From director A.J. Eaton and producer/interviewer Cameron Crowe, David Crosby: Remember My Name is not just a great music documentary about an iconic rock musician, but it’s also an intimate, honest and heartfelt portrait of a man who’s had soaring career highs and incredible personal lows, and isn’t afraid to acknowledge the role he played in it all. Through candid conversations with the singer/songwriter, the film looks at Crosby’s time in The Byrds, as well as Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and contrasts that with his experience touring today, surrounded by the young musicians who have helped inspire four albums, with his fifth currently in production.

At the film’s Los Angeles press day, Collider got the opportunity to sit down with two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee David Crosby to chat 1-on-1 about how this film evolved into what it is now, not wanting to make the typical self-serving music documentary, being fully committed to honestly answering every question that he was asked, no matter how difficult, what he thinks of Cameron Crowe as a filmmaker, why they’ve remained friends for so many years, the freedom of speaking your own truth, how his wife got involved, and what it’s like to tour and deal with the business side of things now.

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Image via Sony Pictures Classics

Collider:  I thought this was such an incredible film. It’s a great documentary, an incredible music documentary, and just a great movie, in general. It’s one of the best things that I’ve seen this year. How do you feel about all of this? It seems like this isn’t something that anybody set out to make, necessarily, and yet you have this incredible thing to show for it.

DAVID CROSBY:  You know, these things have a life of their own. I’m 77 years old. I’m supposed to be quietly taking my wife’s hand and walking off into the sunset, and going, “Goodbye, it’s been great,” but it didn’t work out that way. I’ve made four albums in four years, and I’m half-way through a fifth one. That’s unusual. It’s an aberration. It’s not how it normally goes. So, I was willing to admit to (director) A.J. [Eaton] that, “Okay, that’s true, and maybe it is an interesting thing to do a documentary about, but I’m not really ready to take it seriously.” And then, Cameron [Crowe] got involved. I’ve known Cameron since he was 15. He’s one of the brightest people that I ever met. Don’t tell him I said. He loves music as much as I do, and he’s also not a bullshitter. And neither is A.J.. When we talked about doing this, they wanted to approach it at the only level that it was appealing to me. Most documentaries are shine jobs. They’re about as deep as a bird bath, and they tell you almost nothing about the person. If the documentary is about you, I want to know what you care about. I want to know what you’re afraid of. I want to know who you love. I want to know what moves you. That’s the important stuff to me. Those [other] documentaries don’t have any real value to me. They’re celebratory and they’re congratulatory and they make you feel great, but you don’t learn anything about that person, really. Occasionally, you see one where you can catch a glimpse of who the person really was. That one about Keith Richards was pretty good. I could see some of who Keith actually is there, but that’s very rare. I could name you a dozen that didn’t do that, not even close.

That honesty is what I responded to. I haven’t been so emotionally moved, seeing a documentary like this before.

CROSBY:  I haven’t either, and that’s the truth. That was the only level we really were interested in trying it at, and you don’t really know if you can. As we started and as we found the chemistry of how we worked together, it went much deeper even than we hoped it would and it went deeper than we even thought it could, and that’s a blessing. That’s when you feel like you’ve just struck pay dirt because that’s absolutely where we wanted to go. That’s the stuff that’ll make you feel something, and a film’s job is to make you feel something. That’s what these guys care about. Their whole thing in life is to make you feel something, with a series of images juxtaposed exactly in certain ways and with certain timings. They set you up, and then they whack you. They’re really good at it, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out because it’s not a shine job. I’m proud of it because of that.

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Image via Sony Pictures Classics

Were there times that you just wanted to kick them out and not answer the questions they were asking?

CROSBY:  No.

Did you go into it, then, with the mind-set of, “I’m going to answer everything they ask, no matter how hard or uncomfortable the question is”?

CROSBY:  Yeah. If you go into it, you’ve gotta go into it whole hog. I was fully committed to it. I’m still fully committed to it. I think the proof’s in the pudding. It made you feel something, therefore it’s good art. That’s my whole criteria for art. If I look at a painting, if it doesn’t make me feel anything, I don’t care how much it costs. I don’t care what somebody thought was cool about it, if it doesn’t make me feel anything. It’s the same for documentaries, movies, books, plays, or anything. It’s about, “Does it make me feel anything?” I don’t think you can do that with shallow.

