I might’ve gotten an infection from swimming in the bayous or killed a mosquito inside my ear-any number of things could’ve caused it, but nonetheless the damage was done.” That’s when I discovered my hearing loss and they said that, depending on what you do with your life, it’ll get worse over time. Long built the system where his doctor friend had an Airstream with a doctor’s office, and they visited every school in every parish in the state of Louisiana, and gave every child a physical. “I have a hearing problem that precedes music, from when I was 9,” the 72-year-old Stills says after he settles into an armchair. They’re also nearing a pause during their first tour together and, while the music and stories have been career-affirming, Stills says life on the road is reminding him of his age. Today, however, she’s camped out a few floors up the attendant-operated elevator in a stunning suite, where she’s congregated with her onetime romantic partner and muse Stephen Stills to chat about their joint LP, Everybody Knows, over tea and coffee. The space even served as the backdrop for the now 78-year-old singer’s 2013 appearance on HBO’s Girls, helping her voice reach a whole new generation. Collins-who lives across from Central Park with her husband, artist Louis Nelson, and also keeps a place outside the city-has turned the Carlyle into something of her public living room in recent years, thanks to her multi-night runs at the lobby café. Though its address and facade feel worlds away from the folky, Greenwich Village scene that originally drew Judy Collins to Manhattan in the 1960s, these days the hotel seems like one of the last vestiges of late-20th-century New York. The elegant, Art Deco-style Carlyle Hotel is located on 76 Street and Madison Avenue, in the heart of New York’s Upper East Side.

Stephen stills judy collins