WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 717 - Neil Young

Episode Date: June 20, 2016

Neil Young. There's not a lot you need to say in introducing a legendary musician with three dozen studio albums spanning five decades. Neil joins Marc in the garage to talk about his music, his family, his friends, his guitars, his innovations, and his new album, Earth. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category.

And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talked to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Lock the gates! all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucksters

what the fuckadelics i'm mark maron this is wtf this is my podcast welcome to the show how's it going everybody doing all right post Father's Day? Did you call the old man? If he's alive, did you call him? Did you bury the hatchet for 15 minutes? I did. I called my dad and it was OK. It was pretty good. He was in a pretty good space. By the way neil young is on the show today i i should i should get i should tell you that right now it was a pretty uh exciting day it's a very nervous day for me you know neil's one of those guys man he was a giant he he walked the earth when giants

walked the earth and he's still a giant but he's an older giant but he's neil young and i was uh i was a little nervous i'll tell you about it in a second i'll tell you more about that in a second but i want to stay in this dad thing why while i've got the emotions that are still kind of hot i am recording this in the afternoon on father's day and i had done something. I'd done something a couple weeks ago. It wasn't even a couple weeks ago. My dad wrote me an email that was a fairly concerned but overly wrought, somewhat paranoid, and quite projecting email in response to the tragedies of the last couple weeks uh the shootings and whatnot

and any i guess it was concerned but for some reason i i misread it as a a kind of uh feeding on uh sadness and negative energy and projecting it onto me and i react i just reacted i was feeling horrible that day like everybody else and and i just shot back at him and i you know i i just i i reacted in anger i sent him some shitty emails and then a few days went by and i just couldn't live with it and i felt bad and i emailed i apologized i emailed an apology and he said thank you i love you and i'm right. A lot of times when we get caught up in our own bullshit with our parents, they cease to have a life outside of that. I don't know how empathetic I am with my father or my mother on a day-to-day basis

because is that my job? I mean, it's hard to be empathetic to your parents' situation sometimes, or maybe that's just me. And sometimes it's hard for me to acknowledge that my father may have been out in the world doing good things or having an impact on other people's lives in a positive way because you get so caught up with your own relationship. So out of nowhere, I get this email. The subject line is Father's Day.

And it just says, Mark, I'm not certain this email will ever get to you, but I've been wanting to send a few sentiments your way. And as we are coming up on Father's Day, I thought it especially appropriate to do so. I thought it especially appropriate to do so. Some 18 years ago, my son, Nathaniel, broke his leg in a high school football game in western New York. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital in some forsaken little backwoods town. It became quickly evident that his injury was more severe than initially thought. In fact, he suffered from what is termed compartment syndrome, which often results in the loss of the limb because the swelling constricts the blood flow and amputation is often the only way to save a life.

We had this doctor appear who was sarcastic, sardonic, funny, and absolutely wonderful. Without going into unnecessary details, his actions saved my son's leg and maybe his life. Now, 18 years later, my son is 36 and has just become a father for the second time this past week. After a very long recovery, he completed college, started a very rewarding career, and has become, most importantly, a wonderful father and husband. As you probably know, that doctor who saved my son was your father. I never assume anything about anyone else's relationships. Life is far too complicated to think that my experience mirrors anyone else's.

But I wanted you to know that your father's actions on behalf of my son helped to turn what could have been a tragic situation into something very positive. I'm aware through the power of Google that your dad has ended his career in what appears to be a rather sour situation. I feel badly for that. All I know is that your dad did all he could to help my son during a critical situation and without his help, I'm not sure my son's life would have worked out the same. I would appreciate you letting him know that we think the world of Dr. Marin and we are fortunate that fate had us cross paths with him in that Warsaw hospital that fall football Saturday. Finally I do want you to know that I remember Dr. Marin mentioning to me that his son worked in comedy and thought it took exceptional courage to enter that line of work.

When I first saw you perform on TV, I immediately made the connection. I'm not sure if you are a father or not, Mark, but as a dad, I know your father made a difference to my family, and I will never forget that. Thanks, Paul. And Canessas, New York. Well, thank you, Paul, because sometimes, you know, I forget that my dad did good things, and it's good to hear that. And as I get older and I get more emotional about things and a little more willing to let things go. That email choked me up. It choked me up again here. And I do want to send some love out to all the fathers that are truly doing the best they can. And that might not be enough for a while. At some point, it's going to come back and bite you in the ass i i'm not a father but i knew that

i bit my father in the ass and i continue to occasionally when i called up to wish him a happy father's day and we talked a little bit about the series of emails i sent that were uh you know nothing short of just snotty, abusive, fucking angry child crap. I told him, I said, I don't know. It was a hard day. It was a bad day. And I lashed out. He goes, yeah, that's what I thought.

