Graham Nash promises a few hours of ‘reasonable peace’ at KC’s Kauffman Center
During a recent concert where Graham Nash was speaking his mind about needless wars and his belief that the president started a war with Iran to distract from the Epstein files, someone in the audience yelled out.
“Just play music!”
“Obviously you’ve never been to a Graham Nash show before,” he responded from the stage.
After more than 60 years of making music the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer still has things to say about what’s going on in the world.
He’ll share them Tuesday when he performs at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on the summer leg of his latest solo tour launched in April.
The British-born founding member of the folk-rock supergroup Crosby Stills & Nash (CSN) and Crosby Stills Nash & Young (CSNY) still believes music can change the world.
It was the counterculture voice of CSNY that recorded the famous protest song “Ohio” just days after the killing of four Kent State University students demonstrating against the Vietnam War in 1970.
It was Nash who wrote the hit “Immigration Man” in the early ‘70s after having trouble with customs officials while trying to get back into the United States.
It’s been Nash, over more than six decades, supporting peace, social justice and environmental causes in the United States, sounding an alarm about nukes after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, singing at Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011.
“My wife Amy sent me a quote once from (musician, civil rights activist) Nina Simone,” Nash told The Star. “Nina Simone said, no matter what kind of an artist you are, whether you’re a musician or a photographer or a sculptor or a painter, you have to reflect the times in which you live.
“And my goodness, we have to talk about what’s going on in our lives right now.”
His decision about what songs to perform on tour begins with a skeleton set list of six or seven songs he knows fans want to hear, all classic CSN and CSNY.
His latest album of 13 original songs, “Now,” came out in 2023 and includes an appearance by Allan Clarke who co-founded the British rock group, The Hollies, Nash’s first band. The Hollies were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in March 2010.
Crosby Stills & Nash were inducted in 1997, then ushered into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009.
“They want to hear ‘Our House.’ They want to hear ‘Teach Your Children.’ They want to hear ‘Chicago.’ They want to hear ‘Immigration Man’ ... in a way, one of the reasons is their melodies. You can’t forget it if you’ve heard them a couple of times,” he said.
“But mainly I realized just how relevant those songs are right now.”
He applauded Bruce Springsteen for using music to protest the Trump administration and ICE activity after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed in Minneapolis in January.
“First of all I love what Bruce Springsteen is doing,” said Nash. “I mean, he’s telling the truth every single night and his fans have come to recognize that he will talk to them about what’s going on.
“Once again, we have to reflect the times in which we live and I’m not sure there’s a lot of new people that are doing it.
“First of all, they expect retribution from Trump and his administration and that puts a lot of people off talking about it. ... That’s why I think a lot of people are not speaking out as much as they should.
“I’m not scared. I’m an American citizen for over 50 years. I love this country. I love the fact that we can speak our minds and I love the fact that we can talk the truth.”
(The day after Nash spoke to The Star, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger said in a New York Times podcast that, unlike Springsteen, he avoids political talk during his concerts to give audiences a break from “all their problems and the problems of the world and their mortgages and their whatever.”)
Nash said he recently finished writing a protest song about ICE that will be released later this year.
Nash also has been “a photographer longer than I’ve been a musician,” and has a new book of photographs coming out this year.
Called “Life and Light,” it’s a collection of about 180 images “that people have never seen before ... I’ve always got my camera with me. I’m still waiting for Elvis to come back on the back of an elephant and I’ll be there to photograph it”
Last September Nash posted a photo of himself with longtime friend and fellow British rocker Peter Frampton, both with walking canes in their hands. “Look who I met up with for a bit today! I happen to think we look pretty cool with our canes,” Nash wrote.
About four months ago Nash, who has lived in New York City for about 11 years, recently broke one of his kneecaps in half “just walking and falling.”
He said he still feels the physical aftermath of a freak boating accident he survived in Hawaii in 1999 in which he broke both legs.
“Unfortunately I can still feel it, you know,” he said. “It’s going to take me a long time to get over it, but I’m 84 right now, and I’m still passionate about going out there. And I actually really love what I do ... to be able to sing with people, and my audience too I love.
“If my audience wants to sing ‘Teach Your Children’ with me or ‘Our House’ with me, God bless them. ... I don’t mind that. I want the audience to be a part of the show.
“I think that even though life is incredibly chaotic right now, I think people can catch an hour or so of reasonable peace and those are my last words to my audience. We wish you peace.”
Crosby Stills & Nash last toured in 2015 and broke up for the final time in 2016. Nash said his audiences today range in age from 14 to 75, which makes him think longtime fans are introducing the group’s music to younger generations.
His tours, Nash said, offer a rare chance to hear it from an original member.
“The thing is, if you want to hear any of this music you’re gonna have to come and see me because Neil (Young) is not gonna play any CSN songs,” he said, referencing Young’s known aversion to nostalgia.
“Stephen (Stills) is not touring anymore and unfortunately David (Crosby) passed away about three years ago.
“So yeah, if you want to hear any of that kind of music you have to come and see me.”
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