Graham Nash is an English-American musician, singer and songwriter. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and Crosby, Stills & Nash. He was born in Blackpool, to where his mother had been evacuated from her hometown of Salford when World War II began. The family subsequently returned to Salford, where Nash grew up. In the early 1960s, Nash co-founded the Hollies, one of the UK’s most successful pop groups, with school friend Allan Clarke, and was credited as the group’s leader on their first album. He was featured vocally on “Just One Look”. He often sang featured bridge vocals on later Hollies recordings (“So Lonely”, “I’ve Been Wrong”, “Pay You Back With Interest”) and provided lead vocals on several later singles, notably “On a Carousel” and “Carrie Anne” (both 1967).
Nash initially met both David Crosby and Stephen Stills in 1966 during a Hollies US tour. On a subsequent visit to the US in 1968, he was more formally introduced to Crosby by mutual friend Cass Elliot in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. Nash left the Hollies to form a new group with Crosby and Stills. A trio at first, Crosby, Stills & Nash they later became a quartet in 1969 with Neil Young: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY). With both configurations, Nash went on to even greater worldwide success, penning many of CSN’s most-commercial hit singles such as “Our House” (about the house in Laurel Canyon shared with his then-lover Joni Mitchell); “Teach Your Children” and “Marrakesh Express” (both of which had been rejected by the Hollies); “Just a Song Before I Go”; and “Wasted on the Way”. Nash, has been described as the glue that keeps their often fragile alliances together.
Nash became politically active after moving to California, as reflected in his anti-Vietnam War songs “Military Madness” and “Chicago/We Can Change the World” (about the trial of the Chicago Eight). In 1972, during CSNY’s first hiatus, Nash teamed with Crosby, forming a successful duo. They worked in this configuration on and off for many years, producing four studio albums and a few live and compilation albums. His song “Immigration Man”, Crosby & Nash’s biggest hit as a duo, arose from a tiff he had with a US Customs official while trying to enter the country. In 1979, Nash co-founded Musicians United for Safe Energy which is against the expansion of nuclear power. MUSE put on the educational fundraising No Nukes events. In 2007 the group recorded a music video of a new version of the Buffalo Springfield song “For What It’s Worth”.
Nash briefly rejoined the Hollies in 1983 (to mark their 20th anniversary) to record two albums, What Goes Around… and Reunion. In 1993, Nash again reunited with the Hollies to record a new version of “Peggy Sue Got Married” that featured lead vocal by Buddy Holly (taken from an alternative version of the song given to Nash by Holly’s widow Maria Eleana Holly)—this Buddy Holly & the Hollies recording opened the Not Fade Away tribute album to Holly by various artists. In 2010, Nash was inducted a second time to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this time as a member of the Hollies. He received an OBE “for services to music and charitable activities”
In January 2016, Nash announced the forthcoming release of his new studio album entitled This Path Tonight (his first collection of new songs in fourteen years) and shared the title track from it through MOJO magazine’s website. In February 2016, Rolling Stone magazine unveiled a new song from the new album, the reflective “Encore,” the tender tune that wraps up Nash’s new album. In June 2018, Rhino Records released the two-disk box set Over The Years, a 30-track collection of Nash’s demos made from 1968 to 1980.