I go, yeah, I imagine you would think that because you do that too. And we're both crazy. And he laughed and I told him I loved him. And I hope he had a good day. Here's the deal with Neil you know I you know I I I love Neil Young and and there's a about a 10 or so records of his that I I just you know they're fucking amazing and he's done a lot more records he's done you know like 50 records a lot of records Neil Young the amazing thing about new young is that uh it never really gets old it always is very transcendent he's a true genius of the song and he's a he's a kind

of an intimidating character and i know he's not easy necessarily to talk to i didn't know how it was going to go but it was one of those days where you know neil young's coming over to the house i'm going to do the best i can i'm excited to meet him i was i just i just didn't know if if he was going to like me which you know i don't know how long you've been listening to this show but that it's better if they if they like me and i didn't know how it would go and i was nervous and he came over and he had a little posse of 70-year-old dudes or so, a little white-haired posse, his manager, Elliot, and a couple other cats, and it was one of those times where, you know, this happens very rarely, but it happens where, you know, Neil walks in, looks at my living room, sees my Gibson 335, walks right over to it, picks it up, sits on the couch,

fucks around with the guitar a little bit looks at my stereo system sees my records he's saying like nice guitar and uh and on the table that his uh that his new uh pono music uh system that the little box that you can listen to pono with is sitting there and i was pat i had it all packed up to give it back to the guy because they told me i had to return it and i told him i said well i gotta you guys can take that i guess and neil said no let him keep it man i like him let him keep it that's what he said before we walked out to the garage let him keep the pono i like this guy and i'm like okay that's good sign that's a good sign but uh his new album, Earth, comes out on Friday, and you can get that wherever you get music.

But you can also get it in that high-resolution audio through the Pono Music Store. You can also get it on Tidal. But the Pono is pretty fascinating. It's a pretty amazing thing. And the new record is pretty interesting. There's a lot of things going on. I'll talk to him about it.

And the new record's pretty interesting. There's a lot of things going on. I'll talk to him about it. So enjoy this, this conversation that I had with Neil. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode

where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative.

The bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series, streaming February 27th, exclusively on Disney+.

18-plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Young. young you want to wear cans or no i'll try it how's that well this might change my whole personality you're a different guy now i am it's that easy i did a i did a show once where uh the the dj was talking to me yeah and uh and we were doing i was doing this show this is like in the 60s or something and he's talking to me you know and the show hasn't started yet yeah and then just as it starts he puts on his phone yeah and his voice changed completely yeah and i said to him right away i said you're like a completely different person when you put

on those phones. It doesn't even sound like the guy I was talking to a minute ago. It's true, right? Yeah. But then, but that blew his mind that I said that on the air. And he quit? He quit right there. He left.

No, he didn't. Yeah, he did. And then Elliot and I were the only ones in the studio. We just played records for about 45 minutes until somebody else showed up to help us. Is that true? Yeah. So the guy freaked out? Yeah, he freaked out and left.

It was in the 60s? Yeah. So he was probably high. He wasn't ready. It was me at some point in time where that was, you know, it made him feel, you know, anyway. You just, you tapped right in, you saw his soul, and he ran out.

Last day of work for that guy. So, oh yeah, but by the experience with the Pono, like, we might as well start with that. Because I had an interesting thing happen. To interview somebody like you, to me, I freak out for about a day or two before it. Only because you have such a massive amount of productive work out there in the world so i'm loading my head and i just i thought it was interesting today and within the last two days so many new things happened that i would never that would never have happened i don't know how much time you spend on the computer but like just because of the world

we live in you know like for instance, I listened to Expecting to Fly for the first time this morning. And I'm a Neil Young fan, but I didn't know that song. I didn't have that in my head. That's early. Right. It's Buffalo Springfield. And I listened to the Pono, to the new record, for the first time all the way through last

night. So I got bookends yeah the experience both of them slightly psychedelic experiences yeah jack nietzsche and i made expecting to fly that took like about 30 days for us to complete it with bruce botnik the engineer we had a fantastic time a lot of time mixing it with these old two boards and everything yeah yeah Fantastic time. A lot of time mixing it with these old two boards and everything. Yeah, yeah. So Jack Nietzsche did a couple of stones.

He did Spectre stuff. You can't always get what you want. That's Nietzsche. Yeah. Now, when you do something like that, when you work with a guy like that, how clear is that memory for you now? Very clear. Yeah?

It's as clear as you right there. He's right here. Yeah. And when you were setting out to do that, because you were creating a new sound, what was the collaboration like? How did you start to go to that place? Well, you know, I was very young. Yeah. And I think it was like even was only the second Buffalo Springfield album, I think, we're expecting to fly was on and

you know he he had just started talking to me about doing things myself and being you know a solo artist so you know I I just listen to him it's like a mentor yeah he's a genius yeah. And you knew that going in. He did incredible. Oh, yeah. I knew everything he'd done, all of his charts that he'd written for various things, Spectres and stuff. They were just insane charts.

