US rock musician David Crosby has died at the age of 81

The US magazine “Variety” reported on Thursday (local time), citing a statement by Crosby’s wife. “It is with great sadness that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away after a long illness,” Variety quoted Crosby’s wife Jan Dance as saying in the statement.

Crosby was a founding member of two legendary rock bands: the country- and folk-influenced Byrds, for whom he wrote the hit “Eight Miles High,” and CSNY, who defined the soft side of music for the Woodstock generation. As a member of both groups, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Musically, Crosby was notable for his intricate vocal harmonies, unorthodox open tunings on the guitar, and incisive songwriting. His work with the Byrds and CSN/CSNY blended rock and folk in new ways, and their music became part of the soundtrack for the hippie era.

Personally, Crosby was the embodiment of the “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” creed, and a 2014 Rolling Stone magazine article dubbed him “rock’s most unlikely survivor.”

Along with drug addictions that eventually led to a transplant to replace a liver worn by decades of excess, his tumultuous life has included a serious motorcycle accident, the death of a girlfriend, and battles with hepatitis C and diabetes.

“I worry that the time I have here is so short and I am deeply angry with myself for wasting at least ten years of time just to destroy myself,” Crosby said Los Angeles Times in July 2019: “I’m ashamed of that.” Crosby told The Times that he had “fallen as low as a man can fall.”

He also managed to alienate himself from many of his famous former bandmates, for which he has often expressed remorse in recent years. His drug habits and often aggressive personality contributed to CSNY’s decline and members eventually stopped speaking to each other. In the 2019 documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name, he made it clear that he hoped they could work together again, but conceded that the others “really don’t like me.”

Crosby fathered six children – two as sperm donors for rocker Melissa Etheridge’s partner and another who was put up for adoption at birth and Crosby did not meet until he was in his 30s. This son, James Raymond, eventually became his musical collaborator.

Crosby was born on August 14, 1941 in Los Angeles. His father was a cinematographer who won a Golden Globe in 1952 for Fred Zinnemann’s classic western, High Noon. His mother introduced him to folk group The Weavers and classical music.