David Crosby Discusses Working With Rick Rubin on Upcoming Covers Album

Posted on Jun 22nd 2009 3:45PM by Dan Reilly
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Though they've been around for over 40 years, Crosby, Stills and Nash are still keeping their setlists fresh on their current world tour. "We're performing a whole lot of brand new s---," David Crosby tells Spinner. "We've been rehearsing covers that we'll be doing for an album with Rick Rubin, so there's a bunch of new songs in the new set, which has us pretty charged up."

The recent covers the band have worked on, according to Crosby, include James Taylor's 'You Can Close Your Eyes,' the Grateful Dead's 'Uncle John's Band,' Bob Dylan's 'Lady of the North Country,' and many more. "Those are the ones that felt good," Crosby says. "We try them out and it's like putting on a shoe – if it seems to fit, then you wear it." The song selection is influenced by Rubin, who Crosby says "is not your average bear." "We write down a list of songs we think are potentials, learn them, make up our version, and sing them for him," Crosby says. "He'll like maybe one out of eight, so we go back to the drawing board and learn another eight or ten. It's a very slow process."

Right before the tour kicked off on June 3rd, the band announced they were adding 23 more shows, stretching the trek into September. "We were really feeling good with each other, like we could handle it, and there was a very good response to the initial ticket offering," Crosby says. "We were hoping that would be the case but it's a rough economy, so we weren't sure. My dad lived through the depression and he said people would spend their money on a movie or a vaudeville show. People needed to be happy for a minute, and that seems to be the case with our ticket sales. Now, I think if you're the Eagles and you're charging 500 bucks a ticket, you're going to have a problem."