Crosby’s survival instinct

David Crosby knows he probably should have died a long time ago, said Stephen Rodrick in Rolling Stone. Since rising to fame with the Byrds in the 1960s, the singer-songwriter has survived a decades-long drug habit, liver failure, diabetes, and multiple heart attacks. “I don’t know why I’m alive and Jimi isn’t and Janis isn’t and Mama Cass isn’t and all my other friends,” says Crosby, 72, who kicked drugs—except for marijuana—in 1986. “I have no idea why me, but I got lucky.” Despite his years of living dangerously, Crosby is, paradoxically enough, very afraid of being murdered. He owns guns for self-protection; after he was busted on a firearm charge in the 1980s, his public explanation for why he was carrying a weapon consisted of two words: “John Lennon.” He actually began carrying years earlier, after Charles Manson’s gang committed the 1969 Sharon Tate murders just a half-mile from Crosby’s home. “When that happened, I said, ‘Mmm, I think I’m gonna get me a 12-gauge.’ And I did. Later on I got a .45. I’ve always been a gunner, it’s just part of my thing. But no, it’s not really based on a reasonable fear. I think you’re probably better off calling 911.”

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