David Crosby Talks About Cannabis

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David Crosby – the legendary musician and cannabis connoisseur answers a range of questions about cannabis. 

• How this came about…

"Last year I was on my tour bus before my Ft. Lauderdale concert with my old friend and entrepreneur Steven Sponder. At some point we started talking about how some of my friends like Willie Nelson, Whoopi Goldberg, Melissa Etheridge and Snoop Dogg were starting weed brands. Now these people all know about cannabis, but they'll tell you I always had the best weed. Steven and I talked about how much fun it would be to create a David Crosby cannabis brand. We decided on the name "Mighty Croz" at that moment because that's a nickname my friends gave me. Steven said, you keep making music and trust me to pair us up with the right company in the cannabis industry - and I said go for it."

• What kind of company he would work with....

“We're looking for the right cannabis company to partner with, one that has a long-term vision for what's coming down the road - then we'll partner with them and produce the best cannabis on earth. It's like the Wild West now. The different laws in each state make it difficult for even the most well-run cannabis cultivators and dispensaries to conduct business beyond the state they're in. My fans are all around the globe - so we're holding out for a company that can figure out how to bring my cannabis brand out to the world. We're also holding out for one that won’t be swallowed up in the inevitable consolidation that's already happening in the cannabis industry." 

• Why he likes cannabis...

"I like it for a whole lot of reasons. I like it for writing music. I like it for going to the museum. I like it for sex. I like it for building a fire and playing with the dogs. I like it for my aches and pains. I like it for helping me sleep. I really do enjoy it."

"What I do every night, after dinner with my family, I go into the bedroom and I build a fire - and then I vape some buds and take a guitar off the wall and play stoned. And it’s just the right thing for guitar: you get hung up and you play until your fingers hurt. I do that all the time. That’s how I write music.”

• Cannabis and creativity...

"Cannabis has been an important part of my creative process for years. The creativity was always there, the cannabis just brought it out. I smoke and pick up the guitar and write songs." 

"Many of the most iconic songs have been written by people who were herbally enhanced." 

"All those songs you like, CSNY, CSN, The Byrds...I wrote them all stoned on cannabis - every one of them."

"When you’re high and you’re happy, it’s a space that’s conducive to creating music."

• Why he wants a weed brand…

“I’m getting in it for several reasons. First, because people have been asking me to do this forever - Also, because it’s fun. Weed is fun, people who like weed are fun - and I like to have fun in my life." 

"With legalization expanding around the world, now is the right time."

“Other than music, being a serious weed connoisseur is what I'm known for."

“The audience for my weed brand will be the same people who've listened to and bought my music all these years – millions of Baby Boomers, the largest bump in the population curve. And the boomers just happen to be the ones buying it legal from the dispensaries. I've been associated with the boomer generation for over 50 years. There’s also a secondary audience of all of their offspring, the Gen-X'ers. That’s millions of people around the world as well.”

“I'm positioning my brand at a super high quality level - for people who are intelligent, have sophisticated taste and want quality."

"People know I’ll steer them to the highest quality. I've been called the pied-piper of cannabis." 

"Everything about my brand will be top quality. I'm known as a serious connoisseur of quality cannabis for over half a century, so I have authenticity and credibility – and I have a lot of experience to draw upon. I’ll weigh in with opinions. I’d require that anything with my name on it is top quality."

"People know me as a cannabis connoisseur going back to the 1960's. When the Beatles came to America, they looked to me to steer them to the best quality weed." 

"Cannabis will always be a huge part of everyday culture around the world. I recall looking down from the stage at Woodstock in 1969 at a sea of people and everybody was smoking weed." 

“I’m so damned recognizable. My face, my mustache, my long hair have been on all these records for 50 dammed years – so there’s this huge recognition factor around the world. I figure why not put that on the front of a cannabis package. If you’re walking into a dispensary and you see my face smiling up at you from a package, you’re likely to try it – and that’s a good thing. Then when you smell the weed  and taste it and like how it makes you feel, you'll come back for more.” 

“For me and my fans, authenticity matters. They'll try it and they’ll come back for more - not just because my name and face is on it, but because they know I stand for quality cannabis.”

"I would stay involved because I like cannabis and I can give valuable input. I can tell if cannabis is quality or not from the smell and taste. I’m probably the most knowledgeable celebrity on the subject of cannabis. I’m surely the most vocal and opinionated when it comes to speaking about it. I’m also surrounded by good people who know, love and understand my music and my fans, and they would give valuable input too.

"We are approaching this from the highest level. Anything that has my name on it has to be the highest quality. We're not rushing to slap my name on just any cannabis products."

• How Cannabis helps him...

