The “incredibly personal” song all about Graham Nash

(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)

Sun 10 August 2025 18:30, UK

After decades of making music, Graham Nash‘s attitude towards songwriting remains unchanged.

When he originally started making music with The Hollies, he had a relatively simple approach to music. The band from Salford wanted nothing more than to get people dancing, and that meant writing music that was upbeat, energetic, and fun to listen to. The big turning point in Nash’s career was when he met David Crosby and Stephen Stills. The moment they sang together, it became clear to Nash he had to leave The Hollies, move to America and make music with the two musicians.

When he did this, he didn’t just have the chance to make beautiful music, but it also opened his eyes to writing more personal music. He still liked the idea of people moving and singing along to tracks, but he also saw the potential that music had to be a means to open up to his listeners.

Even now, when you listen to his most recent music, he uses it to communicate effectively with his audience. He writes about his relationship, his psyche, his political views, and his general outlook on society. During an exclusive interview with Far Out, Graham Nash shed some light on this approach to writing music, saying he always wants to reflect the present.

“I really still think every day about a quote by Nina Simone, who said, ‘Every artist, whether you’re a songwriter or a piano player or a sculptor or a painter, you have to reflect the times in which we live,’” he said. “I try and do that two ways: One by talking to my audience about what is going on in the place I live, and second in the music that I wrote.”

This comes with pros and cons. The pros are that the audience feel a particular connection with the music that they’re listening to, and it’s this connection that has led to Nash having such a long successful career. The downside is that Nash’s commitment to feeling means that when he performs his songs, he is taken back to the moment he wrote them, which can sometimes be a sad place.

The honesty which is buried at the heart of the majority of songs Nash has put out means that if you were to listen to everything he has ever written, you would likely have a pretty good understanding of what he’s like as a person. Of course, this would take a fair bit of time, so if you want a quick, deeper understanding of Nash, there is one go-to track which is recommended as a must-listen.

“I wrote ‘Cold Rain’ many years ago. David would frequently tell people, ‘If you want to know anything about Graham Nash, listen to ‘Cold Rain’. He thought it was incredibly personal and informative about who I am as a person,” explained Nash. “I wrote it on the steps of the Midland Hotel in Manchester. I was visiting my mom, who was a little sick and in the hospital. I stood on the steps in the rain and watched all the people go by, and most of them had a lost look in their eyes.”

He concluded, “It seemed like they hated their jobs, they hated their bosses, and they hated what they were doing. It began to make me question, ‘Why me? Why, out of everybody in Manchester, was I the one who got to go to America thousands of miles away and start a brand-new career?’ I’ve always asked myself that question. I hope I never get the answer to it.”