Friday, Oct. 25, 2002 | 9:45 a.m.
Who: David Crosby and Judy Collins.
When: Tonight through Sunday.
Where: Le Theatre Des Arts, Paris Las Vegas.
Tickets: $65 (reserved seating).
Information: (702) 946-4567.
On the surface it might be easy to dismiss the modern-day David Crosby simply as the living embodiment of VH1's "Behind the Music" series.
Consider some of the incidents that have landed the renowned singer songwriter on the cover of the nation's tabloids over the years:
Yet for the 61-year-old Crosby, such headline-grabbing events are clearly secondary to the major love in his life: music. An inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice, with seminal folk-rock bands The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby continues to search for new sounds and different ways to present familiar material to audiences.
This weekend, that search brings him to Las Vegas, where he will play three shows with legendary folk artist Judy Collins. The concerts, scheduled for tonight, Saturday and Sunday at Paris Las Vegas' Le Theatre Des Arts, will mark the first time since the early 1960s the two performers have shared a bill.
"This should be new ground, and that's one of the main reasons I took it, because it's something new," Crosby said in a phone interview from his home in Santa Barbara. "I opened for her one of the very first gigs I had when I was a young folkie, but we've never done any shows together (since)."
Crosby and Collins will each perform a set of their own music, and Crosby said he also expects the two to spend some time together onstage.
"I'm sure we'll probably sing something together," Crosby said. "We've known each other for years, and I admire her tremendously because she is one of the best voices in the country."
Playing alongside Crosby will be the other members of his acoustic touring trio, CPR: guitarist James Pevar and Raymond -- Crosby's long-lost son -- on keyboard.
After three decades apart, Raymond reunited with Crosby in 1994, and the two began playing together soon thereafter.
"He's a wonderful man," Crosby said. "And he's a much better musician that I am. He's brilliant. It's helped me tremendously, because most of the best stuff I've written in the last few years has been with him."
After his gigs with Collins, Crosby will continue to push his music in new directions. Among the possibilities: another Crosby-Nash album with longtime friend and bandmate Graham Nash and more work with Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young, who recently completed a worldwide CSN&Y tour.
"This is how (CSN&Y) meant it to work in the first place," Crosby said. "That's why we used our own names, because we wanted to have our careers and just come together when we wanted to, not have it be something that was like a straight-jacket where it was the only thing you could do.
"And it works for us. We're kind of crazy guys, but it seems to work for us."
CSN&Y has also announced plans to release a DVD documenting a recent live performance, though Crosby expressed doubts about whether Young will approve the final product.
"I'm hoping. I've seen footage, and I thought it was fantastic," Crosby said. "But it's always up to Neil. He's the biggest bear. Neil is bigger by himself than the three of us put together, and we know that. The four of us together are stronger even than Neil by himself, and he knows that, too. But he's the one that pretty much defines when stuff happens."
As he did throughout the politically charged 1960s and early '70s, Crosby continues to use music as a way to express his thoughts on key world issues. Though he has yet to put his thoughts about Sept. 11 down on paper, he says he expects that to happen before long.
"Sept. 11 hit me hard, and I haven't been able to digest it and write something about it," Crosby said. "But it will come."
One topic concert-goers can expect to hear about this weekend will be an issue of particular local interest: the proposed plan to bring nuclear waste to nearby Yucca Mountain.
Crosby said he will likely discuss his views on the subject, and suggested music fans check out Graham Nash's song "Barrel of Pain," which warns of the dangers of nuclear waste.
"(The Yucca Mountain plan) is blazingly stupid," Crosby said. "And bad as I think it is to try and put it under Yucca Mountain, I think it's even stupider to try to move it when there's no way in hell they can move that much stuff without having an accident.
"If you have an accident with BBs or Barbie dolls, that's one thing. If you have an accident moving plutonium, well 10,000 years later you still can't go there."
As Crosby makes his point, his voice raises slightly in anger, taking on the same tone that once gave anti-war anthems such as "Almost Cut My Hair" their edge. It comes through again when he discusses the loss of so many of his generation's greatest artists, even as he gives thanks he survived his many brushes with death.
"The overriding emotion is gratitude, but the secondary one is sadness at thinking, 'What a loss,' " Crosby said. "I keep wondering, 'How good would (Jimi) Hendrix be right now? How well could Janis (Joplin) sing by now? How hard could (John) Belushi make you laugh if he was still doing it, or Lenny Bruce?'
"I mean, give me a break, We're talking about some of the greatest talents that ever lived, and they're gone."
Crosby, meanwhile, is still very much alive. And as he eases into his 60s, the voice of a generation can't help but laugh at the irony.
"I'm ancient, older than dirt. But I feel good. I'm not dead, and we like that. Near as we know, it's better."
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