August 23, 2008 3:51 PM
Graham Nash - the full interview
Last time we saw you was the Living With War tour and the documentary about the controversy it caused just came out. Is it a relief to be at the far end of that whole thing?
"We're never at the far end of it. This war is still going on and it still needs to be discussed and it needs to be figured out why the Bush administration is not being brought to account for lying us into a war in which thousands were killed. Maybe the tour is over ... but what we're talking about is still going on."
And your reaction is?
"It's insanely frustrating. People are dying as we speak and nobody's talking about it. Almost 4,300 American soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Someone has to be accountable for this. But apparently not. Isn't that an awful situation when the evidence is quite plain as to how it happened?"
Were you ever in fear for your safety?
"I was never on a tour before that had bomb-sniffing dogs. Does that answer your question? I was never on a tour that had death threats. What I think would be interesting to go back now after two years, go back and talk to some of the people who gave us the finger and stormed out and swore at us ... and see what they think now."
You gave permission for your song Chicago to be updated for the Denver convention. How did that happen?
"I told them I'd be a part of it and support them and let them use my music if they were not planning any violence. If they're planning to protest that's one thing. But if they were planning to be violent I wanted no part of it."
Do you feel violence is imminent here?
"I don't believe that violence is an answer to anything. I do believe they have a Constitutional right to express their opinions and protest a government that's not doing what it was put there for. ... We have the right to protest but they have bigger weapons than we do. But how do people express their outrage? How do they do it?"
Why are you coming here?
"I want to be present at history. This is a historic convention, not only in terms of what's happening to the American economy or what's happening with both wars or what's happening with the opinion of America by many, many other countries in the world. But the first black man? ... I just think it'll be history. I'll be very interested in standing in that stadium where I was when the Broncos played the New York Giants on Sept. 10. The next morning was 9/11 ... I want to do as much as possible but I'm looking forward to the moment in the stadium."
Why did you choose to play for Etown?
"I love that program. It tries to bring humor and good music and interesting topics to people on the radio."
Nuclear power is back on the table after your protests in the '70s - an issue that seemed settled a long time ago.
"Quite frankly it's incredibly disappointing. We still have not solved the storage problem. Where are we going to put the residue from these places? Yucca Mountain can only accept what it already has and it's not going to open for a few more years. Where are we going to put this stuff? John McCain said 'I'd like to put it in a third-world country.' Well (expletive)! If that's not NIMBY to the max! They're touting it as green and that's insane. ... it's not green at all and it's not even cost effective. When you get not one wall street company is willing to invest in nuclear power plants - not one - doesn't that tell you something?"
All these issues - nuclear, offshore drilling, abortion - always seem to come back.
"People utilize fear to a maximum degree. ...If you succeed in scaring them, all people want is a warm blanket, some warm milk and their mom."
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