(Credits: Far Out / Marsha Miller / LBJ Library)
Fri 9 January 2026 18:00, UK
For someone who has lived through the greatest highs and lows of rock and roll, Graham Nash knew when he was looking at one of the living legends when they showed themselves.
There’s hardly anyone who thinks that Joni Mitchell is anything less than an icon when they first hear her sing, but getting the opportunity to work with someone like Neil Young probably isn’t going to hurt anyone’s perspective as a songwriter, either. But even for all the legends he’s had the pleasure of working with, Nash had a much stronger appreciation for artists that the world would never again.
Because if you think about it, Nash was coming dangerously close to becoming a one-trick pony had he stayed together with The Hollies. There were many great opportunities for him to be one of the greatest musicians on the charts, but there was no way that he was going to get away with playing tunes like ‘Marrakesh Express’ in a pop band. He needed another outlet, and that meant breaking free from his old band.
It takes a lot of guts for anyone to leave that kind of band behind, but that’s what rock and roll is about. No one gets to legendary status by playing everything by the book and hoping that their audience politely comes to them. Any artist needs to go against the grain a little bit to get to where they are, and before Crosby, Stills, and Nash were even solidified, David Bowie was already starting to chip away at what rock and roll was supposed to be.
Although ‘Space Oddity’ was gaining traction around the same time as ‘Suite Judy Blue Eyes’, there was no reason to think they were in competition with each other. There simply wasn’t anyone in Bowie’s lane whenever he made music. He was always looking for the next new thing to work on, and for all the different characters that he gave us, Nash was shellshocked when he saw someone with that much creative force suddenly pass away in 2016.
He might not have been the kind of person to throw on Earthling or anything, but Nash had to tip his hat to Bowie for having an ingenious outlook on music, saying, “I met Bowie a couple of times and on both occasions I was very impressed with his intelligence and the energy that poured out of that man was amazing. I personally feel he bordered on the edge of genius many times. And one of the most courageous musicians I’ve ever known about.”
But there’s a difference between how Bowie defied the trends and how someone like Neil Young went against the grain. There are often times when Young made artistic choices strictly to screw with people, but while Bowie does have a couple of records that didn’t pan out the way they should have, they were never in bad faith. He always came in with his heart open to whatever, and the fact that he knocked it out of the park so consistently was all the more poignant towards the end.
Blackstar was the kind of record that most artists wouldn’t have had the strength to make, but that’s what Bowie was all about. Beyond being a genius musician, Bowie was an example of bravery being put into musical form, and even though years had passed since the days of Ziggy Stardust, he was tackling every adversity with the same energy that he did when singing ‘Rock and Roll Suicide’ all those years ago.
The life of any rock star of Nash’s calibre isn’t going to be easy when writing down your innermost thoughts, but what Bowie did went beyond any sense of insecurity. He may have been just as insecure as the rest of us, but a good chunk of his genius came from him reaching beyond those feelings and being proud to stand onstage as his truest self.
Related Topics