Crazy. Yeah, that whole crew back then was like nuts. Yeah, well, he was the architect behind all those parts. Yeah, yeah. Putting all the wrecking crew together? Well, I guess, well, probably Spectre got the musicians and Jack, and then Jack wrote down all that stuff, and then I think it was Jack who said,

well, we should have three guitarists playing the same thing instead of one. Oh, really? Yeah, and then you can hardly hear it on the record, but it's three of them, and it's just this massive wall. I mean, it's true. This is a sonic blast. Yeah. Mono.

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Mono kind of flattens things. It's interesting that the difference is mono is actually better because it's all coming at you at the same time. Mono is the ultimate. Why is that? Well, because it's deep. Yeah.

Stereo is distractingly wide right and because of that you don't focus on the depth right right it's a little bit false stereo right because like when you listen to mono on the good system you know like it just floats in the middle yeah and if you are listening in any room your stereo is your own ears bouncing off of the walls and yeah but it's some one source like you know yeah and then the other thing I was doing when I when I knew I was gonna talk to you is I started sort of compressing people in mind the other thing I listen to I listen to Bert Jancz for the first time this morning isn't he great it's great yes then I like it's an amazing

world we live in that I can just discover that because the kid who I know Matt Sweeney from super wolf yeah he uh you listen to Bert Jancz so I listen to Bert Jancz and then I start thinking about you as a kid in Canada I start thinking about Bert Jancz I'm thinking about Link Wray and I'm thinking about Roy Orbison I'm trying to put my head together like wrap my head around you know what galvanized your head do you have an idea of that? Well, those guys are pretty popular. Yeah, you know and I You know link ray and Roy Orbison All those people. I mean that was great. It was great music Yeah, I think you could really hear it and I feel it and link was just broke that guitar sound was saying broken up man

Did you love that? Yeah. Yeah and right rumble rumble right and then and then uh orbison kind of had that sort of heartbroken ethereal falsetto but what a great range oh my god right and where'd you grow up uh all over canada in winnipeg a lot winnipeg toronto oh me me uh jackson's point do you spend a lot of time up there still? No, not as much as I used to. I don't know what the future holds, though. Oh, yeah? In terms of...

Canada's a cool place. It is, man. It is cool, yeah. I've done some time in Winnipeg. Winnipeg's very flat. It's intense. Yes, it is. It's a little harsh.

It's in the middle of everything that's missing. Yeah. It seems a little harsh. It's in the middle of everything that's missing. Yeah. It seems a little beaten up. It's got a lot of soul. It does, man. It does have a lot of soul. And when you started playing guitar, who was around? I mean, what were the bands that you were playing with and local guys, Canadian guys?

Randy Backman. You liked that guy, right? Yeah, Randy was cool. Guess who? Yeah. Backman turned to Overdrive? He was called Alan and the Silvertones. They were called when we first listened.

And he was always a pretty monster guitar player? Monster, exactly. Had his own sound, had a thing going on, had a tape tape deck up there and he had tape repeat coming off the tape deck back then yeah back then live on stage just incredible sounding so he was a sort of a wizard up there yeah and he was just a kid yeah he was just a young guy like me a little couple of years older and did you uh did you have how many brothers and sisters you got one brother two and one sister yeah and and you just grew up there. Why did you move around so much?

Well, my dad moved around a lot. Yeah. Really a lot, because he was a writer, and he just kept moving. And then when my mom and dad broke up, I moved again with my mom. Yeah. And that was Winnipeg, and then I started the band and started playing. How old were you when that happened? 13 or 14.

Oh, yeah? But you stayed in touch with your old man, right? Yeah. Yeah. What kind of writer? Everything. Sports, human interest, fiction. Did it inspire you?

He wrote hockey books about hockey players in high school and stuff like that. It was pretty cool. Were you a sports guy? No. Not at all sports guy? No. Not at all, right? No, no, I'm not. You know, either it clicks in or it doesn't, right? It didn't click in for me.

No, me neither. I don't know what the hell anyone's talking about. There's enough of them doing it already, though. They don't need us. No, they don't need us. You've got to go where you're needed. That's right. That's it.

They don't need me at the arena. They seem all filled up with guys who are painting their face funny colors. I'm good. But music was it then? Oh, it was for me. Yeah. And what was the first rig you got? For my guitar?

Yeah. Yeah. I had a Harmony Sovereign. Was that hollow body? It was a hollow body. Well, it was a Mont a Harmony Sovereign. Was that a hollow body? It was a hollow body. Well, it was a Monterey. Mm-hmm. Harmony Monterey, I think it was.

