Background
Dallas Taylor was born on April 7, 1948 in Denver, Colorado, United States. He was the son of a stunt pilot.
(Dallas Taylor is the original drummer for Crosby, Stills,...)
Dallas Taylor is the original drummer for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Dallas Taylor is considered one of the greatest drummers in Rock and Roll history. This is the story of his life before, during and after the band. The book captures the "Real Sixties" during one of musics greats times. Prisoner Of Woodstock is a graffic depiction of Dallas' experience with success and it's excesses, and his spiral into the world of addiction, and remarkable return as one of the Nations leaders in helping alcoholics and addicts. In 1990 Don Henley helped organize a benefit concert to help Dallas get a Liver Transplant. The book has a wonderful since of the "Recovery Spirit ", and is an inspiration.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560250879/?tag=2022091-20
1994
Dallas Taylor was born on April 7, 1948 in Denver, Colorado, United States. He was the son of a stunt pilot.
While still a teenager, Taylor moved to Los Angeles. He dropped out of school by age sixteen, because of the pregnancy of his girlfriend and their marriage.
After his moving to Los Angeles, Taylor was hired as a drummer by Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills and Nash, (later, and Young).
He was a member of music group Clear Light from 1967 to 1968, and music group Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young from 1969 until 1970.
In 1970, Dallas sat in with The Doors accompanying John Densmore on drums.
As well as appearing on Stills' eponymous first solo album in 1970, Taylor was the drummer for Stills' group Manassas in 1972 and 1973. He also played with Van Morrison at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival, in a quartet along with keyboardist Pete Wingfield and bassist Jerome Rimson. He briefly appeared again in the mid-1970s, drumming for Paul Butterfield's touring band.
After playing on two award-winning albums, Taylor was fired for his excessive drug problems, thus beginning a downward spiral that by 1984 found him in Los Angeles attempting suicide. The attempt brought him to the attention of chemical dependency counselors and started him on the road to sobriety.
Taylor’s happiness in a fourth marriage and in his work as a counselor at a drug rehabilitation center was marred in 1990 when it was discovered that the musician’s extensive use of drugs and alcohol had destroyed his liver. Many of Taylor’s old friends in the music business, including David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Don Henley, and Eddie Van Halen rallied behind him, staging a benefit concert to raise the money to pay for the transplant once a donor became available.
McGovern-Taylor, his forth wife, gave her ailing husband one of her kidneys in 2007. Taylor's health forced him to largely exit the music business following his liver transplant. But he continued to treat musicians and other celebrities with addiction problems.
Critics noted that Taylor’s life story, as told in his autobiography, Prisoner of Woodstock, has two main thrusts: his musical rise and fall, and his struggle with drugs and alcohol.
Taylor played as a drummer with many famous American groups and appeared on seven top-selling albums. He liked to say that he made his first million — and his last million — by the time he was 21.
Dallas was a recipient of Grammy Award for Best Album of the Year in 1969, as well as for Crosby, Stills, and Nash. He won Lifetime Achievement Award from Pearl Drums in 1990.
(Dallas Taylor is the original drummer for Crosby, Stills,...)
1994
Quotations:
“I’m resuming my musical career. I published an article in the Los Angeles Times regarding Kurt Cobain’s death. I continue to consult at treatment centers and do interventions with addicts.”
“I was more famous as a junkie than a drummer.”
Taylor was a member of American Academy of Addiction Specialists.
Quotes from others about the person
“Taylor’s humor and sometimes painful insights will engage the reader’s empathy; his casual prose, while less than substantial, is spirited and lively.” - Piekarski
By age sixteen, Taylor married his pregnant girlfriend, and fathered two children by her - Dallas III and Sharlotte.
After that he was married three times. His fourth wife was Patti McGovern-Taylor, who he married in 1988.
