Obituary: David Crosby

Musician David Crosby, 81, of undisclosed causes.  He was known as a co-founder of two noted bands:  The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  Crosby had had health problems over the years including having hepatitis, which required a liver transplant.  The article notes he had a popular Twitter account and was writing in it as recently as yesterday.

Snip from the article:

Crosby was a child of Hollywood privilege. He was the son of cinematographer Floyd Crosby, who won an Oscar for his work on F.W. Murnau’s 1931 feature “Tabu.” Raised in L.A. and Santa Barbara, he was an indifferent student who gravitated to acting and music at an early age.

Dropping out of Santa Barbara City College to pursue a career in music, he became involved in the commercial folk music scene via brief membership in Les Baxter’s Balladeers, a Limeliters-styled unit organized by the well-known composer-arranger.

He began working the L.A. folk clubs as a solo act; at a set at the Troubadour, his crisp tenor voice attracted the attention of Jim Dickson, the house engineer at Richard Bock’s L.A. label World Pacific Records. Dickson began demoing Crosby as a solo artist, but those sessions ultimately culminated in the formation of a band.