Yeah. And it was like a flat, it was like a, what do you call it, an F-hole guitar. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I had a sliding DeArmond pickup on a thing that I could slide back and forth on a track. Yeah, yeah. And I plugged it into our Seabreeze stereo system. It blew out those speakers? It was pretty harsh.

It distorted quite a lot. Of course. That was the beginning of it. A little mismatch. And who were you playing along with at that time? Where were you learning? Oh, I didn't really play along with at that time where were you learning oh i i didn't really play along with things yeah i really listened a lot to uh there was a couple of key things

hideaway oh yeah it was a cool track the uh freddie king yeah yeah uh but and i really got into jimmy reed oh yeah that's who i really liked yeah he leaves that open on when you go the turnaround that's great yeah yeah i talked to uh keith richards about him i've talked to a couple people about him yeah about jimmy reed yeah yeah oh yeah sweet voice and that great guitar sound harmonica yeah and you couldn't really tell who was playing what on those records right yeah yeah like yeah uh buddy taylor uh-huh's a guitar player on those records. Oh, really? So I don't know if he's the one.

One of them's playing... Right. Like that. Yeah. And the other one's, you know... Doing the licks. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that fucking drive. Yeah, yeah. But that usually was three guitars. It was three guitars, one of them tuned down, playing the bass. So no bass. One of them, I think, I don't know whether Jimmy was playing the treble guitar or playing the boogie guitar. Right, yeah. Because there was an upbeat, too, that happened.

If you listen to it, there's three guitar players. And I think his wife used to sit there in the room with him too yeah you could hear her singing just before him right so he'd get the words yeah she had to prime him right i think it was a some issue with his sight i can't remember they worked really well together it was a beautiful thing yeah so when did um when did uh you meet uh stills when did Springfield start? How did that happen? Do you mind going through this stuff? Are you guys okay? No, it must be. Oh, yeah.

Yeah? You guys are good? Oh, we're great. I never know how well you guys are getting along. No, I'm getting along great. Oh, good. You know, I don't have any enemies. Oh, that's good.

That I know of. We all want to assume you guys get along okay. I think you should assume anything you want to assume. Because that's what I'm doing. It works. You know, I come into this not being quite as old as you, but revering certain people and certain groups of people. And in my mind, it's hard when people fight.

That's never fun. You guys have lives. That's not fun. I mean, you have relationships with these guys for, what, 50 years? Yeah, kind of. Well, Stills is longer than that. Oh, yeah? Stills goes back to like, I think it's 63 or 64.

I'm not sure. When you were kids? Yeah, I guess we were kids. And you met before Springfield, right? Oh, yeah. At least a year before Springfield started. And were you guys playing togetherfield, right? Oh, yeah. At least a year before Springfield started. And were you guys playing together then? A little bit, yeah.

Just kind of hanging around? Yeah. What do you got? Well, fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Admiration for each other and what we were doing. He sang so great. Great voice. Wonderful. Yeah. You guys have such different perfect voices. Well, they've been described in different ways.

I know that Stills' voice is a great voice. Right. Crosby, too, right? Yeah. Oh, he's a great singer. Yeah, and it's weird because his voice doesn't seem to ever change. Like all you guys. I don't know.

How did you keep your chords so nice, man? Is that you on top of that? You might have to check yourself out. Oh, really? I don't know if your analysis of the man is that is that you on top of that you might have to check yourself out now oh really well if your analysis of the situation is accurate no yeah i i hear this record you sound good what do you do you have to is there things you have to do to take care of that thing or do you think about it no just let it go i think it's about you know know, being healthy. Yeah. Try to be in good shape. Stay strong. Yeah, yeah.

And that just happens naturally. Well, you've got to work at it, but it happens naturally. What do you do? What do you do to take care of yourself? Well, you know, like this morning I got up and I walked on the beach for three miles. Oh, yeah? And I, you know, a lot of times, like five times a week i i have pilates do you yeah i do you get the best thing i ever did do you get on the machine or just do the laying flat i i do all

the thing whatever they say tightens you up it's great it makes you feel your body the core body starts to move and you can use it yeah yeah it's really good for you and you do i enjoyed it you have a trainer that does it comes in there's several of them i mean yeah keep coming and uh you got off the booze too huh booze yeah no i still drink when i feel like it oh good good yeah everything in moderation you know even moderation should be taken in moderation how long did you take to figure out the moderation trick i still haven't got it yet all right how about you i think you're doing okay i'm off uh i don't do nothing what about coffee coffee a lot of coffee and i and i do these nicotine lozenges oh what do they do they're basically nicotine candy oh so instead of smoking yeah i get that didn't you do that to stop smoking

i i don't know like i think that might have been the intention but then i just decided well these are pretty good are they they and will they get what do they do they get you a little bit jacked yeah yeah yeah they do they do the same thing as nicotine does you know if you if you hit it just right you're jacked if you go too much you're down no and you're in trouble but it doesn't hurt your lungs no it does nothing to your lungs i don't know what it's doing to the other organs how many of these do you take a day i don't i don't keep track how many packages to the other organs. How many of these do you take a day? I don't keep track. How many packages do you go through? Well, no, these will last me a couple of weeks.

