And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Tavis as cofounder of the hollies and crosby, stills nash, graham nash has for more than five decades now been at the forefront of rock music. Its been a fascinating life and hes now written about those experiences, good and bad, in a new book titled wild tales a rock roll life. Before we get to our conversation, a quick reminder of how great those harmonies are from crosby, stills nash. Heres a clip of them singing wooden ships. Tavis i guess one would expect a book written by a rock and roll star to have the obligatory chapters about sex and drugs and, to be sure, that exists in the book. And i suspect in the other conversations youll have about this book, theyll get to the sex and all the drugs. Theres so much more, though, in the book that i want to get to in the time that we have tonight and ill leave the other talk show hosts to dig that stuff up. Let me start, if i can, with the cover of this book. Put this cover back up for me, jonathan, please . I dont know if we have the front and the back cover, but heres the front cover of a younger graham nash. And if you can flip to the back cover, you see a modernday, contemporary graham nash, in both photos, obviously, a camera in your hand. There is a fascinating and heartbreaking, frankly, story in this book about you got introduced to the camera and heartbreaking in the sense that your father who turned you on to the camera found himself imprisoned because of a camera and it had a profound impact on your life. Tell me about your dad, first of all, and then tell me more about the camera story. He was a poor, hardworking man from the north of england struggling with life after world war ii, of course. His main joy was in taking photographs of me and my sister at the local zoo and then processing them in my bedroom. And he turned me on to the magic of photography when i was 10 years old. And the first portrait in my book of photographs, eye to eye, is of my mother that i took when i was 10. And then the police came to the door which was unheard of in the north of england. The Police Coming to your door . That was what . They said that the camera that my father had bought from his friend at work had been stolen and who was it that sold him the camera . And my father wouldnt tell and consequently spent a year of his life in a very brutal prison in the north of england for a 30 camera. Tavis who goes to jail for a year for a 30 camera . The people that cant afford good justice, and thats what happened to me. I had to be the father of my family. I had to be the man of the house when i was 14 years old. I had to grow up really fast. Our main breadwinner had been incarcerated, my father, and life was already very difficult after world war ii. I got most of my clothes from the salvation army. When i was supposed to be cool and, you know, growing up looking for ladies in my life, i just wasnt cool at all. So it had a very profound effect on my life. Tavis let me talk about that profound effect and i want to ask two or three questions not to advance too far here. But one, what did that experience teach you about your father . Ill come to the justice question in just a second, but your father doesnt snitch on the guy who he got the camera from. Right. Tavis but he ends up paying a heavy price for that. What did that teach you . What did that say to you about your father at 14 . That he had the courage to stand up for what he believed in. In the north of england im sure its the same in most parts of america you dont snitch on your friends. You dont. You know, its just part of street life. His life would have been more difficult had he told the police who it was. Im sure that his life would have been, you know, much more difficult. But he did. He stood up for what he believed and it made me realize all these years later that justice is possibly an item that can be bought and sold. Tavis youre on the question i wanted to ask now. Tell me a bit more about what you learned from that experience by the notion of justice and how malleable it might be. I realized that justice was a commodity and that poor people couldnt afford it and rich people can. You know, its the reason why many, many rich people dont go to jail for crimes that are committed. If youre poor and cant afford the good lawyers and be able to buy the system, youre headed for jail. And its becoming more and more true as i get older in my life. And ive always struggled to support the underdog. Ive always been for the team that was two points behind. Ive always wanted the underdog to succeed in my life. Tavis let me jump forward and then i promise ill come right back cause, again, theres so much in this book that i cant do justice to all of it in even a full show tonight. Again, let me go forward and ill come right back. What did that experience and, obviously, there are others how did that inform your songwriting years down the road . That First Experience with justice or the lack thereof . And your lyrical content has been rich over the years speaking to the humanity of all kinds of people, but im trying to get a sense of what that experience did to put you on the road years later to the lyrical content. I think a couple of songs that ive written explain that. First of all, the song i wrote in 1968 called chicago in which they bound and chained and gagged bobby seale and put him on the stand and called it a fair trial. You know, you dont have to be Rocket Scientist to figure, look, if youre binding and chaining and gagging this man, how can this be a fair trial . Lets cut to all these years later, my song about Bradley Manning that i wrote with my friend, james raymond. Same thing. I wasnt particularly interested in whether he was guilty of the charges brought against him, Bradley Manning being the whistleblower that released all the diplomatic and military cables to wikileaks. But to be incarcerated in awful, awful conditions which the United Nations equated to torture for 1000 days before his trial was not fair to me. Thats why i wrote almost gone. Thats why im convinced that we need to spread light on some of these cases. We need whistleblowers in this world. We