Energetic rock 'n' roll legend Graham Nash heading to Newcastle

His setlist on the tour is full of hits, kicking off the show with Wasted on the Way, Marrakesh Express and Military Madness in all venues so far.

Graham Nash is a happy, healthy 82 years old. He's just finished a year of touring in the US, where he lives, and Europe. Early in 2024 he's touring Australia, as he's far from finished in the music business.

In fact, he released an album of new music in 2023 (Now). When you've written as many hits as he has, it would be easy to rest on your laurels. And his concerts, indeed, feature many of those hits, made famous as a member of Crosby Stills & Nash, and Crosby Stills Nash & Young.

Teach Your Children. Our House. Marrakesh Express. Military Madness. Find the Cost of Freedom. Immigration Man. Just a Song Before I Go. Chicago/We Can Change the World.

But that's not how Graham Nash rolls.

"I'm a musician," he says during a telephone interview from his home in New York City. "Musicians are always interested in the next note that's coming down, you know. I love what I do, I still am very passionate about music, I'm still very passionate about communication with my audience."

The end is nowhere in sight for Nash, who still writes songs that sound and feel like the tons of hits he wrote decades ago. On that question, 'when will you slow down?', he responds: "When no ideas come".

Nash was already a star in 1967, as member of the Hollies. Born in Blackpool, England, he was one of the founders of the band, having been allowed by his parents to pursue his passion for music. He was lead vocalist for the band on hits Carrie Anne and On a Carousel. The band's hit, Bus Stop, is still among his repertoire.

But he was getting restless with the direction of the band. In the best-selling book by Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon, The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood, the story is told about how Mama Cass Elliot, who knew the Hollies, scooped up Nash from the Knickerbocker Hotel in her Porsche convertible and took him into Laurel Canyon to a house where Stephen Stills and David Crosby played a song for him to hear.

The song, by Stills, was You Don't Have to Cry.

In the book, Nash says, "That was a moment that is indelibly etched on my soul."

On the third run-through of the song, Nash joined in and it was magic.

Asked by me if there a critical turning point in his career, Nash says, "I think if I could boil it down to one moment, it was the moment that David, Stephen and I sang together for the very first time in Joni's [Mitchell] living room.

"Once I had heard that sound we created - I mean the Hollies, The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield were pretty decent harmony bands - but what David, Stephen and I created when put our voices together as one voice, that's when I realised I would have to go back and leave the Hollies and leave England and come back and follow that sound.

"And that's what I did."

The rest is rock 'n' roll history. CSN was a band for the times, as California rock came to the fore.

So not only did he gain fame as British rocker of the '60s, he was reborn to a new audience as an integral member of a new sound out of California that captured the mood and spirit of the times.

"I am a very lucky man," he says.

"We knew," he says of the time. "When we finished that first record, me, and David and Stephen, we knew it was going to be a hit. We had already had a great experience in our various bands of making hits. We knew what a hit would sound like. And we knew that the first album that Crosby Stills and Nash made was gonna be a hit. We knew it. We had no doubt."

Nash continues to mine that golden era for more gems.

"I've been completely involved in mining the tech vault for stuff that no one has ever heard but they should hear," he says. "I've got both CSN and CSNY, and both me and David, and us solely [Crosby died in January 2023]. There is a lot of good music to listen to and I know really good music will find me."

Nash has been inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame twice already (for CSN and the Hollies). In all earnestness, he thinks a third band he was in deserves to be there, too.

"Don't forget," he says. "It's my belief, and that Crosby Stills and Nash, and Crosby Stills Nash and Young are completely different bands. Completely. And why not have the four of us in the Hall of Fame again."

While music is still a major part of his life, Nash has long been successful photographer, too. He latest photography book, A Life In Focus, has been a great success and he's well into planning another book along the same lines. He modestly says the books are "just weird shit. I'm not taking pictures of kittens with balls of wool".

He'll be bringing a camera with him for the Australia and New Zealand tour. Billed as his first solo headline tour of the region with a dozen performances in March 2024, it includes the Port Fairy Folk Festival, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Tweed Heads, Wollongong and Newcastle's Civic Theatre.

Expect a setlist of hits, with a few new tunes. His new material is flavoured with his familiar optimism, history and politics. Like the song, A Better Life and its chorus, Let's make it a better life; Leave it for the kids; It's a lovely place; A welcome home to the human race.

"I'm always looking for the best way possible to move forward," he says. "I want everyone to win. Whenever I'm faced with a problem, I always try and figure out how do we get out of this problem where everybody thinks they are winning. I've always been a very optimistic person."