Chris Stills

Born to Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Buffalo Springfield along with French singer/songwriter Veronique Sanson, Chris Stills inherited a deep musical lineage from the start. His mother introduced him to piano during childhood, and although drums also entered the picture, guitar did not appear until age twelve. While traveling with Crosby, Stills & Nash, a guitar technician handed the boy an extra instrument, demonstrated basic chords and one song, and ignited a lasting passion. After his parents divorced in 1978, the thirteen-year-old relocated to Paris with his mother, where he enrolled at the renowned American School. At sixteen he penned his first original composition, “If I Were a Mountain.”

Upon receiving his diploma in 1993, Stills returned to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, taking a position as road crew for his father. He later spent several years in New York, where he formed a band alongside fellow American School graduate Adam Cohen, son of Leonard Cohen. Signing with Atlantic Records—the same imprint that had housed his father’s group—he issued his debut solo album, 100 Year Thing, in January 1998 at age twenty-three.

Early exposure to Buffalo Springfield, CSN, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the Police, combined with his father’s folk-rock sensibility, shaped the record’s fusion of 1960s rock, folk, and blues textures; additional seasoning came from years spent performing alongside the Jayhawks and Ryan Adams. His self-titled follow-up album reflected both French and American backgrounds, marking the first occasion he sang in English and French within the same project. The set surfaced abroad in October 2005 and reached American stores the next May. Two months afterward came the live EP When the Pain Dies Down: Live in Paris, captured at Studio du Palais.