I went into this expecting to get a deeper appreciation for the music, but I wasn’t expecting to laugh and cry.

CROSBY:  No, I wasn’t expecting it either. But it is what I was hoping for. I’m glad it did that to you. That makes me feel good. That means it was good art. You don’t expect it to be that emotional. You can do it any way that you think is right, but that’s what seemed right to us, and that’s why I let it go forward. I had complete unity of purpose, completely, and all of us wanted that, on the same level.

You’ve known Cameron Crowe for a very long time, and you essentially helped inspire Almost Famous. Have you watched his film career, over the years? What do you think of the work that he’s done and the movies that he’s put out?

CROSBY:  He’s a storyteller, and a brilliant one. He was, right from the get-go. He’s developed into a master craftsman. He can make a film as well as anybody in the world. He’s at that level. People already obviously love his work. He’s made these hugely successful movies because they’ve really tapped into something in people.

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Image via Sony Pictures Classics

There’s a clear love of humanity in his work.

CROSBY: And there’s a lot of humanity, a lot of compassion, and a lot of depth in his characters. He wants you to go in. I don’t think he’s even close to what he’s going to do. I think you have not yet seen what he’s capable of. He’s just getting started. He’s that good.

What did you think of him, when you first met him at 15 or 16, compared to who he is now?

CROSBY:  He’s the same guy. What got all of us – the Allmans and Zep (Led Zeppelin), and everybody that he went with – was that he was brilliant. He was an absolutely brilliant kid. And he was pretty fearless and very honest, which is a very attractive combination. I just think people haven’t really seen what he’s capable of yet. I know he made Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. I know what he’s done. He’s good. But I think he’s gonna be even better.

When you first met him, did you think that you would still be friends with him, all of these years later?

CROSBY:  I didn’t really think about it. I just kept running into him and kept liking him. I kept liking his work and who he was. And every time we would be in contact, we would wind up laughing our fool heads off and having a blast. He’s the kind of person that you want to be friends with. He’s somebody that you can be proud of, as a friend, because he behaves decently and he doesn’t screw people over. He doesn’t lie, and that’s pretty unusual, especially in show biz. I think that’s one of the reasons that the documentary sticks out. It’s because everybody’s lying all the freakin’ time now, in the United States. It’s like, “I can tell a bigger lie than you can!” It’s back and forth, constantly. And here comes this documentary, where everybody is obviously telling the truth – a little painfully, but that’s what they’re doing – and you can tell. I think that’s one of the reasons everybody’s reacting to it the way that they are. It’s because they’re used to a steady diet of lies, and when somebody comes along that isn’t afraid to tell them the truth, they freakin’ love it.

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Image via Sony Pictures Classics

One of the things that’s obviously the hardest to hear is when you talk in the doc about the fact that you no longer talk to any of the people that you’ve played music with, or any of your former bandmates. Has any of that changed, since then?

CROSBY:  No, and I don’t think it’s going to. And it’s not why we did it. This isn’t a flag for them. I don’t even think they’ll watch it. But it lightens my load to be able to tell you how I feel about them and about everything. I’m all about that. I may not get another chance. I’m very, very grateful for having a chance, where they didn’t censor me, and they didn’t try to polish it into something cute. I’m really happy about it, I’ve gotta say.

Had you been wanting to own your own responsibility for awhile, before talking about it publicly?

CROSBY:  Well, that’s an ongoing project. I spent many, many years as a junkie. That’s as low as it goes. You wouldn’t have let me in your house, literally. You would’ve turned me away, at the door. I promise you, you would have. So, I felt terrible about myself. Now, it really fucking matters to me, what I think about myself. I want to feel good about myself. This helps me do that. It’s crucial to me and to my survival, not just to my pleasure, but to me being able to draw another breath, how I feel about myself. I must not let myself go where I used to be. I have to advance. I have to grow. It’s crucial. This is part of that, and I think it’s very positive, but it was difficult. It’s hard being naked in public, especially if you look like me. You’d probably be okay, but I don’t look very good naked. It’s hard, but it’s also the only worthwhile way to do it. I’ve seen lots of the other documentaries, and I wasn’t interested in doing one of those.

In contrast, there’s something so beautiful about the relationship that you have with your wife, Jan, which we get to see glimpses of in the film.

