If you missed the first instalment of the series, the idea is simple: we email one simple request to a band/musician/famous-type personage and ask them to 'tell us five things you love'. We're not gonna get psychoanalytical, we'll leave that to you.

We began this feature with little known new boys Lovvers telling us five things they love but we thought we'd follow that up with a proper legend. Best known as a founding member of both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Mr. David Crosby is about as legendary as they come...

 

David Crosby

Pot
A lot of times smoking pot can be a good chemical place to think up music. Many times I’ve sat down with a guitar and smoked a joint and found something that I hadn’t found before because I was stoned and just wondering around. My favourite records to get stoned to… Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Steely Dan’s Aja, Sgt pepper, Revolver, Rubber Soul…

Sailing
My boat’s saved my life many times, I wrote Wooden Ships, Lee Shore, a bunch of songs on that boat. I’m just in the process of selling it now, which is very, very painful, but I have no money, I spent it all. My boat is part of me; it’s saved my life. It was a place where I could get back in touch with reality, a lodestone where there was always some sanity. She a beauty, a wooden schooner, 60 ft on deck, 70 tip to tip. The Mayan is her name. I’m trying to find somebody to buy her who will have enough time to look after her. I’ve spent so long getting her into shape; my soul has gone into that boat. She needs somebody to love her.

Graham Nash
Nash has been a foundation in my life. A good example and a good friend, he loved me through some very tough stuff. He was a rock for me while I was addicted to junk; every time I disappointed him or let him down he stayed my friend.

My Guitar
I have what is, I think, the best electric twelve string in the world, it was made on a Gibson rosewood 335 body that they only made a few of, we built a neck for it. The guy who did it was the guy who built the Grateful Dead instruments, Rick Turner. It sounds like a glass avalanche.

The Movement
Woodstock was probably the most important gig of my life. I hate talking about it because everybody always asks about it but it was a coming of age moment, when America realised there were a whole sub-culture, not just a few scattered kids, with these same values. Before that we didn’t know how many of us there. In the long run we helped the civil rights movement and we helped bring an end to the Vietnam War. We just misjudged societal inertia: American society resists change, any change. But that has to stop, and it will if we get Obama in. We have to have him or we’ll come unglued. We can’t keep dumping all our blood and treasure in the desert forever.

Voyage, the three CD box set from David Crosby is out now.