Creativity Quote by Graham Nash

A musician admitting he’s warming back up to his own past is a small line with a lot of ego-management happening inside it. Graham Nash isn’t just name-dropping the Hollies; he’s negotiating with his origin story. The phrasing matters: “I’ve been listening” suggests distance, like he’s approaching the catalogue as a civilian, not the guy who lived inside those harmonies. And “beginning to sound pretty good to me” lands as both compliment and self-defense - cautious, almost reluctant. He doesn’t say it’s great. He says it’s starting to register. That hedging is the tell.

The subtext is a classic arc for artists who outgrow their early work, then circle back once the heat of ambition cools. Nash left the Hollies for the louder myth of Crosby, Stills & Nash, a move that became part of rock’s prestige narrative: seriousness, experimentation, the “real” art. So revisiting the Hollies risks feeling like a demotion unless you frame it as a rediscovery. He does.

Contextually, it’s also a nod to the way time edits taste. What once felt lightweight or boxed-in can read, decades later, as craft: pop songwriting, tight arrangements, that unmistakable British sheen. Nash’s line quietly gives permission to take the Hollies seriously without pretending the old hierarchies never existed. It’s humility with a wink: the past didn’t change, but his listening did.