need a little more transparency from our government and from our military. Tavis now im going back. Tell me about your mother. We talked about your father and you referenced your mother. As a matter of fact, you dedicate this book to both of your parents and i dont want to leave your mom out of this conversation. So tell me about your mother and the influence she had on you. Two years before my mother died, i asked her why was it she had encouraged me in my passion, my search, for life in music when a lot of my other friends, their parents were dissuading them from their passion for rock and roll. My mother didnt and i asked her why and she said that because she thought that she had a good voice and she wanted to be on the stage. World war ii came along, she married my father, my father and my mother had three children of which i was one, of course, and life was over for her. But i was living her life and i didnt know it until all those years later. And i think in the early 70s, either 1970 or 1971, crosby and i were playing at Carnegie Hall in new york city. And for some reason, he has to leave the stage. He has to go to use the bathroom or Something Like that. But im still talking to the audience. So i start to tell them the story of why im standing there in front of them. And as im telling them the story about my mothers encouragement, i reach my hand into my pocket and i take out a pinch of my mothers ashes and i sprinkle them on the stage at Carnegie Hall knowing full well if she had attained her life dream, she may have been singing on stage at Carnegie Hall instead of me. Tavis that raises the obvious question of what were your mothers ashes doing in your pocket onstage at Carnegie Hall . Every great place that i played that i think my mother would have loved to have sung at had she been a singer in her life, ive spread her ashes, including, you know, the Royal Albert Hall in london, including beautiful places that i play and including buckingham palace. Tavis its a powerful story. What has that experience meant or done for you to spread your mothers ashes in these places . I think it behooves us and it enriches our lives to honor our parents and their parents and all the people that have lived in the nash family that brought me to this point of talking to you right now. I think its important that we acknowledge their work and their dedication to make life better for their children. Thats why im here now. My mother wanted a better life for me than she had after world war ii. Tavis its one thing for your mother, graham, to have dreams and wishes and aspirations of being an artist herself. Youve realized that for her and for yourself. But when did you know that music was your vocation, that it was in fact your calling . I was 13, 14, 15 years old, a kid trying to figure out what to do with his life. Several things came together at a certain point in my life which drove me forward. One of them was the bill haley concert in manchester, england in 1957. Another was the Everly Brothers concert in manchester in 1960. And all these things that affect you at a certain moment really do move your life forward and thats what happened to me. I was walking across a ballroom floor when i was 15 years old attempting to catch the eye of a girl that i liked across the ballroom. Allan clarke and i, who was my dear friend since i was six years old and we formed the hollies together, heard bye bye love by the Everly Brothers come over these huge speakers and it changed my life. I wanted to make music that did for me what the Everly Brothers did for me at that moment in my life when i was 15 years old. Tavis was it the Everly Brothers or was it the song . I know the two go together, but was there something about that song that spoke to you or was it their performance . Im trying to get a sense of thats a great song. I love that song. Its been covered a thousand times. A million times, yes. The truth is, i was fascinated with how those two voices blended together. I know that don and phil were brothers. I know theyre from kentucky. I know that they have these beautiful voices. But when they came together and raised their voice as one, that affected me. I had never heard anything quite like that. I never heard two voices so seamlessly blend together to make one voice and thats what i tried to do with the rest of my life. Thats what i do with david and stephen and sometimes with neil also. Tavis i was about to ask what impact that had on cause obviously theres a connection here on your appreciation for harmonies. I was in a band, the hollies, that were considered a pretty decent harmony band. They tavis thats an understatement, but go ahead, yeah. [laughter] david crosby was in the byrds, also a great harmony band. And stephen and neil were in the Buffalo Springfield, also great harmony bands. But when david and stephen and i put our voices together for that first time in jonis living room, it changed all of our lives instantly. Whatever sound crosby, stills nash has vocally was born in less than a minute. We didnt have to rehearse it. We just had to start singing. And it was unbelievably good to us as musicians. We had to stop and start laughing in the middle of the song cause it was silly. It was silly how these three voices came together instantly to create something much bigger than themselves. Tavis you tell this story in the book and, of course, you could not have written a book without talking about the role that joni mitchell, one of the greatest songwriters ever, has played in your life, the relationship that you all had. But what was the occasion that brought you all together in jonis living room . I had met joni a couple of months earlier in ottawa, in canada. We had made a vow to each other that we would see each other if we could. I flew from london to los angeles to be with joni. David and stephen were at dinner that night. David asked stephen to sing me that song that they just finished rehearsing in twopart harmony. Great song, play it again. Oh, yeah. Really a great song. Do me a favor, one more time. And i had my part down, i had my harmony down, i had my recognition of their body language, how theyre