"I've been a pothead for 50 years now. Besides enjoying the feeling, It helps with my aches and pains. I have chronic pain in both shoulders. When you get older, you’re often dealing with chronic pain. Weed is a great analgesic. I smoke just about every night to help me sleep."

• The best cannabis he’s ever had…
  

“I was in Canada and a girl brought over some weed and she said now be careful, this is very strong. It was called "Kootenay thunderfuck" and it was so god-damned strong, it was way too strong - I wanted to hide under the piano and suck my thumb.”

“There was an amazing range of weed in the late 1960’s. When we started, we were buying weed in brick kilos that were mostly seeds – really crap weed, and not knowing any better, we thought it was terrific! You had to smoke a lot to get high from it. But then, through sheer luck, I was connected to some people who were connected to some smugglers and I was one of the first people to get any Sensimilla which of course means no seeds, and it was much more powerful pot – and I had a blast with it.”

“I was the first one of the musicians in LA to connect up with sinsemilla, out of Mexico. Someone down there knew if you removed the males, you get much stronger pot. And it was a revolution, because we had crap pot up until then. I had it before anyone else had it, so I…. acquired a reputation.”

“At the time, I had just brought my girlfriend Joni Mitchell back to California from Florida and I was about to produce her record and I’d get groups of friends together and give them a joint or two of this spectacularly strong pot they had never encountered before and then Joni would sing them a song or two.” 

“Maui Wowie was the name that the guys who grew in Kona used, and the guys in Maui called their pot Kona Gold. They mixed everything back in the beginning of the seventies. The guys in Hawaii were growing the best pot in the world at the time. They crossbred everything with everything, so I think most of the separations you see people talking about now are theoretical more than actual.”

• Why he thinks people like Cannabis...
  

“The human race has always liked to get high on something. - That’s why we invented fermenting and distilling and ate every different kind of fruit and berry in the jungle. I think cannabis is the best way for people to get high. It’s much better for people than the other available ways people get loaded.” 

“People are going to get high anyway and cannabis is a safer and better way than the other available methods. I don’t approve of hard drugs at all. Beer isn’t that bad, wine isn’t that bad, but hard booze definitely does real damage. And then there are all the other ones. The pharmaceuticals do horrible things to you, and the serious hard drugs do even worse stuff to you. So really the only thing I know that you can do that gets you high that doesn’t do harm to you is herb.”

• His preferred method of enjoying cannabis…
  

“My preferred method is vaping flowers with a Pax 3. It’s better for me than smoking it because there’s no tar."

"My wife and I grow our own weed. It's legal to grow a few marijuana plants in California. We talk to our plants and we enjoy that. We also bake fantastic Ginger Snap cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies. We also make pot butter to make our pot brownies and cookies."

• His feelings about legalization…
  

“It’s inevitable. Legalization everywhere is going to happen - all over the U.S. and around the world because of the money. All the posturing the politicians do, waving their hands in the air saying we have to regulate this and that is all BS. It’s going to come down to the money. Anyone that looks at the money flowing in where its legal knows what the truth is.”

“I do believe cannabis should be legal everywhere. I knew people who were in jail for years over a couple of joints - and it’s just not right. I do feel a responsibility to stick up for people who have been stuck in jail for it unfairly. Bottom line is, it should be legal and people shouldn’t be going to jail for smoking a joint, and I want to reinforce that to the degree that I can.”

"It’s an innocent substance and it does no harm at all. We drive slow and eat ice cream, that’s our big crime. We don’t rob stores, we don’t go out and rape and pillage."

“People are looking at the success in places like Colorado and Oregon. The numbers are unequivocal. The places that have done it are winning and they will have money for schools, roads and hospitals. Bottom line is I’d like cannabis to be legal everywhere."

"I'm passionate about legalization - which is why I agreed to be on the National Advisory Board of NORML. along with my pal Willie Nelson and others."

“I think Canadians should congratulate themselves for having a country that was smart enough to change their laws and wind up being where all the major marijuana companies are based." 

"The places that get in first, like Canada make all the money. The cannabis companies set up there because it’s legal on the federal level there so they can bank it."

• Whether his brand will be recreational, medical or both…

“It’s both. As much as people just want to get high on cannabis, I think you’re going to find that CBD (Cannabidiol), once it’s refined, concentrated, packaged and marketed is going to become a hugely successful painkiller – because the other main families of painkillers, the opioids, if you do them for a few weeks you’re hooked and that’s a real problem. And the NSAIDs (aspirin/ibuprofen) are not good for your kidneys and your liver, particular your kidneys. So a new family of painkillers coming on the market that doesn’t have the side effects of addiction or damage to your kidneys, that could be even bigger than getting high. Everybody at some point has some pain in their shoulder, their knee, their foot or their elbow.”