Beloved folk rocker David Crosby, 72, underwent emergency heart surgery Friday to correct a blocked artery, and though he's expected to make a full recovery he has had to postpone tour dates he had scheduled in San Francisco and Los Angeles this week and next. Following a routine cardiac stress test, a doctor found that Crosby's left anterior coronary artery was 90 percent blocked and recommended an immediate cardiac catheterization. He is now recovering, and calls himself "once again a very lucky man," referring to his highly publicized liver transplant in 1994.
According to doctors, a heart attack was imminent.
Crosby long suffered from cocaine addiction and the liver transplant got such attention in part because it was a case of a celebrity possibly getting preferential treatment after a history of drug and alcohol abuse. In 2008, now suffering from Type 2 diabetes, Crosby announced he had lost 55 pounds.
His two sold-out dates at S.F.'s Great American Music Hall, originally set for this Thursday and Friday, are being postponed until April 20 and 21, and his five nights at the Troubadour in L.A. will be moved to April as well. This mini-tour is in support of his latest solo album Croz, his first in over 20 years. He'll be joining Graham Nash and Stephen Stills to begin touring with CS&N beginning March 4.
Crosby was last seen on stage at October's Bridge School Benefit at Shoreline Amphitheater when he performed with the reunited Nash, Stills, and Young as they have a handful of times at this event over the past couple of decades, which is hosted and organized by Neil Young.
