Doing this album, we had such a great time. But the friendship has lasted all the rest of the time. ‘The romance didn’t last as long as the rumors. I didn’t know Buffalo Springfield when he came aboard.

He’s created songs that are part of the musical landscape of, really, half a century.Ī. I was recording an album in California, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” and my producer decided to bring in a new band - James Burton, Buddy Emmons, Van Dyke Parks, Jim Gordon, and Stephen. His playing, I’ll tell you, he’s better than ever. Q. Were you surprised at how good you guys sound together?Ī. It was really a surprise. We texted and talked back and forth on how we’d approach it. How did this come together?Ī. We’ve been friends for many years, and about 10 years ago, we started talking about what we’d if we went out together. Q. I can’t believe that this is the first time you’ve toured and recorded together. The Globe caught up with Collins recently to talk love and life from both sides now. They also shed light on a long-lost Stills love song for Collins, “Judy,” and a song Collins wrote for Stills, “Houses.” 22, sees them covering classic rock hits by the Traveling Wilburys, Bob Dylan, and more, with the title track by Collins’s late friend Leonard Cohen. Technically, Stills, 72, and Collins have worked together before - he was a session guitarist on her 1968 gold album, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” and they dueted on a track from a more recent Collins solo record - but they’d never recorded an album together until now. It’s a combination that feels so natural, you might pause and think: “Wait. And now, 50 years after they met, they’re on tour together for the first time, including two sold-out shows in Massachusetts, Sunday at Boarding House Park in Lowell and Monday at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. It blew everybody’s mind, not just mine.”Īlthough the couple broke up that year, they’ve remained close friends. “We both thought it was terrific, even if it wasn’t about me,” says Collins, 78, of the first time she heard “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” - Stills’s ode to Collins that would become a hit for Crosby, Stills & Nash off their 1969 self-titled debut. Sometimes it hurts so badly I must cry out loud It’s getting to the point where I’m no fun anymore “And then he sang me this incredible song.”

“He brought me a birthday gift, a beautiful old Martin guitar,” she says. Stephen Stills, her on-again off-again boyfriend, came to see her in her hotel room, near where she was to play a concert in Santa Monica, Calif. As Judy Collins recalls, it was May 1, 1969, her 30th birthday.

Judy stills