I get three tubes. Oh, that's good. You get three tubes and it'll last you a couple of weeks? But no one has told me that they're bad for me yet. No, no. Wait a minute. How many are in each tube? 24 and I split them.

Let's get Matthew on one. I break them. I break them in half. So I got 52 doses in each one. In each one. No, 48 in each one. And there's three of them. That's 150 approximately.

No, I break one in half. And then I do it. And I sit here. So that's 150 halves. Something like that, yeah. Approximately maybe 142 or something. Right, right. Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, I just write it up. Three weeks, let's see, three weeks. Yeah. I get mathy. If I go into a certain place, I just write it up. Three weeks, let's see, three weeks. Yeah. I get mathy. If I go into a certain place, I have to do the math. Break it down? Yeah, and I don't stop until I'm finished.

You've got to ride the equation all the way through. You've got to go all the way. But I think we can drop that one. All right. People that are interested, they can figure out where we're going. Sure, sure. I'll get tweets of people going like, I know the number. Why don't you talk about other things? Why are you talking about math with Neil Young for?

Right, right. Well, you know. Do you have a place down here? Yeah. In LA? Down here, yeah. Oh, you live permanently down here? Yeah, I do.

But you still have the ranch, right? No. It's gone? No, it's still there. I just, I'm not there. Oh, when did that happen? A couple of years ago. Do you miss it?

No, I really don't. I was there for a long time and it was great it was always a wonderful beautiful place yeah but the planet is so huge and there's so many beautiful places you really deprive yourself if you stick yourself in one place and go this is mine I have to stay here and take care of it right now there's more to it than that I think so where you you so you're down here and like up by the beach then no you're around i'm around i get it i'm in the hills okay back in the hills yeah you've returned you've come full circle yes i have so when you so you did the it's it's hard to do like obviously a whole history but'd like to get a sense of, like, when you first came to Los Angeles, you know, that was in the late 60s, right? 66.

April Fool's Day. And that was with Springfield? No. That was before Springfield. Oh, yeah? That was with Bruce Palmer, the bass player in the Minor Birds that... Rick James' band? Yeah.

Yeah. When we broke up and Ricky went to jail, and we broke up, and then Bruce and I decided to take a shot at L.A. to see if we could get a band going down here. So that was R&B that you were playing at the time? A little bit of that, yeah. Sort of kind of funky thing, but we did a little bit of Stones, Rolling Stones.

We played a few of those songs. And I was writing a little with Ricky, and so was one of the other guys in the band was writing, too. So we had a good time. Great band. Really good band. And then that's when you moved down to Topanga, or that was later? That was later.

We moved right down here. I think we came right to Silver Lake. Oh, what was that like then? It was different, but it was the same. Yeah? Still pretty? It's a great place. It is a great place.

Yeah. And what was the scene like? I mean, what was it? How competitive were you? What were you looking to do? No, just start a band and write songs and play songs. I'm not in the rock star thing. I'm not so sure about that.

But you just wanted to play music. Well, hell yeah. We wanted to be in the best band in the world, you know get something going yeah and and who were the people that you were meeting at that time we were looking for stills yeah and oh you knew he was down here yeah we got to track him down yeah and you found him yeah we did yeah and then uh and then that became buffalo springfield he found us actually we were leaving we were going to going to San Francisco in the hearse that I had. Yeah. And we were heading out of town.

I had Ontario plates. And when you saw me, when we met a couple of years before, I had a hearse with Ontario plates. It was a different one. Yeah. But you just, you know, you don't see that that often. No, no, not that. And so they caught up with me. Yeah.

There were a couple of guys in the car. They actually tracked you down in the car? Yeah, they stopped us right on sunset. How many leisure hearths are there with Canadian plates? That's got to be a rare item. Yeah, it's got to be new in that car. That's right. So he tracks you down, and then you guys, you start Buffalo Springfield.

Yep. And then you knock out a couple of great records. Yeah. And then you meet Jack Nishi, and you start thinking about solo. Yeah, I know. I was already, I think I'd dropped out of the band already once.

