David Crosby Back With ‘For Free’ Solo Set

Out today (July 23rd) is David Crosby's latest solo album, For Free. The album — named after “Croz's” cover of the Joni Mitchell classic — features a new cover portrait by Joan Baez, and contributions from his son and bandmate James Raymond, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, and the Doobie Brothers' Michael McDonald.

During a new chat with USA Today, he sang the praises of McDonald's work on the new album, saying, “I’ve said for a long time the best male singers in the U.S. are Stevie Wonder — he’s getting old now and is not as good as he used to be — and Michael. It’s a treasure, man. He really outdid himself.”

He shed light on how he got the great Joan Baez to paint the album's cover portrait: “She’s been doing a bunch of paintings of people she likes for a gallery show and I heard she had done one of me and I looked it up and I loved it. I asked if I could use it for an album cover and she said, 'Of course you can, but you have to buy it.' And she should say that.”

Regarding ever patching things up regarding his feud with former partner and best friend Graham Nash, Crosby said, “No, I don’t think it will work. Graham and I just don’t like each other anymore. Human beings do not grow on parallel paths — we’re always getting closer or farther away. The reason we can’t play together isn’t what people think it is, but I can’t tell you what it is. I’m not worried about it. I’m busy as hell.”

David Crosby told us he feels blessed to have been able to stay a beloved songwriter and working musician for decades: “I, too, feel like an extremely lucky man. For a guy who was supposed to be dead a couple of years ago, I'm doing pretty well. Music is magic. Music bridges the gap between human beings. That 'each man is an island' stuff, that's true. But music does bridge that gap. It's been mankind's universal language since mankind started. I don't want us to forget that in the business part of it.”