The revered late 1960s rock foursome Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young may have been a landmark in harmony singing and counterculture values, but behind the scenes their all-consuming drug habits and bickering over women threatened to tear them apart.
David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash first got together in the late 1960s to form the iconic group, CSN, and were joined by Neil Young the following year, who stepped in and out of the band for 30 years.
But 'by late 2017, Crosby, Stills and Nash – and sometimes Young—appeared to be shattered for good, the result of beefs and grievances that have been festering for years and finally discharged', writes author David Browne in his new book Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup.
Nash described the group to the author as the 'f***ed up foursome', who almost destroyed themselves with hard partying, drug and alcohol consumption which nearly led to overdosing multiple times.
The men were also nearly torn apart by women, including Joni Mitchell, with the group's initial split in 1970 caused in part by Nash stealing away singer Rita Coolidge away from Stills.
The revered late 1960s rock foursome Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young may have been a landmark in harmony singing and counterculture values but behind the scenes, the men's all-consuming drug habits and bickering over women threatened to tear them apart
Nash stole Joni Mitchell (pictured together in 1969) away from Crosby, who had met the folk singer singing in a coffee shop in Florida. Joni eventually moved on and ended her relationship to Nash over a telegram, breaking his heart
Nash, with a reputation for easily wooing women with his British accent, started seeing Rita Coolidge - stealing her from Stills (pictured together). Losing Rita sent Stills off the deep end, resulting in his consumption of more drugs in the LA motel and hospitalization
Nash, with a reputation for easily wooing women with his British accent as well as being a good lover and a gentleman, started seeing Grammy winning Coolidge - stealing her from Stills.
Losing Rita sent Stills off the deep end, resulting in his consumption of loads of drugs in an LA motel and eventual hospitalization.
Nash also stole Joni Mitchell away from Crosby, who had met the folk icon singing in a coffee shop in Florida.
The two moved to LA together where Crosby produced her first album.
'Some of it was lust but I certainly had a crush on her', Crosby told Browne.
But he made a mistake in introducing her to Nash.
Joni eventually moved on and ended her relationship to Nash over a telegram, breaking his heart.
But the men's biggest vices were drugs and partying. Cocaine and pot were the norm in the 1960s but they took being high and stoned to another level.
Stills almost overdosed on amphetamines and turned into a drunk off of whiskey.
During one bender, his eyes started rolling back in his head and he almost swallowed his tongue when a mass of mucus got stuck in his throat.
Another wild night. Stills was high on coke and barbiturates and went off the deep end, later found babbling incoherently and crawling along the hallway in a motel.
Young, dealing with epileptic fits, downed tequila to handle the stress of finding success at just 21 years old. He often stepped in and out of the group in search of sanity.
Nash was endlessly high on coke, even carrying a spoon around the recording studio that held 1 1/2 inches of coke.
Crosby was also a coke fiend, snorting it off a speaker while on stage. His habit eventually segued to freebasing and using heroin.
Crosby's self-destructing drug abuse accelerated after the death of his girlfriend Christine Hinton (pictured together backstage at the Big Sur Folk Festival on September 15, 1969. Hinton died shortly this photo was taken )
After Hinton's death, Crosby was driving on a freeway and he had a seizure and crashed. Cops found a gun and drugs on him, leading to his arrest. He was arrested again shortly after in Dallas on drugs and weapons charges. Pictured: Crosby's mugshot in 1982
Crosby was sent into a deeper drug spiral that lasted more than a decade after his girlfriend Christine Hinton died in a car accident.
'Everybody's high and stoned...This was a real wake up call. We were moving a thousand miles a second', Crosby's friend, drummer Mickey Hart told the author. 'All of a sudden this stopped the clock. Certainly for David'.
Crosby's self-destructing accelerated after Christine's death and his increasing coke consumption perforated his septum.
The group attempted an intervention but Crosby slipped into the bathroom to get high during the process.
Driving on a freeway, he had a seizure and landed on the concrete divider. Cops found a .45 revolver, white powder, Quaaludes and drug paraphernalia in the car. Crosby was charged
