Rocky C
01-19-16, 11:32 AM
Drummer Dallas Taylor, who was well known in the '60s and '70s rock and roll music scene and played in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, died Monday in Los Angeles at age 66.
His wife Patti McGovern Taylor confirmed the news to the New York Times and said Taylor's death was caused by complications of viral pneumonia and kidney disease.
Taylor began his career playing in the little-known psychedelic band Clear Light, but came to fame when he played drums for Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969, performed with the band (and an added Neil Young) at Woodstock, and on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's first album together, 1970's D?j? Vu.
Taylor famously overcame drug addiction in 1984, and spent his later years as a drug counselor and certified addiction interventionist. "I was more famous as a junkie than a drummer," he told PEOPLE in 1990 during an interview conducted while he was waiting for a liver transplant. "I was living this zombielike existence, wishing I could just die." That same year, Don Henley organized a benefit concert to help Taylor get the liver transplant.
In 1994 he wrote about his experiences with addiction after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain died an essay for the L.A. Times. "I was one of the lucky ones," he wrote. "I managed to destroy my music, but none of my suicide attempts worked. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon, Jim Morrison, John Belushi--and now Kurt Cobain--were, in the end, all addicts who couldn't get sober and whose luck ran out."
He continued, "Last December, I celebrated nine years of sobriety. April 17 was the four-year anniversary of my liver transplant. The nightmare has ended for me."
That same year, he chronicled his life in a memoir, Prisoner of Woodstock, which tells wild stories of near-orgies and wife swapping with members of the Rolling Stones.
David Crosby penned the memoir's introduction and wrote, "I use Dallas as an example when I'm speaking to people about surviving the drug experience. I think he has wound up being a hell of a good example."
His wife Patti McGovern Taylor confirmed the news to the New York Times and said Taylor's death was caused by complications of viral pneumonia and kidney disease.
Taylor began his career playing in the little-known psychedelic band Clear Light, but came to fame when he played drums for Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969, performed with the band (and an added Neil Young) at Woodstock, and on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's first album together, 1970's D?j? Vu.
Taylor famously overcame drug addiction in 1984, and spent his later years as a drug counselor and certified addiction interventionist. "I was more famous as a junkie than a drummer," he told PEOPLE in 1990 during an interview conducted while he was waiting for a liver transplant. "I was living this zombielike existence, wishing I could just die." That same year, Don Henley organized a benefit concert to help Taylor get the liver transplant.
In 1994 he wrote about his experiences with addiction after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain died an essay for the L.A. Times. "I was one of the lucky ones," he wrote. "I managed to destroy my music, but none of my suicide attempts worked. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon, Jim Morrison, John Belushi--and now Kurt Cobain--were, in the end, all addicts who couldn't get sober and whose luck ran out."
He continued, "Last December, I celebrated nine years of sobriety. April 17 was the four-year anniversary of my liver transplant. The nightmare has ended for me."
That same year, he chronicled his life in a memoir, Prisoner of Woodstock, which tells wild stories of near-orgies and wife swapping with members of the Rolling Stones.
David Crosby penned the memoir's introduction and wrote, "I use Dallas as an example when I'm speaking to people about surviving the drug experience. I think he has wound up being a hell of a good example."