Graham Nash, More than a Musician

Singer Songwriter Graham Nash is one of our cultural icons whether with the Hollies, with Crosby Stills Nash and Young, or on his own.  He wrote so many of CS&N’s well known songs including “Our House”, “Teach Your Children”and “Marrakesh Express.”  His musical talents have landed him twice in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (both with The Hollies and CSN), but music isn’t his only art– he also is recognized for his acclaimed photography.  He stopped by the SiriusXM studios recently to talk with Ron Bennington about his newest projects, including a live album, and an exhibition of his photos.  Excerpts of that interview appear below.

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Ron Bennington: Great sound on the new album. For a live album, it sounds just perfect.

Graham Nash: Well yeah. I mean we take care of what we do. I want it to be the best. That’s why I did the audio mix with my friend Kevin Madigan who is our Front of House mixer who recorded it. I want to sound the best. I mean why not?

Ron Bennington: You’ve got the CDs out along with a DVD on it. A chance also for some interviews and stuff on there. And you guys were talking about how well and strong Stephen Stills is doing right now.

Graham Nash: Yes. Why? Well I’ve been trying to puzzle that out myself. There’s a couple of reasons. One, Stephen – I’m sure it’s publicly known, had a bout with prostate cancer a couple of years ago. And so he was forced to deal with his weight as part of a healing process. And so he lost about 45 pounds. And he’s looking fantastic. When you add that to the Buffalo Springfield going out and doing 6 or 7 shows and Neil saying (in a Neil Young voice) “Yeah man, let’s go out next year man with Springfield. We’ll make great music, we’ll make a lot of money, it’ll be fine man.” And then cancelling. When David and I heard that, we realized several things. One, it affected Stephen deeply and musically. He was very disappointed because he loves Neil and Neil loves him of course, but he’d fallen victim to the way that Neil runs his life, alright. So when the Springfield shows were cancelled, David and I went over to Stephen’s house and said look, you know that me and David are a band. You know that we’re going to go out. We’ll cancel our tour if you want to go out. We’re there for you. We love you. We support you. We’re here. What do you want to do? And so he kind of took a deep breath and realized that we do love him. And he’s on fire this year.

Ron Bennington: Yeah. And that brought everything back for you guys as well right?

Graham Nash: Well yeah, because you know we called him “Captain Many Hands” for a reason. He played almost every instrument, except the drums and a couple of the rhythm guitars that me and David played. On the first record, he played every note. He played the bass, he played the organ, he played lead guitar, he played rhythm guitar, he played congas. I mean the guy’s an incredible musician. And when he comes and you can see that look in his eyes where he’s going – okay, let’s rock. It’s good for me and David.

Ron Bennington: And that’s the interesting thing I think about this band is that you have been together for so long and there’s so many kind of peaks and valleys…

Graham Nash: Really?? Hmmm, never noticed. (laughs)

Ron Bennington: But it’s been a hell of a ride.

Graham Nash: It’s been an insane ride. And don’t forget, I was in a successful band for 6 years before I ever met David and Stephen. My life has been insane. And I love it to death. I wake up every morning and I’m glad to be alive and I get on with my day, trying to do the best I can.

Ron Bennington: Well, the interesting thing too is like there seems to be more and more creativity in your life because now you’re doing these gallery shows and I’ve been reading that you’re going to put a book out about your life. So, busier now probably then you’ve been.

Graham Nash: Then I’ve ever been. Yeah. And that’s only a part of what I’m doing. I’m just finishing up Stephen’s box set, which is incredible. I just found an incredible 2 track recording of Stephen in 1962 at the Voice of America Theater in Costa Rica.

Ron Bennington: Wow.

Graham Nash: And it’s a really cute little thing. It’s called “Traveling”. And I’m seriously thinking about opening up Stephen’s box set with it. I was going to open it with “For What It’s Worth” which is an incredible Stills song. But Stephen loves the fact that my friend Joel Bernstein who’s producing the box set with me, found this earliest recording of Stephen.

Ron Bennington: Where was it found?

Graham Nash: Not sure. I’ll have to ask Joel. But he’s got friends that are bootleggers and friends that have collections and yah-abadabadabada

Ron Bennington: And of course, you’ve made a living your entire life as an artist. Not only doing the stuff that we know, but the painting, the photography, now that you’re just really starting to put out some of this stuff in galleries shows.

