David Crosby Returns From 20-Year Hiatus With ‘Croz’ – Album Premiere
It’s taken David Crosby over 20 years to record a follow-up to his 1993 solo album, Thousand Roads, but he wants his fans to know that his new album is worth the wait. “I spent a lot of that time working with Crosby, Stills and Nash these past two decades,” Crosby says of Croz, out January 28th. “But I wanted to challenge myself and work outside the group. Also, I do things differently than they do and a couple years ago, I just started writing like crazy. I’m so happy that I did.”
Croz – which streams exclusively here – took about two years of work, mostly at Jackson Browne‘s Santa Monica studio and his son James Raymond’s home studio. “These songs are all over the map,” Crosby tells Rolling Stone. “If there is a unifying theme, it’s that they’re all about human beings. When you get to the end of the album, you’ve really gone on an emotional voyage.”
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Mark Knopfler plays on the lead track “What’s Broken.” “That was a real piece of generosity on his part,” says Crosby. “His manager said he usually doesn’t record with people, but he might if I send [to] him. I sent him the song and he just called it. He just fucking killed it.”
“If She Called” was inspired by a group of prostitutes that Crosby saw outside of his hotel room in Belgium. “It was so cold, they had these skinny legs and they were trying to entice these drunk animals to fuck them,” he says. “It was so gross and so sad. I imagined how they hid their heart, their soul, their spirit while they did it. That was fascinating to me.”
Crosby just kicked off a rare solo tour in support of Croz; each date includes a complete performance of the album, as well as selections from his whole career. It wraps in February and, a month later, he launches a 13-date U.S. tour with Crosby, Stills and Nash.