David Crosby^†

The Byrds fired him in 1967 for talking too much. At Monterey Pop, he'd gone off about the JFK assassination and suggested giving LSD to world leaders, and his bandmates had enough. It turned out to be the best career move he didn't make. Within two years he'd co-founded Crosby, Stills & Nash and arranged their vocal harmonies. Woodstock was only their second live gig. The debut album landed two Top 40 singles. Getting kicked out was the only way he was ever going to be in charge.

Between 1971 and 2013, he put out three solo albums. Between 2014 and 2021, he put out five. The late run wasn't nostalgia. He built it with younger collaborators like Snarky Puppy's Michael League. He told a high school journalism class the reason was simple: "I'm gonna die." His Twitter account became its own phenomenon, an octogenarian posting about tacos by the pool and roasting strangers. People who'd never heard Deja Vu treated him like a folk hero. By the end, his bandmates wouldn't speak to him, but the internet couldn't get enough.

Phil Collins paid for his liver transplant in 1994. He'd spent months in a Texas prison in 1986 on cocaine and weapons charges, contracted hepatitis C, and was down to 20 percent liver function when Collins stepped in. He survived nearly 30 years on the donated organ. The rest of his private life ran at the same pitch. He served as sperm donor for Melissa Etheridge and her partner Julie Cypher, fathering two children, Bailey and Beckett. Etheridge has said they keep finding more of his biological children "out in the world."

His family announced his death on January 19, 2023, saying he'd passed 'after a long illness,' though friends said the decline was sudden. Graham Nash, who hadn't spoken to him in years, posted a photo of their guitar cases side by side. A finished Lighthouse Band album sat mixed and mastered. Two songs into a Sky Trails follow-up with James Raymond and three into another Lighthouse record, he ran out of time.