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Excerpt: "There are people who I just can't resist taking a shot at. You know, like Trump. I called him a walking intelligence-free zone."

David Crosby. (photo: Rolling Stone)
David Crosby. (photo: Rolling Stone)


David Crosby: Trump Is a "Walking Intelligence-Free Zone"

By Jeff Slate, Esquire

30 December 16

 

The rock legend sounds off on Kanye, Trump, and using Twitter as a medium to connect with fans—and enemies.

ast summer, Esquire's own Matt Miller wrote a great piece about rock legend David Crosby's Twitter feed, chronicling Crosby's no-holds-barred takes on electronic music, unfiltered responses to fans, and even his brutal assessment of an aspiring musician seeking his imprimatur. Summing it up, Miller wrote, "David Crosby is the asshole Twitter deserves."

When I heard that Crosby was rehearsing for his current tour in Brooklyn, I asked if I could swing by and chat with him about Miller's piece and what it is about Twitter that he finds so engaging. But when we met at the recording studio owned by Snarky Puppy's Michael League, who produced Crosby's excellent new album Lighthouse, he launched into a roundabout explanation involving mercenary autograph hounds.

"They used to be people who were fans," Crosby began, clearly exasperated. "We did a signing at Barnes and Nobles, and I figured that all of the people there were total fans, and that they'd never sell the albums. But there were nine of them I'd signed for sale on eBay that night, before we even got back to the hotel. Nine of them. Nine! So, what's happened with me is I'm sick of it, because they're outside the hotel, and the same guys are probably waiting outside this studio right now. So I just stopped doing it."

ESQ: Yeah, well Ringo doesn't sign anything anymore either…

David Crosby: His are worth a lot more than mine, I can tell you that!

So what you're saying is that Twitter has become your conduit to people that are your actual fans?

Yeah. It just bugged me that they're so dishonest about it. You know, and they say, "No! You can sign it and you can put my name!" Man, like that changes anything, you dim bulb.

How did you discover Twitter? And what is it about it that resonates for you?

OK, let's back up. I love to communicate with people. I love to talk to people. I'm fascinated by other humans.

When we first met a few years back, and I walked into your hotel room, within five minutes it was like we were friends. You're very relaxed around people, considering all you've been through.

Well, you're good at communicating, and you like it, too, and so I like that. People fascinate me. Anyway, so somebody showed me Twitter. I don't even remember who. It might have been Steve Silberman, who's on there a lot. He's a brilliant guy. Wrote for Wired. Wrote an unbelievably good book about autism. But as soon as I started doing it, I developed my own way of communicating. I don't do that hashtag this. I'm not like Questlove, who's got something like three million people following him.

Do you even know how many you have?

Well, the last time I checked, it's like 60,000.

And they're real people. That's the cool thing. You didn't buy them.

Well, no.

Unlike Donald Trump…

Yeah… [Squints eyes and rubs hands together]

We'll get there. Don't worry.

Blagh! Just let me crack him across… I would run that guy over with a garbage truck! Anyway, so I got on there and I started fooling around and, yeah, some of the questions are dumb. "What was it really like at Woodstock?" Well, fuck I can't remember. I was stoned!

But that's an answer, and one that your followers would love.

I'm tired of having it asked, you know? Woodstock? Come on, I've been asked about it 100,000 times.

Well, there are people who are just discovering it. You've gotta give them some love, too.

Yeah, but you know, it's a legend that they want to participate in, but it gets bigger with time. And I am tired of being asked that. But I'm also one of the last people that's alive that played there, so I get what you're saying.

The last man standing gets to tell the tale.

Often, though, I'll get somebody who asks me something that's really intelligent. Really good. Not "which comes first, the words or the music?"—which I get a lot—but something insightful and good, and, fuck, that's great. And then there are people who I just can't resist taking a shot at. You know, like Trump. I called him a walking intelligence-free zone. And you know, man, I lit such a tweetstorm! There were people responding, clearly very upset, "HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT ABOUT A GREAT AMERICAN?" and just trying to chew pieces off me.

Then there was the Kanye thing. What happened there was that he was at Galstonbury, and some radio guy took that song, "Bohemian Rhapsody," and showed how Freddie Mercury sang it and then he cut to Kanye trying to do it. And Kanye can't sing his way out of a paper bag. And he doesn't know shit about Freddie. So he sounded terrible. Terrible. And so then he comes out and says "I'm the greatest living rockstar in the world." So I wrote, "Would somebody please drive him over to Stevie Wonder's house." 'Cause man, I'm sorry buddy, you're not. And then I said, "Would somebody please buy him a collection of Ray Charles' records, so he can learn how to sing." Because Ray's my favorite singer. You know, he's just an easy target. I wouldn't have gone off on him if he hadn't been such a pompous asshole about saying how fucking cool he was. Because he's not.

Well, that's the thing about your Twitter: It's either taking down pompous assholes, or answering interesting questions, or just interacting with random people. I find that kind of wonderful. I told the guy who wrote the piece about your Twitter account for Esquire about how I was in your hotel room and you were on Twitter—I was watching you do it—and it was really entertaining! Because you had something you just had to say. I remember you greeted me at the door and said, "I gotta get this in. Hang on a second!"

"I can't believe he said that!" Yeah, I have fun with it. I'm trying to learn how to work Facebook, but Facebook is not as good as Twitter to me. It's much more limited, because you can't respond quite the same way.

Well, for someone like you, it's much more broadcasting than interactive.

It's more suited to the other kind of communication where your PR people are doing it. And I have one of those. And, you know, it's a professional Facebook page with like a half million people. You know, it's a lot. But it's not as good for me, in terms of the interplay. I don't get the same kind of buzz.

Your Facebook seems much more promotional, broadcasting—not really trying to offend anybody.

Well, you've got to watch out for the trolls.

Well, in that regard, Twitter seems much more dangerous.

Twitter, Facebook—you still have to watch out for the trolls. Somebody will troll you. But I just try to turn it around. "I could vote for Trump… or I could eat a live porcupine. Let me think. I'll go with the porcupine." But no, they don't leave you alone.

Are there people that you've met or interacted with in real life as a result of interacting with them on Twitter?

The very guy I mentioned earlier, Steve Silberman, who is one of the guys who turned me on to the Net in the first place. I was in UCLA hospital waiting to die—they were trying to find me a liver transfer, and it was getting pretty grim—and in the middle of the night one night I was lying there terrified, and lonely. And one of the first online communities was started by the guys who did the Whole Earth catalogs, a long time ago, even before there was a Twitter or a Facebook, and Steve said, "Come on here, this is how you do it." And he was very gentle and very nice. And super bright. So he turned me on to being online in the first place. He is such an insightful guy. So Twitter and all these things that I use now are a natural extension of coming out of that well. It was an interesting place then, because there wasn't anything else around like that, and there were a lot of fascinating people on there.

It's interesting how there's such a divide in the artistic community. There are people like yourself and Pete Townshend and David Bowie who embraced technology right away. "I'm checking this out! I'm in!" Though it wasn't a loud thing, it was a quiet thing.

Well, they're both really bright guys. They were pushing digital technology and the Internet to make records really early on. That technology has improved, now to the point where you could do it live, all at once. You could hook up a network and have four different people in four different countries playing a song together at the same…and it sounds amazing.

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