Graham Nash: I bonded with the bishop over music

If Bishop John Bryson Chane of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington hadn’t had a drum kit set up in his office when Graham Nash last visited him, next Tuesday’s Pray for Peace concert at the National Cathedral might never have become a reality.

Nash told Yeas & Nays that in 2003, he and longtime collaborator David Crosby went to see the Dalai Lama at the cathedral, only to be told that the bishop himself was a big fan of their music.

Upon entering Chane’s office, the pair discovered the drum set and found that he was rehearsing for a reunion gig of his ’60s-era blues-rock band, The Chane Gang.

“We related to this guy immediately,” Nash said.

Turning the conversation to more serious topics, Nash asked him what the religious response was “to all this killing” in the wake of 9/11, telling him, “It is so unholy to me to kill in God’s name.”

Nash and Chane began to discuss ways in which they could bring religions together in order to denounce violence.

Nash said he told the bishop, “You put your people together, and I’ll put my people together.”

The result was next Tuesday’s prayer event-cum-concert, on the occasion of the latest visit by the Dalai Lama. Apart from Crosby, with whom he’s currently touring, Nash enlisted the help of Jackson Browne, Keb Mo’, Krishna Das, Emily Saliers from the Indigo Girls and John Hall.

As for Hall, formerly of the band Orleans and currently a Democratic congressman from New York, Nash called him a “very smart man” and praised him as one of the first artists to speak out for safe energy.