Graham Nash Says David Crosby Makes Good Baby Daddy

Posted on Feb 5th 2009 4:00PM by Dan Reilly
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In January 2000, Melissa Etheridge and her partner, Julie Cypher, announced on the cover of Rolling Stone that David Crosby was the biological father of their children. While many were surprised by Crosby's generous deed, Graham Nash was already in on the secret. "I knew before it hit the major airwaves," Crosby's longtime bandmate in Crosby, Stills and Nash tells Spinner. "Obviously, we turned it into a joke, calling David 'the sperm whale.'"

Prior to Crosby's liver transplant in 1995, he and his wife, Jan, had gone through multiple fertility treatments in their ultimately successful efforts to conceive another child. Years later, a fateful dinner at Crosby's house helped Etheridge and Cypher become parents of their own. "Melissa and Julie were talking about wanting children, but they were a lesbian couple," recalls Nash. "Jan said, 'Well, why don't you do what me and David did? We got some of David's sperm and we impregnated me with that. We still have sperm left over. You're welcome to it.'"

Knowing Crosby's health problems, Etheridge and Cypher consulted a doctor, who gave them the green light to go through with it. "They looked at Crosby and his musical genes and wanted a part of that," Nash says. "I think that David and Jan did a great service to Melissa and Julie. I mean, what a beautiful thing, to be able to give life to somebody." Etheridge and Cypher went on to have two children, daughter Bailey and son Beckett, but split a few months after the big reveal. According to Nash, Crosby, for his part, still believes it was the right decision and thinks they're wonderful kids.

Graham Nash's Spinner Interview