out of it. i think he knows that and most of the people i really respect and play with know that well. >> i appreciate that. and i accept that in the spirit that you offered it. and yet you do realize, i hope, the iconic role that you have played in the lives of. >> no i don't. >> come on man. >> no. >> sound track of people's lives. >> i swear on my word of honor, i don't. -- [ laughter ] >> you are goofy, i am goofy. no i try not to.

i don't want to look at myself that way. i want to look at myself the way i do on purpose. because if you agrandize and try to look at jooyourself the way fan or viewer does. god bless them. they all have a right to an opinion about it. but i have a pretty, you know, clear picture of the whole, you know, weight of my life. and there are things that i've done that are good and i'm proud of them. there are things that i'm really not proud of. and that they -- they -- you have to look at me with a perspective. and i try really hard to do that, to keep from thinking i'm cool and, you know,82ry ever s smart. and star is just a trick. it is like a straw man thing. they set you up just to knock you over. it is bull. you avoid it. i avoid it. >> so how do you think that you have navigated that as well as vtwell-adjusted

as you are all these years later you have been a star a long time. >> i don't think star is real. but i've been a musician for a long time. it didn't come easy. a lot of bumps and rocks in the road. but i'm able to work now. and i'm able to, you know, stay straight and level and keep track of what i'm doing. so that is -- that's enough to be grateful for. >> see, i think -- how might i put this? for me -- i can't speak for all your other fans but for me the greatest complement that i can pay you is the seriousness with which you take your lyrical content. >> if you don't have something to say what is the point? >> yeah but there are a lot of people doing that. and there are a lot of folks selling records saying nothing. but the lyric for you has been important. >> crucial. >> yeah. >> i come from a school that --

of people, you know, folk singers. and the tradition is troubadours and you are carrying a message. admittedly our job is partly just to make you boogy. make you want to dance. and part of our job is to take you on a little voyage. tell you a story. but part of our job is to communicate the way town require d -- town crier did. it's 12:00 around town or, you know. i don't -- i like to do all of those things. i like to take you on a voyage most especially and most of the songs i write are about love, love found, love lost, love longed for. you know. >> what's been -- strange question. let me ask you anyway. what's been your particular and unique fascination with the notion of love as an artist? >> as an elevating force i think

music is a lifting force i think love is the lifting force in the human condition. i think we see someone loving on their child and it moves you. and you can't help it. it rings a bell inside of us that elevates us as human beings. and i -- i treasure that. i think it is one of the few great things about human beings. i don't like greed, i don't like ignorance, i really don't like anger, but i love love. >> what do you have against anger? >> a waste of time. i wasted a lot of time that way being angry. you don't accomplish a held of a lot. >> but you will concede though that anger is different than righteous indignation. because i've heard righteous indignation. they are not the same thing. >> i grant the point. and these are two different things. easy to mistake the one for the other. >> um-hmm. >> easy to get up on your high

horse and start saying, well you ought to -- well, i got to be real careful about that. i'm not a preacher and i've seen a good one. and i don't aspire to that. but i don't think being angry is useful or healthy. and usually when i get angry anyway. i don't know about anybody else but usually when i get angry my brain goes right out the window. as soon as the adrenaline it the hits, instant stupid. add water and mix. >> great song lyric. write that down. >> thanks. instant stupid. song about politicians. >> there you go. since you went there let me pick up on that. you start by your own admission out of this folk tradition. you have been inspired these artists for years and become iconic in your own right. and you are singing about this, that and the other. and yet this is the world that you know inhabit.

so do you feel like you have made a difference? does music -- is music still pregnant with the power to make a difference that it seemed to be imbued with back in the '60s? >> you know, that's a fascinating question. my hearts to believe that we can make a difference. i think ideas are still the most powerful things on the planet and music is a great way to transmit them. but i mean after all the time we spent, you know -- even with great leaders like martin luther king, racism is still alive. it's still here, you know? after all the time we spent saying look, war is a stupid way to solve stuff. oh you're not trying to solve stuff. you're trying to make money. we're in war because you want to make money? oh damn, you corporation guys just bought the government. cheap. you can get a senator for the price of a cadillac. that's discouraging. i believe in this country. i love this country.

