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Stephen Stills Breaks Silence on Short-Lived Buffalo Springfield Reunion

'We didn't go all that trouble for seven shows,' singer says.

November 5, 2012 3:10 PM ET
Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

As Rolling Stone has previously reported, Buffalo Springfield were originally slated for a 30-date reunion tour this year – until Neil Young decided to devote his attention to a new project with Crazy Horse. "I'd be on a tour of my past for the rest of fucking time," Young said in June. "I have to be able to move forward. I can't be relegated. I did enough of it for right then."

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Stephen Stills breaks his silence about the aborted Buffalo Springfield reunion. "We were supposed to work for most of the summer," he says. "It left me in a lurch for three quarters and ruined my financial planning. Also, 150 people got laid off that were supposed to work on the tour."

The surviving members of Buffalo Springfield re-formed after 42 years to play Young's 2010 Bridge School Benefit. The next year they played seven shows, including a set at Bonnaroo. "We didn't go all that trouble for seven shows," Stills says. "That's what impetuosity will do for you. You can't go off half-cocked . . . When Neil is involved you anything you need a seatbelt."

Graham Nash recently explained to New York radio station Q104.3 that Crosby and Nash had originally planned on touring this past summer as duo. "A Buffalo Springfield tour was canceled by Neil," said Nash. "It left Stephen in a hole in many ways: friendship-wise, work-wise, financial-wise. It left him in a huge hole. When David and I heard that we went over to Stephen and we told him we would cancel every Crosby and Nash gig and go out as Crosby, Stills and Nash. We were there for him because we love Stephen Stills. Not only because he's a good friend, but because he's an insanely talented musician." 

Despite the change of plans, Stills says he isn't angry at Young. "He was very kind to me in his book," he says. "I can't be unkind about it . . . Working with Neil is a privilege, not a right."

Young did say that Buffalo Springfield isn't necessarily dead forever. "There is the seed of something great still there," he said. "It's worth exploring again."

Does Stills think they might tour again one day? "For the purpose of this interview," he says. "No."

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