Stephen Stills was no stranger to drugs and alcohol throughout his long career, but he says he’s been completely sober for the past three years. “I’m really comfortable in sobriety,” Stills tells Rolling Stone via Zoom from his home in L.A. “It gets me back to the kid I was before this madness started, pretty affable and friendly. Things were so special at the beginning of my career before I sold a single record. But when you add poison into that mix… I’m just glad I have my original personality back.”
Stills has been retired from the road since the conclusion of his co-headlining tour with Judy Collins in 2018, but he continues to play the occasional benefit and one-off. The most recent took place January 30 when he performed “For What It’s Worth” with Dawes and Mike Campbell at FireAid, and then reunited with Graham Nash for “Teach Your Children.” It marked their first performance together since 2016.
“It felt like putting on an old shoe again,” says Stills. “We just fell into it, and there it was. And the pleasure of playing with those kids made it even more special. I don’t see [Nash] a lot since he lives on the East Coast, but it was great to see my old pal.”
Other Stills performances over the past couple of years took place at the Painted Turtle benefit last October, Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday show in 2023, and periodic gigs with the Jim Isray Band, where he’s part of a multi-artist collective. But he has very mixed feelings about the possibility of touring again. “FireAid helped me check and see if my thrusting and coagulating still worked,” he says. “I’m getting a little more active now, so there’s a possibility. It depends on the kind of venues I can attract.”
One impediment to a tour is the fact that Stills has no desire to live on a tour bus for any extended period of time. “That’s the big obstacle,” he says. “I can’t imagine those trips again, especially without [longtime CSN keyboardist] Mike Finnegan [who died in 2021] around to entertain me with stories. But I guess it wouldn’t be too different than my life today since I pretty much spend my time reading books and puttering around the computer. And I do still love to play.” (He’s also amused that he proved the doubters wrong on January 3 by making it to 80. “I’m collecting money from people who bet the under on that,” he jokes.)
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The next time he’s booked to play is an 85th birthday show for Colins at New York’s Town Hall on March 8, where he’ll share the sage with Paula Cola, Rickie Lee Jones, Richard Thompson, Sophie B. Hawkins, and Collins herself. The following month, he’ll headline the 7th Light Up the Blues benefit for Autism Speaks alongside Neil Young, Billy Idol, Cat Power, and Linda Perry.
Has he considered inviting Richie Furay to Light Up the Blues and making it a proper Buffalo Springfield reunion? “For that, I refer you to Neil Young,” Stills says. “He prides himself, of course, on being so predictable.”
During his downtime these past few years, Stills has slowly been working on a memoir. Just don’t expect to read it any time soon. “I’m going one word at a time,” he says, noting that he’s gone back and read old issues of the New York Times, Washington Post, and L.A. Times to jog his memory.
“I’ve looked at the issues from my birthdays throughout the years. That’s been very helpful since it puts you in that timeframe and suddenly your memories opens up,” he says. “Brain cells holding hands at this age is a challenge. Things pop in sometimes and you find out you’re a decade off. It’s been a great tool. But I’m puttering with the book. I’ve found that the more things change, the more things stay the same. And I must say, it’s a lot easier doing this now that I’m sober.”