i believe in the idea of this country. and this country is an idea. and to see it cheapened so and made so tawdry and so bought and so -- that's very discouraging. yet at the same time we can't just roll over and put our paws in here and oh i can't deal with it. but you have to believe. >> but you have to have reason to believe. >> well martin luther king and pete seager. >> but they are dead. >> the idea behind. >> it what does david crosby believe in now? >> i believe in the same thing i believed in in the first place. i think the value of the human individual is crucial to the whole thing. and i do not believe that the founding fathers of this country intended that the guy with the biggest tv budget ketone gets

to the kingdom. i believe in the ideas they came down with in the first place. but they couldn't envision mass media, that you can buy whole populations and just shape it. well the truth is over here. oh that doesn't matter we'll just spin it over here. they didn't envision that. and i think we're in a lot of trouble if you want to know the truth. but i don't want to get discouraged. i don't want to let that make me shut up. i'm not gonna. >> so you're not shutting up thankfully. great stuff on this project. a lot of great stuff. is there a message you wanted to communicate to us through this? why these tracks? i'm just trying to get a sense of what is on this for every day people. >> well, stories. glimpses, hopefully of stuff that is true. celebration of the very things that we like in the first place. love, intelligence, integrity,

loyalty, you know, gentliness, kindness, empathy, looking out for your brother. >> i kind of feel like -- if i'm wrong you can slap me -- i was gonna say slap me but you can tell me if i'm wrong. >> slap a guy your size? what am i stupid. >> >> because i love you so much i wouldn't slap you back. >> oh you say that. >> i would turn the other cheek. yeah. but i get the sense listening to this that you do this as much maybe even for more you than for the rest of us? does that make sense that this is a project that you love doing joust for you? >> i love music. i love making songs. what greater gift could they give you than having this as what oyou do with your life? you're doing something you love. so you know what i'm talking about. so that's what i feel. i feel like i'm given a path

where i can contribute, you know, protest if somebody does something obviously so wrong or inhuman right in front of me where i can make a difference. where i can most especially elevate, make you happy, elevate the condition, elevate the thing. if i can do anything, if i can raise it a quarter of an inch, god knows we have enough people shoving it down. >> you are under something now i want to ask you about. even though you already kind of talked about it, david. and that is how fortunate you feel. i don't want to put words in your mouth but how fortunate, how blessed, how lucky, whatever your perspective is. but fill in the blank, how, whatever, do you feel about being born with this gift to be an artist? because -- my staff know. i say this all the time. i love talking to artists. with all due respect to all the guests i have on this program all the time, i love talking to artists more than anybody for a

few reasons. but sometimes i just wish god had made me an artist because you guys. >> but isn't it better to be able to earn a living though? >> yeah. [ laughter ] point well taken. touche. i'm on pbs. i ain't doing much worse than you. how blessed to you feel having been born an artist. >> grateful. been given the gift. don't misuse it. i spent a lot of time just wasting that talent, not treasurering, or valuing it or respecting it. just taking it for granted. that was a hardt7h0 lesson to . it doesn't come for free. don't do that. treasure it. respect it. treat it as a responsibility that you have been given and enjoy the hell out of it, you know. don't waste the time.

time is the final currency. not money, not power. time. we get a certain amount of time. i need another hundred years. i got -- >> you got stuff to do. >> got so much stuff i want to know. a list as long as your arm i would go back to college in a second. learn three or four scientific discipline, about nine languages. i could spend the whole time studying history and not feel i wasted a minute. >> how much as your curiosity aided and aabetted in your artistic genius. >> did he say genie? >> yeah i did. and nobody disagrees with me. >> headed downhill now. >> nobody disagrees with me. >> well would they? >> believe me this? this crew?

they would tell me. >> very largely. i'm fascinated by people and how the world works for them. and i actually -- i remember being a kid and being -- we'd east to visit relatives and i was sitting in grand central station and i realized how many different kind of people walking in different directions and that is when i fell in love by people watching. i'm fascinated by people. i mean, an awful lot of them are bozos but there are fascinating folks out there. and then i learned to read and i was off on a merry trip then. i read constantly. i'm very curious. >> you were fascinated by people and a whole bunch of people are fascinated by you. not just fascinated but enlightened, encouraged, inspired by your gift david crosby. his new project the first in 20 years. project's called kroz and

written and produced by another one of his sons. and it has a lot of good stuff on it. two time hall of fame inductee. you on the road this summer? >> oh yeah. >> we'll see you. we'll catch you somewhere. good to see you. that's our show for tonight. thanks for watching and as always keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit travis smiley at pbs.com. >> join me next time for a conversation first with actor and activist george that kay and maria sorvino. that's next time. we'll see you then.

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