Quotes by Graham Nash

About nine or 10 years ago, I needed to prepare a show for a gallery in Tokyo. They wanted 75 images, and that wasn't a problem, but they wanted images roughly 3 feet by 4 feet. Who can do that? Even with a large pro darkroom, that's difficult to do. I found a printer I knew along with my friend Mac Holbert, that could actually print great images, and that's what we did. We started the world's first digital fine art press, and we're still rocking, doing the best work possible.
– Graham Nash
After six or seven performances of any song, you begin to perform it rather than feel it.
– Graham Nash
After the lukewarm promotion of our last couple of records, we felt nobody at the company really understood us and cared about us. In days past, record companies were committed to working a band over several singles not just giving up if the first single did not set the charts on fire.
– Graham Nash
All the signs were right. And when I mean all the sings were right, the only signs that we care about when we start a project of making a record is, do we have the songs - it's that simple.
– Graham Nash
As artists, we reacted to our environment and wanted to speak about it. When Crosby handed me the Time magazine with the picture on the cover with the girl crouching over the body of the slain student, I watched him write Ohio.
– Graham Nash
Being in a different band always brings great musical experiences to be able to draw on.
– Graham Nash
Generally, my writing is influenced by living, by absorbing everything that happens to me and my actions.
– Graham Nash
I brought my lamps from the house, you know, so - we tried to make it as comfortable as possible. So, we ended up in an incredibly comfortable place. Crosby was very comfortable because he could just fly on down, you know, he'd land in Burbank and he'd take - you know, it was 10 minutes from the airport.
– Graham Nash
I don't have to ask anyone's permission to do anything. It's nice not have to get decisions out of three, sometimes four people, which can be like pulling teeth. So the amount of control that I have over what I'm doing is better for me as a solo artist.
– Graham Nash
I fail to see the issue that will shock the people of this great country of ours into some decisive action.
– Graham Nash
I find it somewhat difficult to write with other people, although it has happened occasionally.
– Graham Nash
I have tried my best to keep the focus on the music, and not to focus on the stupid things we do as individuals. To me the music is far more important than our own personal relationships. It's going to outlast us, it will be here hopefully long after we're all dead, and we hope that our music will continue to speak to people's hearts and continue to make them feel less lonely and less crazy, even after we're gone.
– Graham Nash
I mean, there's times to rock and roll, and I love that too. But I think my first love is acoustic music.
– Graham Nash
I only do solo albums when songs are screaming at me to be let out of my mind.
– Graham Nash
I plowed myself into listening to about 98% of everything that was ever recorded in the past 20-odd years-I began to fall back in love with why I love David and Steven in the first place. It put us back in touch with what our strengths were, and it was a thrilling process.
– Graham Nash
I realized at one point that David and I had not made a record together in almost 26 years and I thought that that was absurd because, first of all it had gone so fast, I didn't really realize, neither did David, that it had been that long.
– Graham Nash
I spent one morning at breakfast with Neil on Bleeker Street in New York City, and when we were finished I was completely sold on Neil joining. He was incredibly funny and very committed to music. He wanted to be a full member of the band with equal billing etc. This made sense to me and so we became CSNY.
– Graham Nash
I think Stills has been playing better than ever. I know a lot of it sounds self-serving, but he truly has.
– Graham Nash
I truly have a right to think I'm a survivor at this point. I mean, my goodness, I cut my first hit record in 1963 for God's sake. I also think that 9/11 brought everything on the album into focus, even though the album was finished before 9/11. My songwriting about how valuable husbands and wives and children are, and families and friends, is all very relevant and it was all just brought into sharp focus.
– Graham Nash
I wasn't thinking of the longevity of any of my songs, but I am extremely pleased with the lasting effect.
– Graham Nash
I worked very hard on me and David's record and I'm extremely proud of the record, as most people are who were involved with it. And, it's been wonderfully received by people who like our kind of music, they think it's something special, and so do I.
– Graham Nash
I'm a very happy puppy.
