Bob Dylan’s opinion on David Crosby

Bob Dylan has said so much in his more than 600 songs, but even after more than 60 years in the music business, he is still a mysterious man. In recent decades, he has become more averse to award ceremonies and speaking to the press, with only a few exceptions, usually when promoting a new album or book. So it is quite rare to hear him talk about his fellow artists, but he did give his opinion on some of them, including the late David Crosby.

What is Bob Dylan’s opinion on David Crosby

Bob Dylan had been a fan of David Crosby since the 1960s, describing him as a colorful, unpredictable character with a beautiful voice. He praised the singer and songwriter while recalling a “weird adventure” they shared in the late 1960s. “Earlier in the week we had gotten back from Princeton, New Jersey, where I had been given a Honorary Doctorate degree. It had been a weird adventure. Somehow, I had motivated David Crosby to come along.”

“Crosby was part of a new supergroup, but I knew him from when he was in The Byrds, part of the West Coast music scene. They’d recorded a song of mine, “Mr. Tambourine Man,” and the record made it to the top of the charts. Crosby was a colorful and unpredictable character, wore a Mandrake the Magician cape, didn’t get along with too many people and had a beautiful voice — an architect of harmony.”

Bob Dylan continued:

“(Crosby) was tottering on the brink of death even then and could freak out a whole city block all by himself, but I liked him a lot. He was out of place in The Byrds. He could be an obstreperous companion. (…) After whispering and mumbling my way through the ceremony, I was handed the scroll. We piled back into the big Buick and drove away. It had been a strange day. ‘Bunch of dickheads on auto-stroke’ (Crosby told him),” Bob Dylan said in his book Chronicles.

Curiously, Crosby later told American Songwriter that it was him who convinced Dylan to go to that ceremony. “I wanted very much to be his friend and hang out with him. I go with him one time to accept an honorary degree from Princeton. He said, ‘I don’t think I want it’ and I said, ‘You should go do it. I’ll go with ya.’ So we rode down there and I wound up in one of his songs, but he’s not an easily guy to get close to.”

David Crosby continued:

“He is a fascinating guy though. (There are) a number of things (I admire in Bob). He’s a brilliant lyricist and the fact that he continues to try his level best to write stuff that will make you think, make you feel. Or both at the same time. He’s one of the two best songwriters of the century I would say. Bob and Joni Mitchell,” he said in 2012.

As Bob had previously said, he had the chance to get to know Crosby better when he was a member of The Byrds. The band turned many of his songs into hits, including “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “My Back Pages”. Dylan later played with the group on a couple of occasions and invited Crosby to be part of his 1990 album “Under the Red Sky”. Crosby sang backing vocals on the songs “2×2” and “Born in Time”.

David Crosby said Bob Dylan was “Crazy as a fruit bat”

Crosby once said that the word “temperamental” was too light to describe Bob. He said the musician was extremely complex and “very much his own man”. According to him, the legendary songwriter is not easy manipulatable but also “crazy as a fruit bat”, as he described him in an interview with Uncut in 2015.

“Dylan used to get up in the morning, straight, cup of coffee, sit down at the typewriter. He had a work ethic, which seems like something crazy to say about him. I mean, talk about crazy as a fruit bat! Bob loves to screw with your mind. I went with him to sing on a record, and I said, ‘OK Bob, show me the song’. He says, ‘Ah, let’s just go in and cut it.’”

“I say, ‘Bob, I’ve seen this movie before. Sing me the song, so I’ve got a chance.’ He goes, ‘All right,’ looks at me out of the corner of his eye. He sings me the song, one time. Then he says, “All right, let’s cut this thing!”, we go in the room, and he sings it completely different. On purpose! I’m just out there floundering, trying to find something that I can sing,” David Crosby said.

Bob Dylan is only a few months older than David Crosby. If the late CSNY member was still alive, he also would be celebrating his 85 birthday in 2026.