Our January 2017 issue features David Crosby, who spoke to AG from his sprawling home in California’s Santa Ynez Valley about some of his most prized acoustic guitars.
Watch above as the founding member of the Byrds, CSN, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young offers his opinion on which company makes the best acoustic guitars; the first (good) guitar he ever purchased; the “Crosby” tuning (EBDGAD); and his wistful remembrance of the guitar that got away—a 1939 Herringbone he traded for “substances” during his years in the grips of a $1,000-a-day cocaine and heroin addiction.
“It’s not a pleasant memory,” Crosby says, in a near whisper. “It’s just one of those things I gotta live with. I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. But there it is—I did it. That’s how it was.”
Advertisement
Crosby’s passion for acoustic guitars is deeply felt in this short video, in which he also talks about his first job as a busboy at a coffeehouse in his hometown of Santa Barbara, where he worked for free just for the opportunity to sing harmonies with the paid folksinger.
“The only reason I got through high school was the choir,” he says. “Every once in a while we’d get all in tune, and the whole rest of the room would lift up and get magical for a minute. I love that shit! It feels real good.
David Crosby—A Life Acoustic, His Story as Seen Through the Prism of His Guitars
