Fort Lauderdale Magazine: Pleasure to meet you. How are you?
Graham Nash: I’m just fine, thank you very much.
FLMag: You had global success as the co-founder of The Hollies with those cheerful, upbeat sounds and tight harmonies. Did you figure out as you went along that you had something special, even at that time?
GN: Well, we knew that we could sing harmony pretty well, me and Allan Clarke, who started The Hollies in December of 1962. Then when Tony Hicks joined up, we started to sing three parts. So pretty natural.
FLMag: I loved all those earworm choruses.
GN: They stuck with you for days and days.
FLMag: I’m curious about the timeline for when The Hollies ended and Crosby, Stills & Nash began. Was it difficult to leave The Hollies after 15 top records in only seven years? That was pretty amazing, actually.
GN: Yeah, a lot of people were amazed that I wanted to leave, but the truth is that I had heard me and David and Stephen sing together and what we created when we turned our three voices into one was magic. And as a musician, I always followed magic. I realized I would have to go back to England and leave The Hollies. So it was not a difficult decision.
FLMag: It was remarkable that you met David and Stephen both for the first time within hours. How does something like that happen?
GN: I think it was Mama Cass Elliot. I believe she knew that Buffalo Springfield had broken up and David had been thrown out of The Byrds, and she also knew what they would sound like if I added my voice, so I have to blame Cass Elliot.
FLMag: Oh, she was a smart woman. Did it feel like the beginning of something new? What do you remember most about those first encounters? Was it strange?
GN: No, it was perfectly natural for me. Obviously with The Hollies, I had learned all about three-part harmony, and what David and Stephen and I had done was — as I told you before — magic, and so it was very, very easy for me to leave. So that was the beginning of the CSN era right there.
FLMag: You are also a lifelong photographer. How did you develop love for that?
GN: I’ve been a photographer since I was 10 years old. In my book I put out several years ago, I took the portrait of my mother when I was 11. I was always carrying my camera around.
FLMag: What does photography give you that a song cannot and vice versa?
GN: I’ve always thought that creation was just a column of energy. Where do I plug in today? That’s why I don’t have writer’s block. That’s why I don’t necessarily have to feel completely depressed to be able to write songs or take pictures.
FLMag: I write, and I paint. And those things, to me, are all artistically connected. So I get it. So did those photographs inspire any of your songs?
GN: I don’t believe they’ve inspired any particular song. I think my experiences of living as a human being are most of the inspiration for my songs. But I do love the fact that I can take pictures or write a song and touch people’s hearts.
FLMag: Okay, now for the accolades: You are a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee; a founding member of both The Hollies and Crosby, Stills & Nash; and a Grammy Award winner. In addition, you are a two-time inductee to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, including as a solo artist. Congratulations. Those are big accomplishments.
GN: For sure.
FLMag: Where was your first public performance with David and Stephen? And do you remember which song you did?
GN: The very first time that we ever sang together was on a Stephen Stills song called “You Don’t Have to Cry,” which, of course, was on the first Crosby, Stills & Nash record. That took place in my girlfriend Joni Mitchell’s living room. She was the only witness to that momentous happening, and that’s the first time that David, Stephen and I ever sang together.
FLMag: Well, I’m going to skip my next question and go right to the question about this song. Since you mentioned Joni already, the song “Our House” feels deeply personal and timeless. Can you share how that song came into being?
GN: Yes, I realized that “home” is essential to everybody’s lives. And I realized Joni was out in the garden. She was painting a portrait of me, and I was in the living room in the house in Canyon, and I wrote “Our House” in maybe just about an hour.
FLMag: I love that story. I could listen to that story over and over again. It’s such a sweet story.
GN: So true, though.
FLMag: There’s another story I want to hear about: the wine glass harmonica sound when you were with David and Stephen. Share that fascinating story, because I read it, and I think that my readers would love to hear that.
GN: David and I were doing our first record together, and David had turned me on to the fact that Benjamin Franklin, obviously a well-known American in the early days, had created a glass harmonica. It was a series of glasses all tuned to different notes, and when we were doing a song of David’s called “Where Will I Be?” we needed to replicate that sound of a glass harmonica. And so we set up eight glasses, and we poured different levels of water into every single one of them. And we recorded those [by running] our fingers around the edges of a wine glass eight times, and we recorded them eight times. And so we were able to play on the recording board those eight tracks.
FLMag: Because all of those were real crystal glasses and had a little tune to them. That’s amazing. I love that story too.
GN: Yes, yes. It was.
FLMag: What stands out to you about your first moments in front of the audience, and how did you feel?
GN: I had already written “Our House” before the Woodstock festival but had to rerecord it to reach an audience of three or 400,000 people. Stephen was a little nervous. I wasn’t nervous at all — I’d already been in the Hollies, and performed at many shows, but we pulled it off.
FLMag: Graham, your new album is called “Now.” What does that word mean to you at this point in your life? And what were you hoping to capture with this record?
GN: I wanted to capture my personal feelings. I’ve always tried to do that with my songs. The opening line of the album is, “I really didn’t know that I would be able to love again.” I was in my late 70s when I recorded that record, and I just didn’t really believe that I could fall in love again, but I did with my wife, Amy Grantham, who is a great artist.
FLMag: I listened to a few of the tracks, and they’re very soothing. So do you feel this album looks more forward, more inward or a bit of both?
GN: Both, because I as a musician, as an artist and as a man, I want to always be moving forward.
FLMag: As people, we all want to be moving forward.
GN: I agree we’re not getting any younger, that’s for sure.
FLMag: After all these years, what still makes you laugh the quickest when you think back on the early days?
GN: I think I’m just very proud of what I’ve managed to do in this last 50 or 60 years of being a performer and a writer. I always want to touch your heart. I think particularly in that album “Now” I was doing this, there’s a song on there called “Love of Mine,” and I wanted it to touch your heart.
FLMag: When you walk off stage after a great night, what is the single thought in your head that tells you that it was worth it?
GN: I think music is magic. I think music changes people’s lives and the world. I was very grateful that I could do what I do, and that’s my first thought after every show: Did we touch people’s hearts? Did we make them think? Did [the songs] make them feel? Actually, I want my audience to be a part of my show, not just a bunch of people looking at me. I want them to be as much a part of the show as the songs are.
FLMag: I understand. Music is magic. And to agree with you, I couldn’t live without music myself. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it wasn’t for music.
GN: Yeah, I am the same as you.
FLMag: I know you’re not because you know how to sing and you know how to play guitar, and I don’t do either one of those. So I wish I was the same as you [laughs]. I saw you in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1970, and I have been listening ever since.
GN: But I must tell you that I remember that showing in Rhode Island.
FLMag: Do you really?
GN: Yes, and the only reason I remember was that I had done some laundry, and I put on a pair of jeans there that were wet because they were new.
FLMag: Graham, I wish you blessings and a great year.
GN: Thank you very [much]; same to you.
WHAT: Graham Nash
WHERE: Lillian S. Wells Hall at The Parker
WHEN: 4/28 & 4/29, 7:30pm
TICKETS: parkerplayhouse.com
