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David Crosby, 1941-2023

The influential musician rejected rock rules - and lived to tell the tale.

By Rachel DeSantis in People

avid Crosby knew what it meant to have a second lease on life. The singer-songwriter, whose sparkling harmonies alongside bandmates Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young cemented his place as a rock and roll legend, had seen high highs tarnished by low lows. Yet he was the first to recognize his luck. "Having almost lost music, I treasured it more," he told People in 2019 of surviving addiction and serious health issues. "When I didn't die and I didn't end, I got a new chance."

When Crosby died at age 81 on Jan. 18 after an undisclosed illness, loved ones remembered his enduring spirit. "His humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us," Jan Dance, his wife of 36 years, said in a statement a day later. His former bandmates, with whom he had overcome years of turmoil, remained on his side after his death. "David's voice and energy were at the heart of our band," said Young, while Stills called him "the glue that held us together." Nash, with whom Crosby recorded four albums as a duo, wrote that he was "grateful to have sung with him, played with him [and] butted heads with him."

Born in Los Angeles to a cinematographer and a saleswoman, Crosby found fame in 1964 with the Byrds and later with Stills and Nash, a trio born from an impromptu jam session at either Joni Mitchell or Mama Cass Elliot's house, depending on whom you ask. Young soon joined the fold, and though their album Déjà Vu hit No. 1, the band's perfect harmonies weren't quite in sync in real life. "We made incredible music, but we were a fully competitive band all the time," Crosby once said.

Their ups and downs were amplified by Crosby's drug addition. A 1985 stint in jail on drug charges forced him to turn his life around. "I love [performing]. It's what I was born to do," Crosby -- who played his first sober performance in 20 years a few days after his release -- told People. "For three hours a night, I'm the happiest guy in the world."

Offstage Crosby found further fulfillment as a father. In 1995 he and Jan welcomed their only son, Django, 27. He was also dad to two older daughters; Erika and Donovan; son James, 60; and was a sperm donor for his friend, singer Melissa Etheridge and her then-partner Julie Cypher (see sidebar). James was placed for adaption as an infant, but father and son later reunited and formed the band CPR together. I'm fond of saying that I thought I had a Ph.D. in fun, but I didn't know what real fun was until my kid said 'Daddy,'" he wrote in his 2006 memoir. "Truthfully, raising a child can be the most fun thing on the planet."  

Jeff Beck, 1944-2023

The guitar heroes' guitar hero, considered one of the most
influential instrumentalists of all time, dies at 78.

By Rachel DeSantis in People

hen it came to the electric guitar, there was no one who had it mastered quite like Jeff Beck. The British musician was an endlessly inventive rock performer, hailed by former Yardbirds bandmate Jimmy Page as a "six-stringed warrior," and one who could cast spells with the fingers he famously had insured for $1 million a digit. Beck died "peacefully" on Jan. 10 at age 78 after contracting bacterial meningitis, his family said in a statement. Friend and collaborator Johnny Depp, which whom he released his final album, was among those who visited his bedside.

Though he never achieved the mainstream success of peers like Eric Clapton, Beck was revered by industry giants. Born in South London on June 24, 1944, he became fascinated with the electric guitar at age 6 after hearing Les Paul on the radio and built his first instrument. He briefly went to art school before entering the London rock circuit. By 1965 Clapton had recruited Beck as his successor in the Yardbirds, and with the group he recorded the 1966 album Roger the Engineer, featuring the single "Over Under Sideways Down." Beck's tenure was short-lived, followed by the formation of his own band, the Jeff Beck Group, alongside relative unknowns Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. His skills made him a hot commodity in the late 1960s; both Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones were reportedly interested in poaching him. Though the Jeff Beck Group fell apart after two albums, he formed a new iteration in 1972 and later performed as Beck, Bogert & Appice with Vanilla Fudge's Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice.

In addition to a solo career, which he continued deep into his 70s, Beck remained a coveted collaborator for artists including David Bowie, Sting, Kate Bush, Joss Stone and Jon Bon Jovi. (That's Beck shredding on the "Blaze of Glory" guitar solo.) "I'm an experimenter," he said in 2016. "[My Fender Strat] is part of me. It doesn't feel like a guitar at all." The eight-time Grammy winner -- who is survived by wife Sandra -- was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, first with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. "He's developed a whole style of expanding the electric guitar and making it into something...totally unheard of," said Page at the induction. "That's just an amazing feat, believe me."  

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