Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who died Wednesday at the age of 83, will be remembered for his feats of heroic daring as a U.S. Navy jet pilot during the Vietnam War and for his corrupt acts as a member of Congress.

What few may recall, however, is that Cunningham had an unlikely friendship with two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Stephen Stills, who is as unabashedly liberal in most of his political views as Cunningham was unabashedly conservative in most of his.

“He’s a great American. I think he ought to change his politics. Other than that, he’s a great guy,” Cunningham said of Stills in a 1996 San Diego Union-Tribune interview.

Stills voiced similar sentiments about Cunningham in a separate San Diego Union-Tribune interview a few weeks earlier.

“He’s a great American. I think he ought to change his politics. Other than that, he’s a great guy,” Stills said of Cunningham.

“I must say, the Duke wasn’t as conservative when he was in the Navy! I liked him better as a squadron commander!”

What drew these two decidedly strange bedfellows together?

“Stephen has always had an intense love of aviation, and I loved his music,” Cunningham said.

“We ‘adopted’ him when I was commanding the F-21 Fighter Squadron at Miramar (Naval Air Station). It did surprise me that he had a genuine interest in something I loved, aviation, which he was very knowledgeable about.”

The two met in the first half of the 1970s, nearly two decades before Cunningham first ran for a seat representing parts of San Diego County in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Stills alerted the chairman of the Democratic Party before publicly supporting Cunningham’s 1990 bid for a House seat. He then performed at a $250-per-head San Diego fundraiser for Cunningham.

Never mind that Stills was a supporter of President Bill Clinton, who Cunningham once denounced as a “a traitor” on the House floor. Never mind that Stills’ very liberal political activism in the 1960s earned him a spot on President Richard M. Nixon’s infamous “enemies list” that prompted Stills to move to England for several years.

“I’m basically more conservative than my (musical) partners,” Stills said. “I think everyone instinctively knows that when somebody like me gets involved with something, it’s not foolhardy. It’s part of the consensus. I won’t have anything to do with really far-out stuff ...

“Good common sense is the only thing that will work, and this country is not designed for ideologues to run it. You can use the bully pulpit, but you can’t legislate morality. And that’s what’s killing the Grand Old Party. They’re going to sit there and eat their young, like a pride of old lions.”

The unlikely friendship between Cunningham and Stills had not been publicized prior to the summer of 1996, when the GOP National Convention was held at the San Diego Convention Center.

It came to light when this writer was in Little Rock to interview Stills and his bandmate, David Crosby, prior to a Crosby, Stills & Nash concert in the Arkansas capital. The trio, who were counterculture heroes in the late 1960s and beyond, were on a national tour. It included a subsequent show at the San Diego State University Open Air Theatre that was attended by Cunningham. (I would not have been in Little Rock at all had the manager of Wayne Newton — a performer at the 1996 GOP convention here — not refused out interview request, but that’s a story for another day.)

Toward the conclusion of my interview in Little Rock with Stills, he asked if I knew Cunningham, who Stills fondly referred to as “the Duke” and “the Dukester.”

Stills than spoke so enthusiastically about Cunningham that — after flying back to San Diego — I contacted Cunningham’s office in Washington, D.C., to request an interview. Cunningham happily accepted and spoke at length about Stills.

The rock star had visited U.S. Naval Air Station Miramar a number of times and Cunningham had arranged for him to do fly-alongs on Navy jet fighter planes. Stills, in turn, told Cunningham he wanted to do USO tours, although none ever materialized.

Cunningham attended CSN’s concert at the SDSU Open Air Theatre where he sat directly in front of me. He did not applaud for any of the songs, but remained for the duration of the performance. He seemed undaunted by the heavy clouds of pot smoke that wafted through the outdoor venue.

My interviews with Crosby, Stills and Cunningham — what a band name that would have made! — resulted in two August 1996 Union-Tribune articles, “Voice Votes — Their views may diverge, but Crosby, Stills & Nash are in harmony about political activism” and “They’re pals? Well, love the one you’re with.”

The latter article appears here in full:

They’re pals? Well, love the one you’re with

By George Varga, Music Critic

Aug. 11, 1996 | The San Diego Union-Tribune

One is a staunch Democrat, the other a staunch Republican.

One is a famous rock musician in a band associated with liberal causes, the other a former U.S. Navy pilot who is now a hawkish member of the House of Representatives.

One is a firm supporter of President Clinton; the other publicly denounced the first-time Democratic presidential candidate as a “traitor” in 1992.

Despite these and other differences in background and opinion, Stephen Stills and Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Escondido, are good friends — if very strange political bedfellows.

Neither can recall exactly when or where they met, although Cunningham says it was in California shortly after he returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam in the early ’70s.

And what brought this unlikely pair together?

“Stephen has always had an intense love of aviation, and I loved his music,” Cunningham, 54, said from his Capitol Hill office.

“We ‘adopted’ him when I was commanding the F-21 Fighter Squadron at Miramar (Naval Air Station). It did surprise me that he had a genuine interest in something I loved, aviation, which he was very knowledgeable about.

“I told him: ‘I love your music, but I’m a country-and-western fan. I love Johnny Cash.’ And he said: ‘So am I.’ And Stephen wanted to do a USO tour — anywhere — and I respect him for that. We agree on some political things and disagree on others. But I do that with a lot of my friends.”

Stills, speaking at a Crosby, Stills & Nash tour stop in President Clinton’s hometown of Little Rock, Ark., smiled as he discussed Cunningham.

“I used to go out there to Miramar when he was commander of the Bandits (flying squadron) and try to figure out ways for them to waste gasoline on me!” Stills, 51, said. “He’s a character. I hope I get to see him in San Diego. I’m going to try to look him up.”

Cunningham, who disclosed that he’s “also a Deadhead,” hopes to persuade Stills to perform at Sea World today during House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s invitation-only party. (“But that might be pushing it too far,” Cunningham allowed.)

And “the Duke,” as he is referred to by his friends, plans to be in attendance when CSN performs tonight at the SDSU Open Air Theatre. (“I want to pay for the tickets, because I can’t accept them as gifts,” he noted.)

It will be the second time Cunningham has attended a CSN concert at the SDSU venue.

“Stephen invited me to a concert at SDSU before, and I went,” Cunningham recalled with a chuckle. “And, I swear, every hippie from the ’60s and ’70s was there, and the (marijuana) smoke was pretty heavy. And I’m sitting there, and he introduced me from the stage as his friend. I didn’t know whether to duck or what, but they all cheered because I was a friend of his.”

Stills acknowledged the differences between him and Cunningham. But, he stressed, the two weren’t always so far apart in their political views.

“I must say, the Duke wasn’t as conservative when he was in the Navy!” Stills said, laughing. “I liked him better as a squadron commander!”

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