(Credits: Alamy)
Wed 19 November 2025 21:14, UK
The iconic American broadcaster and media personality Howard Stern first rose to global prominence in the 1980s as the presenter of the popular radio feature The Howard Stern Show.
To be a radio DJ was, for a time, to hold all the cards of the music industry in one hand. It would allow you to dictate a playlist that resonated across the country. Since he became one of the most distinctive voices on the airwaves in the 1980s, Stern has taken things ot a new level.
The popular show was beamed across the US between 1986 and 2005 and heard the host discuss music old and new with some of the world’s biggest pop and rock stars. Stern didn’t just make a career out of his shock jock ways, often pushing the boundaries of radio entertainment too far, but he has also been arguably the most revered sage of rock music. It means his view on the pillars of the rock music pantheon is worth listening to.
Since 2006, Stern has continued broadcasting as a DJ on Sirius XM Radio and spread his influence as a judge on America’s Got Talent between 2012 and 2015. Stern began his career as a broadcaster on small, local stations while studying at Boston University in the 1970s, but his passion for music had begun many years before.
In January 2023, Stern revealed that, of all his early musical infatuations, the late great David Crosby was his “boyhood hero.” The former Byrds musician sadly died on January 19th, 2023, at 81.
Reacting to the news on his Sirius XM show, Stern remembered his childhood favourite. “I just thought he was one of the best,” he said. Stern then recalled Crosby’s visits to The Howard Stern Show: “Whenever he came on, he was just so warm and lovely and talking openly about his life.”
“The album Déjà Vu was one of my favourite albums growing up … I’m putting it right in the top five,” Howard said of the musician’s 1970 album with Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young. “I loved Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young so much … David was just so great, I mean, and what a voice.”
Stern also recalled meeting Crosby at a screening of Cameron Crowe’s 2019 documentary on the musician titled Remember My Name. “I remember sitting behind him, I go, ‘Jesus Christ, there’s my boyhood hero,’” Stern said. “I never would have imagined I’d be sitting behind him in a movie theatre watching the story of his life with him … I just felt such compassion for him and love for him.”
During Crosby’s final appearance on Stern’s radio show in 2021, he addressed his mortality with candour. “People get old and die, and that’s how it works, and I’m gonna,” he told Stern. “But in the meantime, it’s not how much time you’ve got … it’s what you do with the time you do have.”
“We lost such a great guy, such a great performer, and a very important guy in the history of rock and roll,” Stern concluded in his tribute. “I got a kick out of knowing him.”
Listen to ‘Teach Your Children’, a song from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Déjà Vu, below.
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