Yeah. And that's when Jack and I started hanging out. Then I went back with the band for a while until finally the band kind of broke up. How does that happen with bands? Is it an aggressive thing, or is it just sort of a go your own way thing yeah i was like 20 something years old a very young guy i had no idea what i was doing yeah i can't be responsible for that no one was playing yeah no one was blaming you no but i just did what i felt like

doing you know right and at that time did you that, you know, is it usually a musical issue? Like, you know, I have a, I want to go this way, you guys want to go that way? No, no, not at all. I just think that it was, one of the things that I didn't like and we got into quite a deal about was the, what's that, a johnny carson yeah you know shows like that right they wanted to do them yeah and i i didn't really like that i didn't like playing on tv and uh did they make you lip sync like it yeah yeah at first we did we did a couple like that and finally fuck it yeah yeah pretty much yeah it was was it just the expectation or the showbiz element or the selling element or what you know what is it just exactly about all of those yeah

i'll make you mention those three things yeah because that because that's something that you've kept with you that that is something that you know that belief system is you know i always feel better when i don't do that when i don't when i you know when you don't feel like you're you know i just don't want pitching and hustling i really don't like you know i don't know i'd rather play for people live yeah place that was for music yeah where you could really play loud right and there wasn't people in front of you and right right moving around going can, can we stop? Can we stop? Can we stop the song? Yeah.

And I think back then, a lot of them lip-synced, didn't they? Yeah, oh, yeah. No, they got lip-synced copies of me doing things. Is it? Yeah. How do you feel about those in retrospect? Are you sad that they're out there? No, they're funny.

You get a kick out of them? They're very funny. I know who that guy is. But he was okay. Yeah? But that idea of having a space where music is supposed to be played, I only can relate to it similarly in stand-up, that there's places where stand-up's not supposed to be done.

You do it where you're supposed to do it, where it's best received, where you have control of the environment. Yes. Yeah. conceived where it's the you have yeah control the environment yes yeah well there's there's all these different interesting you know sort of you know waves of of what you're doing and like you know i was when i first listened to the new one with the mixes you got a live concert and then you integrate these animal noises and at first i'm like what's happening but then like it sort

of started to you know level out and you know and i was surprised that initially i thought well is this going to be hokey but then i was sort of like no this makes complete sense that you know like the bees when it's sad that when you hear bees you know on either side of a anti-monsanto song it's sort of heartbreaking well you realize you know we lost 30 of the bees bees last Christmas, or last winter. 30% decline in bee population here. And bees really hold everything together, you know. They're very important.

So in conceiving a record like that, which I guess, you know, would be something experimental. I mean, was this, whose idea? What's the think on that? It just was no think. It was just, I had a meeting with my co-producer, John Hanlon, who's my engineer, recorded a lot of the stuff. And I said, listen, I just want to do an album. It's going to be a studio album. We're going to be full on in production, which I haven't done in years and years and years.

I haven't made a real record in many years. I've only made records of performances of things in the studio. But this is a real record where anything we want to do, we can do. We can do anything. Use any trick. Nothing is too cheap for us. We can do anything. And there can't be rules about, oh, it's a live recording, so you want to do this. You want to be honest about it.

Right. No. Yeah. Right. So you want to do this, you want to be honest about it. Right. No. Yeah. So we started like that, and then we put the songs together,

and they started talking to me like, these songs, I can hear animals, and I can hear things in the audience. Yeah. And I could hear, and I've heard it before, you know. I've heard these sounds before. Yeah. You know, just in my head, listening to live tapes that I've made over the years. And I go, God, that sounds like a dog barking in the background.

Or it sounds like, you know, wolves or something. Yeah, yeah. And it's actually people yelping and carrying on. Right, right, right. So I added those in just to see what would happen. And I went, wow, I really like that. It's like they're all here. Yeah, yeah.

So I created this picture. It's an audio. It's an ear movie. Yeah, right. It's like they're all here. Yeah, yeah. So I created this picture. It's an audio. It's an ear movie. Yeah, right. It's an ear movie. You close your eyes, and you can go away for 98 minutes. It never stops. Right.

Something's continuous. Yeah, it is. It's not music. There's the sounds of audience integrated with animals. And also you had the freedom of this new bandwidth, this new file, this new range was part of the impulse for this, right? Yeah. Well, you know, we created, you know, the work that we created, we captured at its highest level the way it was in the 60s and 70s and early 80s and the 50s even.