– Graham Nash
I'm not a joiner of clubs... But this is a pretty cool club to be in. The past inductees are brilliant, brilliant musicians that have touched my life in many ways, and to be worthy of such company is flattering to me and I appreciate it.
– Graham Nash
I'm not so sure that people consider homelessness to be as important as, say, the Vietnam War. One should never even try to equate them because, of course, they're tragedies on both sides of the coin.
– Graham Nash
I'm trying to communicate here. I'm a communicator, I like to communicate, and if a million people buy it then we've touched a million people, if only 10 people buy it, then we've only touched 10, and that's important, because I'm satisfied with only 10. But, I love a million.
– Graham Nash
I've been a photographer all these years... I haven't been in my own darkroom for 10 years.
– Graham Nash
I've been listening to a lot of Hollies stuff lately, and it's beginning to sound pretty good to me.
– Graham Nash
If every human being disappeared off the face of the earth in an instant, the earth would still keep spinning and the planet would develop new life forms.
– Graham Nash
If I read or listened to critics of our music, I'd have been discouraged a long time ago.
– Graham Nash
If you don't want to be there, it shows in the energy that you put out and in your actions.
– Graham Nash
In 1969 when CSN had finished the album, we knew that we would be going on the road. Stephen, as a great lead guitarist, needed someone to... inspire him to play better. Neither David nor I were that person. We play good rhythm guitar, but lead guitar is something different altogether. We decided that we would ask Neil to come along and join the band.
– Graham Nash
It is a little off-putting to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and then be charged to go there.
– Graham Nash
It was like taking it all full circle for me, because that's, you know, in Salford, which is, you know, a suburb of Manchester, is where I learned the magic of photography from my father. And so taking the show all the way to Manchester was full circle for me.
– Graham Nash
It was very important in the beginning, because we'd all come out of bands that were the Buffalo Springfield, the Hollies.
– Graham Nash
It's impossible to know why some people don't get the recognition that they deserve.
– Graham Nash
Just with the basic one guitar, one piano and one vocal and an audience, I think that the intimacy comes through more. People feel much more connected to the song because there's nothing in the way, and I actually enjoy doing that.
– Graham Nash
Martin guitars have now brought out, you know, on a more traditional level, the Stephen Stills' model of Martin guitars. It's beautiful. I just went inside. I bought one immediately.
– Graham Nash
Neil's effect on the band was immediate and very fulfilling. He adds a certain edge to the sound and, of course, he is an incredible musician. We became a better band because of the inclusion of Neil Young.
– Graham Nash
No kind of music is CSN or CSNY; it's just what we do as a band. There is no accepted CSNY sound. It's just what sounds good to us coming out of the speakers.
– Graham Nash
One can't deny what has happened to us in the past. The secret is to enjoy and be proud of the music we've created and the people with whom we have been linked. It's all a long chain of involvement in the world, and we are proud to be yet another link in this chain.
– Graham Nash
One of the great things about rap music... it leaves a lot to be desired, as far as I'm concerned, musically, but I do recognize the very important place that it has in music and in creating role models for younger kids to emulate, giving them the dream that they can make it out of whatever situation they're in.
– Graham Nash
People like Beck and Shawn Colvin are some of the people I listen to lately.
– Graham Nash
Stephen is playing better lead guitar and he's singing better, and I think this is the best we've sounded in years.
– Graham Nash
That was one of the things that James Taylor said about us when he inducted us into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; that this was a real working band. It's very obvious when people come down to see the show tonight, they'll understand that this band has been getting along better personally and musically for the past couple of years and we're flying.
– Graham Nash
The relationship with Atlantic Records was always a personal one. Our friend and mentor, Ahmet Ertegun, was our main contact at Atlantic and our relationship was based on mutual respect. He is a fine musician, singer and producer.
– Graham Nash
There are always new things to experience, internalize then write about. This process is ongoing with me. It never stops. The opportunity to reach new audiences with all of the music that we have made is thrilling.
– Graham Nash
There is a great correlation between music and images.
– Graham Nash
There's never really been any serious discussion amongst me David and Stephen about what we do with our harmonies. It just seems to be a very natural thing to do, and I think it's also an unspoken thing, too. It's not like we actually sit down and plan what we're going to do. We just do each song the best way we know how.