breathing, how theyre moving. I had it down in that third take and that was the thing that made us laugh so deeply because i realized that i would have to go back to england and change my entire life. I had to leave the band that i started. I had to leave my friendship with allan clarke that i started when i was six years old. I had to do some drastic thinking. But the power of that music that me and david and stephen created was big enough for me to move my entire life. Tavis it was big enough for you to move your entire life, graham, and yet you acknowledge in the text that you didnt have my word here that you didnt have the courage to tell the band and the band found out in an interesting sort of way that graham nash was no longer a part of the hollies. Tell me more about that. I must confess that i do feel a little guilty having not had the courage to tell the directly to their face. A lot of it was due to the fact that allan was my oldest friend. I loved him dearly. You know, we had come up through music singing the lords prayer at assembly and, you know, in certain shows. So it was difficult for me to tell them. And the way that they found out was, unfortunately, a reporter from a local newspaper had asked me a question and id answered it kind of flippantly that i wasnt gonna be there too much longer. And thats how they found out. And to this day, it upsets me that i didnt have the courage to tell my friends. Tavis what did you learn from that about yourself or about how to handle matters like that into the future . That i cant procrastinate anymore. When i need to get something done, i do it. You know, ive never been busier in my life. Im now 71 years old and its all good stuff and im not complaining at all. But my life is incredibly busy. I have to create every single day in one form or another, be it photography or painting or music. I have to create every single day and i have to speak my mind. And im fortunate enough to live in a country, the United States of america, which ive been a citizen for over 30 years. Im so proud to be a member of this society where i can get to speak my mind. Half the stuff that me and david and stephen and neil have written about in our past lives, we may not have been able to get away with in a different country. But i live in america and im allowed to speak my mind. Nobody has to listen, but im allowed to speak my mind. Tavis youre right about the fact that, at 71, you aint slowing down. Im sure youre leaving here to go do a show somewhere. Youre always on the run. But talk to me about this need cause i respect this and i think everyone of us ought to have this as a goal, that every day before we go to bed, we ought to be able to look back on our day and see something that we created that day. Absolutely. Tavis if its a note you wrote, a line, a high cool, a picture you took. I mean, every day presents us an opportunity to create something. I thank god that every day i get a chance to create i hope what is good conversation with guests. Yeah, indeed. Tavis i want to put something into the universe. But what is that notion about for you of having to create something every day, no matter what it is . I think i have to give back and i have to recognize the fact that im an incredibly lucky man. I follow the muse of music and the muse of creation every single day. I kind of expect the universe to put me in a place where ill see magic. I wake up every day and i look in the mirror and i go, okay, whats life gonna show me today . Theres something out there thats gonna be mindblowing for me. And i put myself in that position. It doesnt happen 100 of the time, of course, but i put myself in that position that the universe is here to support me and to love me. I dont think the universe is out to screw me over and i think i have a good relationship. Im not a big believer in organized religion, but im a very religious man. I recognize the fact that there is some Incredible Energy out there thats running this entire universe and i want to be on its good side. Tavis youve now raised once again the other issue that i wanted to get to. Earlier in this conversation, you referenced your Getting Started years with your friend, allan, singing the lords prayer. Now you say youre not, you know, a fan of organized religion, but you are a religious person. Is it really religion or is it more spiritual . Because as ive talked to you over the years and hung out with you a little bit here and there and read your stuff, i get a sense that theres something spiritual about what you do for you. I hope so. Tavis even more so than religious. Does that make sense . Yes, it does, absolutely. I am more spiritual than i am religious. Religious has been put into this pigeon hole of faith and i truly recognize that people need faith in our lives to be able to make it to tomorrow. Thats one of the things i learned being an englishman after world war ii. Have a nice cup of tea, take a deep breath. I know it looks terrible right now, but it will be better tomorrow. And this notion of being better tomorrow has followed me all my life and ive always gone down that path when faced with a choice. Tavis so back to the music. Crosby, stills nash are doing well. Theres a decision made to bring in neil young, a great artist in and of his own right, of course. Give me the top line of why that decision was made and how that impacted the work. When we first made the first crosby, stills nash record, Stephen Stills played most of the instruments. Yes, david and i played rhythm guitar in our songs, but stephen played lead guitar, he played piano, he played bass, he played b3 organ. When we finished the record and we realized we have to go out on the road and play this live, how do we do that if stephen played most of the instruments . So we knew that we had to get another musician in there. But when ahmet ertegun, our dear friend from Atlantic Records who was the owner and the power that be at atlantic, suggested that we get neil young, that was kind of shocking to me because we had created this beautiful album that we thought created unique music in terms of harmony. We were very satisfied with it. Why do we need another person an