That kind of audio file quality that everyone heard. Right. That's the way we recorded it. And so we were able to capture the whole thing. audiophile quality that everyone heard right that's the way we recorded it and uh in and that's so we were able to capture the whole thing and the only thing that we did that we couldn't do then was it's long and it's like a movie but you don't have to stop yeah you know uh on the on the master file you listen all the way through and the only the cd has got only one break i mean there's two discs and it stops in one place and you got to put on the other disc right and isn't the idea of the pono though to to sort of engage the the the depth of

that sound that we the idea of pono is to give you exactly what was created yeah without putting anybody's intellectual property uh device on like mp3 right right the new mp3 whatever it is yeah encoding high-res compression right yeah encoding and compression we don't have any of that We saw it like MP3 or the new MP3, whatever it is. Yeah. Encoding. High-res files. Compression. Right. Yeah. Encoding and compression, we don't have any of that.

Yeah. And we just have an excellent playback system in the player. Yeah. You can listen to it on other players, but our player was voted best in the world by Stereophile. Yeah, I like it. So we got a great sounding player. It's made by a genius guy who really hears. And we found him, and he made the player for us.

And it's so great. Long time in the making. Yeah, yeah. So it all sounds really good. If you really like good, pure files of the music you love, whether it's old or new, that's what we sell at PonoMusic.com. And what about the band, The Promise of the Real? There's a new band for you, right? The last few years.

They're great, yeah. And Willie Nelson's kids are in that one? Yeah, a couple of them are in there. Yeah. So the pedigree of the band is really great, and everybody's sensitive to the music. They respect it. It's been their whole life.

Are there any old guys? Seriously, just me. But, you know, i feel really good in there i feel like um safe and also no fear yeah and they have no fear yes the key ingredient in love yeah no fear well that was the interesting thing in in the in the movie not in the movie so now you got me calling it a movie well you know it is a movie if you close your eyes you went to a lot of places i did go remember bram stroker's dracula did you ever see that one with the coppola film yeah yeah remember when the bat was flying down the street and it

was like some old yeah yeah yeah and you saw like it was a uh the image of what the bat was seeing yeah yeah of course the bat can't see right. But that was what was interesting. So that was the impetus for doing this record. Right. Because you're hearing things, and you can't see them, and you're going from place to place. I mean, you're playing all over the world. I mean, you're going to the bottom of the ocean, downtown New York. Yeah. You're running out in prairies.

That's right, yes. You're in brooks. You're in barnyards. You're everywhere. Right. You go everywhere around Earth during the record. And the music is like a break from the traveling. Right.

And so you just get meditative kind of in there. It's trippy, man. Yeah, it is. Yeah. It's far out. Yeah, man. But the interesting thing is fearlessness is the core of love. Yeah.

Being open. And there's two songs on there. The hippie song, The Hippie Dream, which is sort of like drawing a line between the hippies that are still fighting and the hippies that have given up in a way or surrender to comfort or whatever it is that they surrender to right but the dream of of you know change and love is still real and still something that has to be fought for so that's that's one of those neil young songs where you you're sort of like uh you know you fuckers quit. Right? Somebody did. But not you.

Apparently not. Right. And then there's the idea that, you know, this idea that love, because there's something about that hippie ideal that was a fashion. Because there's another song on there that is basically somewhat of a direct or satiric attack on people that just want music about love. Yeah. And here we're saying that love is really what can conquer and what can win fearlessness. And that's a love that's got a little fight to it. fight to it yet the sort of trite love of love songs or generally i imagine you're you're talking about pop music in a way i'm just talking about people who don't want to hear a confrontational

message they don't want to hear uh uh no fear yeah they don't want to hear about certain things they just want to hear about love that's what they want to hear about certain things. Yeah. They just want to hear about love. That's what they want to hear about. That'll relax them because pretty soon, you know, like they really need to get away. I mean, you know, that's, they put it on the radio, they don't need to be attacked. Right, right, right. So they're feeling that way because the rest of the world is not really, you know, maybe they don't feel great about the world. So they want to get out of the world and just go to music.

And escape. But, you know, unfortunately, living in that musical space is people like me. I mean, I'm there, and there's a lot of people like me that want to sing about things that they care about. And so the song started from, you know, I was playing songs about anti-corporate songs and all these things, and somebody just, you know, I got the message, you know. Yeah. People want to hear about love.

That's what they want to hear. You know, I'm going, I don't care. You know, I sang about love already. You know, only love can break your heart. Yeah. You know, I sang about many aspects of love. And quite recently, I did an album called Storytone. Yeah.

It's all about love. Yeah. And, you know, that was only a couple albums ago. And I'm going, what does this mean that I have to only do that? Right. And, you know, I can't talk about things like, you know, the dangers of different things. Yeah. And incongruous things that are happening.

War. Yeah. War. Pollution. Cor things that are happening. War, pollution. Pollution, corruption. Oil mining. Corporate government. Yeah. You know. Yeah.

