Dallas Woodrow Taylor Jr. (April 7, 1948 – January 18, 2015)[1] was an American session drummer who played drums on several rock albums in the 1960s and 1970s.
Life and career
Taylor was born in Denver but grew up in Phoenix and San Antonio, Texas, where he played with Shades McRay and the Invictas.[2] His seminal musical influence was jazz drummer Gene Krupa.[3] He dropped out of high school and moved to California.
He achieved some success with psychedelic rock band Clear Light in the late 1960s,[4] but is best remembered as the drummer on Crosby, Stills and Nash's debut album,[5] and their follow-up with Neil Young, Déjà Vu (1970), and was given a front-sleeve credit along with Motown bassist Greg Reeves.[6]
After overcoming drug addiction, Taylor became a drug counselor in California. He said, “I was one of the lucky ones. I managed to destroy my music, but none of my suicide attempts worked.” In 1994, he spoke to Kurt Cobain when Cobain briefly checked himself into the Exodus Recovery Center where Taylor was working.[8] Taylor published a memoir, Prisoner of Woodstock, in 1994. [9]
After he was diagnosed with liver disease in 1989, musicians held a 1990 benefit concert to pay for a transplant, including David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young, as well as Don Henley and Eddie Van Halen.[10] His wife, Patti McGovern-Taylor, also donated a kidney for him in 2007.[11]
Taylor died on January 18, 2015, of complications from viral pneumonia and kidney disease, aged 66.[12][13]
