The Byrds- Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, the late David Crosby

David Crosby has passed away. He was 81.

In a 24-month period beginning in Summer 1965, Los Angeles-based band The Byrds recorded and released four evolutionary albums which wrested away the world’s focus from the tidal wave of British Invasion bands led by The Beatles. The members of the original Byrds – singer/songwriter/electric 12-string guitar player Roger (Jim) McGuinn, singer/songwriter David Crosby, the talented but tortured late singer/songwriter Gene Clark, bass player Chris Hillman, & the late drummer Michael Clarke – were always unabashed in their acknowledgment of their influences, equal parts American folk singers, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles. Yet instead of being hopelessly derivative, somehow the Byrds ended up being one of the greatest imprints on both the form and substance of rock and country music to this day.  Above L-R rear the late Gene Clark,  Roger McGuinn, Michael Clarke; front left Chris Hillman, right foreground David Crosby

Many of my classic rock interviews have subsequently been used in DVDs and feature films, but never more prominently than these conversations with The Byrds Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, and Chris Hillman in the two-part rock documentary now running on Epix called Laurel Canyon . McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman join me in this ultra-rare classic rock interview covering the first four Byrds albums Mr Tambourine Man,  Turn Turn Turn, Fifth Dimension, and Younger Than Yesterday in February 1967. – Redbeard