Stephen Stills

Born on January 3, 1945, in Dallas, Texas, Stephen Stills earned widespread recognition through his roles in Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash, two of pop music’s most triumphant and long-lasting ensembles. An early passion for music took hold, and by age 15 he was already working as a professional musician. He later abandoned college, heading to New York City to launch a folk career, and soon joined the Au Go-Go Singers on guitar, where he struck up a friendship with bandmate Richie Furay.

During a Canadian tour on which the Au Go-Go Singers topped a bill featuring Neil Young’s group the Squires, Stills departed the Au Go-Gos in 1965 and settled in Los Angeles amid the city’s rising folk-rock scene. After various session dates and auditions—one of them for the television program The Monkees—he assembled the Herd in spring 1966 with Young, Furay, bassist Bruce Palmer, and drummer Dewey Martin; the band soon adopted the name Buffalo Springfield. Their self-titled debut appeared a year later, and the Stills-penned single “For What It’s Worth” turned the group into stars. Internal tensions, clashing egos, and substance issues had already begun to fracture the lineup, however, so that by the time Last Time Around surfaced in 1968 the Springfield had disbanded.

Stills resurfaced swiftly with the 1968 album Super Session, recorded alongside guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. A spontaneous jam with ex-Byrd David Crosby and former Hollies member Graham Nash produced the vocal-harmony supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash. Their self-titled debut, released in 1969 and driven by Stills’s single “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” written for folksinger Judy Collins, achieved massive success. Neil Young joined the collective later that year, and in 1970 the expanded Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young issued the chart-topping Déjà Vu.

From the outset CSNY granted its members wide freedom for solo projects, and after the live album Four Way Street Stills issued his self-titled solo debut in late 1970. Powered by the hit single “Love the One You’re With” and featuring guest appearances by Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, the record proved another commercial triumph, as did its 1971 successor Stephen Stills 2. In 1972 he formed the backing band Manassas with ex-Byrd and Flying Burrito Brother Chris Hillman; both the self-titled debut and the 1973 follow-up Down the Road sustained Stills’s run of chart success.

He marked his move to Columbia with the 1975 album Stills and followed it a year later with Illegal Stills. A planned 1976 summer tour with Neil Young was curtailed when Young suffered throat problems, so Stills traveled alone, though the pair still collaborated on the LP Long May You Run. In 1977 Stills rejoined Crosby and Nash for CSN, which sold more than four million copies; the following summer the trio undertook an acoustic tour while Stills released the solo album Thoroughfare Gap. CSN maintained their reunion into the early 1980s, issuing Replay in 1980 and Daylight Again in 1982, the latter containing the hits “Southern Cross” and “Wasted on the Way.”

After the live 1983 CSN set Allies, Stills returned to solo work with 1984’s Right by You. Crosby’s 1985 imprisonment on drug charges kept Stills largely out of the spotlight through the rest of the decade. Following Crosby’s release they reconstituted Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for 1988’s American Dream and released the CSN album Live It Up in 1990. Stills issued the solo record Stills Alone in 1991, and CSN followed with After the Storm in 1994. In fall 2010 Stills, Young, and Furay reunited as Buffalo Springfield for two shows at Young’s Bridge School Benefit, using drummer Joe Vitale and bassist Rick Rosas to fill the roles of the late Bruce Palmer, who died in 2004, and Dewey Martin, who died in 2009. The same lineup performed six concerts in spring 2011 but produced no studio material. Stills subsequently formed the Rides with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Barry Goldberg; their debut Can’t Get Enough appeared in 2013 and the follow-up Pierced Arrow arrived in 2016. In 2017 Stills released the duet album Everybody Knows with his former muse Judy Collins.