– Graham Nash
This digital world is completely fascinating to me.
– Graham Nash
We are excited about the music, past and present and future, and are really looking forward to playing.
– Graham Nash
We can't forget what happened on May 4th, 1970, when four students gave up their lives because they had the American constitutional right of peaceful protest. They gave up their lives. And to sing that song in that spot on that anniversary was very emotional for us.
– Graham Nash
We certainly recognize that our fans came to the show expecting to hear their favorite songs. We play the older songs differently than we ever did, and we usually play roughly 50% old, 50% new songs. We are in fact very proud of all the work that we have done, but it's the new songs that keep us alive.
– Graham Nash
We have been through our changes as individuals and as bands. Sometimes it's been really rough, and sometimes it's been really wonderful, but it's always been worth it. And no matter what we've been going through, the three of us, or the four of us, or any of us individually, we still feel that we've been lucky that we're able to be making music.
– Graham Nash
We just about finished mixing the record at my house in Hawaii, Crosby was there and Russell and Nathaniel, and when we figured out that we would be going out with CSN this year and that we had all this new music. I knew that it would be a burden for Stephen to try and learn 20 new songs, because they - they're not easy.
– Graham Nash
We knew that if we called ourselves by our real names, we'd have the freedom to play with anybody we wanted to and still have recognition... we decided that was the best way the names fell off the tongue... Crosby, Stills, Nash-that's the best combination, we thought it rhythmically made sense.
– Graham Nash
We only had enough money really to cut 10 things and be in there for a month because it's expensive, you know. And, singer/songwriters, today are lucky if they can get a deal, you know. So, we actually worked so fast that we really cut 20 things.
– Graham Nash
We seem to somewhat be behind an eight ball, and what I mean by that is we're constantly waiting for a call from Neil as to whether he wants to do CSNY.
– Graham Nash
We truly love CSNY music, and so we're always waiting, and what happens is that we have lives to lead, too, so, you know, at some point we have to say, well, you know, I can't wait any longer we have to book a tour because, you know, they take three, four months of preparation before we actually step out on the stage.
– Graham Nash
We want to get this good music to as many people as possible because I think it heals, it soothes, I think music is incredibly important, especially in today's chaos.
– Graham Nash
We were one of the very first people way back in '69 to do fully acoustic and electric sets within the same show.
– Graham Nash
We will take it one album at a time. We have other tracks in the can, but we'll see.
– Graham Nash
We've kind of tended toward staying in the - what's called the secondary markets, where you know, where people don't necessarily go, and it's worked out fantastic because the people have been very appreciative, you know, and they've been going wild, you've been there to some of the shows, its been fantastic.
– Graham Nash
When I was born in 1942, World War II was still going. And I began to realize when I became a young adult that if we don't teach our kids a better way of relating to their fellow human beings, the very future of humanity on the planet is in jeopardy.
– Graham Nash
When our friend , and Russ's wife, Nicolette Larson died, we decided to put on two concerts at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. All of Nickys' friends wanted to add and take part in the music. CSN, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, The Section, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Dan Fogelberg, Michael Ruff, Paul Gurian, Emmlou Harris, Robert Hayes, Peter Max, Little Feat, Joe Walsh and Jimmy Buffett all gave their best.
– Graham Nash
With Crosby, Stills, and Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young... we're very strong individuals, and we want our lives to be led the way we want them to.
– Graham Nash
You don't get on your feet if you don't have to, you know. And these people were on their feet rockin', and that was thrilling for David and I, absolutely.
– Graham Nash
You know, every year has been fantastic for me, I'm still here, I'm still alive and it's been fantastic.
– Graham Nash
You were either against the war in Vietnam or you were for the war. There was a very decisive line. You were either on one side or the other. I'm not so sure that in today's present climate that there is a galvanizing issue that could bring together the youth of the country and have them express themselves like they had in the '60s. Although there are many important issues, I'm not sure there is one galvanizing issue.
– Graham Nash