“There’s No Heart There”: Graham Nash Gets Candid on a Reunion With Neil Young and Stephen Stills

The joint musical career of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young—known by their abbreviated name, CSNY—has been marked not only by monumentally successful albums but also by disputes, spin-off collaborations, and cycling rumors of a reunion. But as of January 2023, a complete reunion of the original quartet became impossible when David Crosby died from COVID-19 complications.

Within the context of Crosby’s death, Graham Nash revealed his true thoughts about what a reunion with his former bandmates, Neil Young and Stephen Stills, would really look like.

Graham Nash On Reunion With Neil Young, Stephen Stills

CSNY’s interpersonal disputes are nearly as famous as their musical contributions since the band’s founding in 1968. Every band member had rows with one another during their career. Their first breakup came in the early 1970s, though they would reconvene for recording or one-off performances in the following decades. Sideways remarks via public interviews interspersed these appearances.

In October 2024, CSNY’s surviving members released archival recordings from their September 1969 performances at the Fillmore East. Graham Nash spoke to Rolling Stone ahead of the release, saying, “When David passed, we dedicated the entire album to him because he was the heartbeat of this band. His passing brought a halt to us all making music together.” Despite Crosby being at the center of many of the band’s feuds over the years, Nash said he didn’t think he, Stephen Stills, and Neil Young would ever play together again after Crosby’s death.

“There’s no heart there,” the “Our House” songwriter explained. “David was the center of it all, as crazy as he was. My God, he was crazy. But he was the heart of this band. That’s why I think that if Stephen and Neil and I ever played together, people would be missing Crosby. We would be missing Crosby. It just would be a much colder scene.”

There Is More CSNY Music To Come

Before the breakups, feuds, and David Crosby’s passing in 2023, Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young prolifically documented their material. So, while there is unlikely ever to be an “SNY” reunion, there is still more previously unheard music from the 1960s supergroup to enjoy. Graham Nash told Rolling Stone that he believed his former bandmate, Neil Young, had plans to release video footage from CSNY’s 1970 Fillmore performances.

And Nash has more tricks up his sleeve, too, including an album years in the making that features Nash, Crosby, Stephen Stills, Kenny Loggins, Carole King, John Mayer, and James Taylor. “It’s a collection of the great music that we made singing the backups for all those great records like “Mexico” and “Love the One You’re With” and “You Got a Friend” and “All the Pretty Little Ponies.” It’s beautiful stuff. We have 26 pieces to choose from.”

As for CSNY’s original repertoire, Nash has no plans of taking that out of his touring setlist. “I feel great joy in playing that kind of music,” he told the magazine. “I want my audience to know two things. One, that I want to be there making music for them. I’m not going to phone it in; I’m not going to do it half-a****. Secondly, I’m going to sing the same songs that I’ve done a million times with the same passion I had when I wrote them. And I believe that I owe that to my audience.”

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