Graham Nash: Yeah, I just had my first gallery show ever. And with all due respect, Stephen has never seen one of them. There are 91 pieces. It was at the Ocean Gallery in Stone Harbor in New Jersey. A beautiful little gallery. And Josh and Kim who own it and run it really know what they’re doing. When they came out to my house in– I have a house in Los Angeles– even though I actually live in Hawaii – they came to my house in Los Angeles and loved my stuff. And it was their feedback that made me realize that maybe I should share these. So what I do is, I’d do a painting and I’d let dry and roll it up, put it in the corner, do another one, let it dry, roll it up and put it in a tube. To walk into the gallery and see 50 of my paintings matted and framed, they looked like real art. (laughs)

Ron Bennington: And you had never had that experience before?

Graham Nash: No.

Ron Bennington: People actually walking through, looking at your work.

Graham Nash: It was very first time on the planet that any of my paintings had been shown.

Ron Bennington: You know so many musicians are terrific visual artists and it gets forgotten that so many of you guys came out of art school and stuff like that.

Graham Nash: Not me.

Ron Bennington: But did you start painting or photography before music?

Graham Nash: Here’s basically what happened. In 1974 when CSN&Y was on their tour of stadiums and basketball arenas, it was 35 shows, 36 shows. It was the first time it had ever happened. Yeah, the Beatles had played Shea Stadium and yes, the Stones had done a couple of big shows, but not an entire tour of that kind. It was totally crazy. It was chaotic. It was madness. There were so many drugs around it was insane. To escape that, even though I was a big part of it, I started to draw into a book. And it kind of calmed me down and made me do something else that was my own private stuff where I could go inside myself and express myself. Put the book away after the tour, forgot it for 30 years, was moving houses, found the book. And I decided to look through it and I thought – you know, some of these are pretty cool, these things. So I have a company called Nash Editions which was the first digital atelier in the world, opened up in 1990. So I scanned in my drawings, high res and I printed them out on canvas, large and painted them. So that’s how it started. So all these 91 pieces that were in this gallery, were all done in the last 2 years.

Ron Bennington: Is there anything similar in the creativity between doing that kind of work and being a songwriter?

Graham Nash: It’s all the same to me. I don’t care what it is. It’s just energy. And it doesn’t matter where I point my energy, that’s what I’m doing. So I never get writer’s block. I hear a lot of my friends complain – well, you know I just can’t write, but you see if I’m not writing or if I can’t write, which actually never happens, I start sculpting or I start dealing with my collection of German expressionism or I take photographs or I, or I….So I never get blocked because I just point my energy in a different direction.

Ron Bennington: You also, as much as you do this stuff on your own, you’ve really been a part of a team and as we said, not everybody on the team is at the same place all the time. From my viewpoint, it seems like you’re the one who’s kept the band together.

Graham Nash: I think I’ve been the one who’s realized that the music is by far the most important part of our relationship. None of that other stuff that people say. The backstabbing and ya,ya,ya,ya. No, it’s meaningless now. I think it’s a product of being successful for so many years and also getting to a certain age. I’m 70 years old now. And the little things that used to upset you just don’t – they’re not important anymore.

Ron Bennington: Do the other guys kind of feel the same way now that you’re at this point?

Graham Nash: I believe they do. And I think we all came to the same realization this year. I mean it’s very obvious when you watch the DVD that 3 things are happening. One, we want to be there. Two, we really do care and love each other. It’s very obvious. Every single frame of this DVD, you realize there’s 3 people that really really like each other. It wasn’t always the case. As you said before, we’ve had our ups and downs. But on this DVD, it’s obvious that those 2 things are happening and the third thing is that the audience loves us.

Ron Bennington: And there is a sense of what becomes I guess family after awhile. And we’ve been through this with our family where you can’t stand each other and then you go away for awhile and then you’re glad to see each other and something else will pop up. But really the shared experiences is what the whole trip is about.

Graham Nash: I love being in a band. I only really do solo projects when I’ve got too many songs and we’ve already made a record and therefore we’re not going to make a record for another couple of years and what do you do with those songs? That’s when I become a solo artist. I’m much more interested in being on a team.

Ron Bennington: Graham, it’s so great to have you come back. And I’d love to see you next time through. Stop back when you do the gallery show. I think that would be fantastic.

Graham Nash: Gotch ya. My pleasure Ron.

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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.  Not yet a subscriber?  Click here for a free trial subscription.

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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.

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