During an appearance on the Howard Stern Show late last year, Neil Young proclaimed Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would never play again “in a million years.” The apparent retirement stemmed from bad blood between Young and David Crosby, as the latter himself admitted. A month prior, Crosby was quoted as saying that Young was involved with a “purely poisonous predator” following his split from Pegi Young. At the time, it was widely known that Young was dating actress Daryl Hannah, and that it was Crosby’s comments that put the nail in the CSNY coffin.
Now, Crosby himself has taken to Howard Stern to offer an apology to both Young and Hannah. “I was completely out of line,” he said during an appearance on Monday, according to Rolling Stone. “I have screwed up massively. Daryl Hannah never wound up in a Texas prison [like I did]. I’m screwed up way worse than that girl. Where do I get off criticizing her? She’s making Neil happy. I love Neil and I want him happy.”
Crosby went on to say he was under the impression the remarks were off the record, but said that didn’t excuse them. “Daryl, if you’re out there, I apologize. Where do I get off criticizing you?” He said he was in a position to criticize “politicians” and “pond scum,” but not “other artists that have gone through a hard life, same as me.”
The comments were made “out of love,” as Stern put it, with Crosby saying that he “was worried that [Young] was going to be taken advantage of. But the truth is that’s not my place to judge.” He added that he’d called Young when the comments went public, and was asked to print a retraction. “I said, ‘I don’t know about that.’ The first thing that I did was apologize right away.” Still, he never had a similar conversation with Hannah, though he used the radio opportunity to speak directly to her. “Daryl, I apologize. I was wrong. I have no place to stand to do that. I Have no right. I haven’t earned that right. I’m the guy that wound up in prison, not her.”
It’s not yet known how Young will respond to the public apology, nor if Crosby will offer similar sentiments to Phish, Kanye West, Mike Love, or jogger Jose Jimenez.
