“Who Are You?”: The Scathing Diss Track Graham Nash Wrote About David Crosby

Music is a way for artists to express themselves, even when (or maybe especially when) they’re angry and resentful—a fiery emotional mix Graham Nash captured quite succinctly in a scathing diss track he wrote about David Crosby. The CSNY bandmates had a long, tempestuous, and highly public relationship as two icons of the late 1960s and ‘70s folk-rock era.

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That tension lasted well into their old age, and whispers of CSNY reunions would inevitably lead to stories of the pair’s squabbles to re-circulate in the media. Nash’s sixth studio album’s closer, “Encore,” certainly left no room for misunderstandings about his relationship to his famously outspoken, troubled colleague.

Graham Nash Wrote This Scathing Track About David Crosby

David Crosby built a reputation for being brash, erratic, and, at times, destructive as early as his time with the Byrds. From his questionable behavior on- and offstage to a nine-month stint at a Texas state prison, Crosby’s behavior and attitude got no tamer in the years that followed. His outspoken nature often led to disagreements and fights with those close to him, which often meant his bandmates.

This sort of offensive verbal lashing continued well into Crosby’s old age, leading to Nash writing a diss track about his old bandmate nearly five decades after CSNY broke up. The song, “Encore,” closed his sixth studio album, This Path Tonight. Speaking to FaceCulture in 2016, Nash confirmed the song was about Crosby. “Basically, the song is about, ‘Who are you? Who are you when you’re not famous, when the lights have gone out, and the audience has left? Are you a decent person? Or are you a f***ing a**hole?’”

In a Rolling Stone interview that same year, Nash said Crosby had been “just f***ing awful” to him for two years straight. “I’ve been there and saved his f***ing a** for 45 years, and he treated me like s***. You can’t do that to me. You can do it for a day or so, until I think you’re going to come around. When it goes on longer, and I keep getting nasty emails from him, I’m done.”

The Musician’s Feelings Toward His Ex-Bandmate Eventually Soothed

Death tends to shrink even the widest of chasms between two people. Death puts things like disagreements and bravado in perspective. David Crosby’s death at 81 years old in January 2023 was no exception. Despite the years of tension between Crosby and many of his bandmates, his surviving friends were—perhaps more easily—able to see Crosby for all the good that he held, too. He wasn’t just a cantankerous grump, although he definitely was that.

Crosby was also a prolific musician who, alongside Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, and Neil Young, created some of the most iconic folk-rock of all time. Speaking to AARP after Crosby’s death, Nash said, “I think one of the only things that we can do, particularly me, is only try to remember the good times. Try to remember the great music that we made. I’m only going to be interested in the good times, because if I concentrate on the bad times, it gets too weird for me.”

Nash told AARP Crosby had called him in the final weeks of his life to set up a phone call so that he could apologize to Nash once and for all. “He was a very intelligent man,” Nash said. “I wouldn’t put it past him to know that he was actually at the very end.”

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