As always, Neil Young's opinions are front and center — even while promoting a new album. Young, who reunited with Crazy Horse for his latest album, titled, Barn, spoke to Rolling Stone about the state of the union — and how covid still plays a part in it.
Young, a co-organizer of Farm Aid, backed out of the September 25th fundraiser for fear of contributing to a super spreader event when the benefit show hit Hartford, Connecticut's Xfinity Theatre. Young addressed the situation surrounding covid and said, “The media is not helping. They’d like to help, but it really just it seems like there’s a lot of misleading information and we have no leadership that anybody listens to in the world. My idea for this is crazy, because I think (Vladimir) Putin and (President) Xi and (President) Biden should do a press conference together about the coronavirus. They should just make a big statement about what people should do, to tell the whole world at one time, the three leaders of the world’s biggest countries and tell them to try to protect each other.”
He went on to say, “It’s been a rough go for humanity and we’re not getting along and we’re not listening. And there’s so many different concepts of how to deal with the virus. It should be obvious that we don’t know. So going out and playing. . . I can’t imagine a shot of myself on TV or something grooving away with the band and a big crowd and everything, that’s all wrong. It’s not the right time for it. We don’t know where we are or what we’re doing. A lot of people can go home and get their kids sick. It’s just not right yet.”
Neil Young, who finally became a U.S. citizen back in 2020, spoke about finally being able to participate in electing a new president: “It was great to vote for Joe Biden, because he’s somebody you can respect as a human being (who’s) good for the country. A good example for the kids, of how to act and how to be polite, how to be firm and how to be on the job. So I enjoyed being able to vote for him. And after the previous round, it was essential. I thought my vote might make a difference. So I wanted to get in and do everything I could to do that.”
Young touched upon his plans for 2022's 50th anniversary of his iconic Harvest album, revealing, “We have a two-hour film and a record. It’s all of the making of Harvest. We had all that, but we didn’t show it to anybody — all the barn footage and live stuff with the London Symphony Orchestra. When we were doing that, we did a lot of filming.”
With 2021's Barn, longtime collaborator, E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren — has recorded his second album as part of Crazy Horse. Young shed light on what he's drawn to in Lofgren's playing: “He really listens, and he’s incredibly adept at moving around on his instruments, no matter what they are. But he’s a great musician, world class. On this record, you get to hear Nils Lofgren. You get to hear all the detail. It’s not that much else going on. It’s Crazy Horse, pretty simple. So you get to appreciate him for who he is (and) what he brings.”
Neil Young told the Musicians Hall of Fame that all things are possible — providing you have the material first: “Songs are the vehicle, y'know, and the musicians are drivin' it. And they're goin' into the curves the right way; and they're floorin' it at the right time. But the song is the vehicle. Y'know, so the things all go together.”
