Today  brooklyvegan.com has reported that singer and songwriter David Crosby has died at age 81, according to a statement released by his wife Jan.

“It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed awayHe was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Although he is no longer here with us, his humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us. His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music. Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and those he touched. We will miss him dearly. At this time, we respectfully and kindly ask for privacy as we grieve and try to deal with our profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers.”

Crosby was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and in the early 1960s, Crosby began performing as a folk music duo with with Terry Callier, who introduced him to singers Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark, with whom Crosby would form The Byrds in 1964.

The Byrds followed their folk roots with the influence of The Beatles and other British rock bands and their 1965 debut singl-a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” became  one of the very first folk rock songs. The Byrds’s version topped the charts in both the US and the UK and it was followed that same year by their debut album Mr. Tambourine Man.

The band supported the album on their first English tour, which they met  The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. The band  be a influence on the sound of The Beatles’s own pioneering folk rock album, Rubber Soul. The Byrds’s second chart-topping single was a cover of Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” which would also become the title track of their second album, released in December of 1965.

During the making of  1968’s The Notorious Byrd Brothers, tension was brewing when the band rejected Crosby’s song “Triad,” which  is about a threesome and then Crosby gave the track to Jefferson Airplane to record instead. Crosby was fired from The Byrds in October of 1967.

When Crosby got fired from The Byrds, he teamed up with Buffalo Springfield’s Stephen Stills and The Hollies’ Graham Nash and formed the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash, who released their classic self-titled debut album in 1969. The album featured tunes such as  “Guinnevere”, “Wooden Ships” (with Stephen Stills and Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner) and  “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” Later that year, artist Neil Young joined the group where they released the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album Déjà Vu in 1970.