CROSBY:  We’ve been together for 42 years.

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Image via Sony Pictures Classics

Was there a conversation with her about being a part of this? Did she need convincing to be involved?

CROSBY:  She just had to see that she could trust them. She’s not a person who trusts people easily. You have to earn it. And once they did earn it, when she saw how they were treating it, then she was willing to do it. She’s a very emotional woman, and she’s not afraid to let you know how she feels. I think she’s one of the best things in it because you can tell she’s not lying. It’s a funny thing, the only complaints that we’ve had about the film were that people wanted more of her, they wanted more songs, and they wanted more film. They just wanted more. We’ve had a dozen people say, “Couldn’t you have made it a little longer?” Well, yeah, we could have, but editing is all about timing and flow, and when you hit them with it. You have to set it up, and slide it in. I’m not good at that, but A.J., Cameron, and the two editor ladies that did the film are brilliant at it. People don’t realize how crucial that is. My dad (Floyd Crosby) was a cinematographer. He did High Noon. He told me that editors make the film, and he was very unequivocal about it. And they did a great job. The proof is in the pudding. Everybody that sees it, is moved by it. How many pieces of work have you seen that that’s true of? It doesn’t happen very often. You don’t see that where, unanimously, every single person we know that’s seen it, winds up crying and being moved by it. That’s good art.

The two movies that made me cry, so far this year, are this film and Toy Story 4.

CROSBY:  Oh, man, I’m a big Toy Story fan. I’m a big Randy Newman fan. I’m looking forward to seeing that.

Are you surprised that you still have the love of music, touring, recording and continuing to make music that you clearly still have?

CROSBY:  No, because, at it’s best, it’s just so magical. It’s such a lifting force, and it makes things better.

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Image via Sony Pictures Classics

I’m always very suspicious of people who don’t seem to like music, or who don’t identify with it.

CROSBY:  Be very suspicious of anyone who doesn’t like music. I don’t understand them, but that’s okay. They’re not my friends. My friends all love music. And if they don’t like dogs, cancel them right off. Just don’t even talk to them. And if your dog doesn’t like them, trust your dog. Your dog is right.

Does touring feel different? Do you have a different appreciation for it now?

CROSBY:  It feels harder and better. It’s much harder, at the level that I’m doing it. You’re riding in a bus, and it beats the crap out of you. But the level of art and music that I’m making, man, this is some of the best music I’ve ever made, with these last four records and half-way through the fifth one. This is the stuff that I want to be doing. It’s complex, it’s subtle, it goes everywhere, musically and ideologically. I really like what I’m doing. It doesn’t make a bunch of money, and streaming means that I don’t make any money off of records. But as an artist, what I’m doing right now is the most satisfying thing that I could possibly want to do. I’m in two really good bands, with a bunch of really good writers, and I’m making good art. That’s what I’m supposed to be doing. That’s my job.

You must have seen so many changes, on the business side of things, throughout the years.

CROSBY:  The big one is streaming. That just killed us. The streaming companies are making billions of dollars. The numbers are right out there, in the public. The three main record companies are making, I was told, $19 million a day, off of streaming, and the artists are getting shafted. It’s as if you did your gig for month, and they paid you a nickel. They’re paying you, but not enough to live. It isn’t right. And it’s very, very, very, very tough on young people who are trying to get in. It’s cut my income in half. I’m still making the rent, but I’ve gotta work a lot more than a person who’s almost 80 years old should have to work. I like the singing part, but the road beats the crap out of me, and it would be great, if I could make money off of records, the way that I used to. They snuck it past us. What happened is that the streaming companies, when they developed their technology, went to the big record companies, they said, “Hey, we need a different rate. What we’ll give you is no physical object. You don’t have to produce a physical object, so there’s less cost. You’re gonna like that. What we need is a better rate. We need a way where we can make the billions of dollars, instead of the artists making the billions of dollars. Okay?” And the record companies said, “Sure, no problem. All you have to do is give us a piece of your company.” And they did that. That’s how it went right around us. When we thought the music up.

Which is horrible because the artist should be the one getting the proper appreciation for their art. There is no company to stream without something to actually stream. That’s just crazy!

CROSBY:  It is! And it was fun talking to you.

David Crosby: Remember My Name is in select theaters in New York City and Los Angeles, and opens nationwide throughout August.