Those things, I just, I think they're interesting. But you still have people that confront you with that stuff? Like, they come up to you and go like, where's the old Neil? It's like, which one are you talking about? Really, where's the old Neil? That's one of the things about this record that'll let when they when they go to earth and they and they want to take that trip through there yeah the oldest song on there is a 45 years old from which well which one so even in the middle of that song even though it's a live version with but it's live in a different way it's a living version right uh it has uh

the original uh french horn that was on the real record from 19 you pulled whatever from the tape i took the whole master and i just re i just dropped it into this live one it's just seamless and covered it with a few things so that people could feel the space and traveling. And that's what the whole record's about. So that's a little disorienting when you hear that and you hear these beautiful voices, the corporate harmony singing along with After the Gold Rush. It's like there's something a little edgy about it in a way that it's so sweet. Well, right. It's just so nice.

But it's not. Wait a minute. Underneath there. That's some Neil nice. But it's not. Wait a minute. It's underneath there. That's some Neil Young shit in there. What is that? The corporate harmony, the vanilla corporate harmony. Yeah, the vanilla singer is the corporate harmony. But obviously talented and sound great.

Fantastic. But there is a joke to it. Well, you know, there's just, I motivated them and I said, listen, you really got to sell this. Yeah. This is great stuff right now this uh you know you got to think how cool some of these things are that you're you know like how optimistic you should sound when you sing exxon you're right it's really great stuff it's it's it's energy it's it's uh but you're people need it you have to have this i mean you know here we are you directed them yeah i sell this sell these concepts you know monsanto it's a beautiful sounding name right so make it sound like a beautiful day i mean make it sound you know so i

it's a satirical device done beautifully well they're great great commercial background and commercial jingle singers, the best in L.A. That's who you got? Yeah. The best ones. I mean, you know, I know there's other ones that are really good, but these ones we got are, you know, the best that we could get together right there. I love it. They're really excellent. So they sing so perfectly and so in tune, and they're obviously so much more accomplished technicians.

Yeah. So the idea was to play them against the message of truth. so perfectly and so in tune and they're obviously so much more accomplished technicians yeah so the idea was to play them against the the message of truth well you know the idea was that they they played against the promise of the real and they're in the image of the record uh they're there on stage which with us and we're playing and the animals are cheering and yeah every once in a while the animals come on stage and do a breakdown where there's just the bass and drums and animals. Yeah. You know, so it's like, and they're good with the band. They're always right there, you know.

Yeah. They never miss. Right. So, and they just show up when they want to. But floating in among all of the image of the band on stage and the animals in the audience and sometimes on stage is this hologram of these vocalists yeah and they're perfect and they're just so great so this is a very this is this is it's almost like you know everything that you've sort of been working towards and playing with you know coming together in one big mix it kind of is yeah and and i like when you were talking about the french horn there's when

when you say traveling there's a time travel element that the one thing that music affords you outside of any messaging is a really the only time travel machine that we really have that's reliable it's a good one yeah and like that's what's curious to me about this relationship which is probably the longest in your life you have with that guitar. Yeah. That's a good one. Right. But you know, I can tell, I'm projecting it onto you, but you respect the history of things and you understand the magic of things.

And also the depth of what an object that makes music can do. Right? Because that organ, what is that organ on that record? On Mother Earth, the organ is, it's a pipe, a pump organ. An old one? Yeah. They got it in a junk shop. And what's that, but you've used other organs that are like old timey ones, right?

Mm-hmm. But that one was, that's as old as. Yeah. I used an organ on Country Girl and I've Been Waiting for You also a long time ago. But that was from, that was in Glendale, a huge organ in a church building. You went and you recorded there? Yeah, I recorded it there. Yeah.

But this one is just a pump organ that I can play and sing at. Uh-huh. So that was live. We did that that way. And the, but the guitar, what is it, when you, because that guitar has gone through a lot of shit. Yeah, well, yes. It has. And what, you play a few guitars, but you're not a guy that's got 90, are you?

Well, I got a lot of guitars, but I, you know, I just get guitars because I like them. Yeah. Usually for writing. Right. But when you go on stage, it's only a, are you? Well, I got a lot of guitars, but I just get guitars because I like them, usually for writing. Right, but when you go on stage, it's only a couple, right? Yeah, I play two or three on stage. You play that big Gretsch? Yeah, sometimes I'll play that. And that black Les Paul.

What is the story on that Les Paul, man? I got that guitar from Jimmy Messina. Uh-huh. He traded, I think it was a trade. Yeah.

Something to do with, I'm not sure, I think it was a trade yeah uh something to do with uh i'm not sure i think it was a trade it's kind of hazy yeah uh yeah and i got that from him and uh it was a gold top that someone had shellacked with black it was black and had a lot of uh finished ivory put around it and you know yeah all kinds of stuff and it'll have half fallen off. Yeah. And there's still a couple of pieces of it left. Yeah. Did you just maintain it? No. No?

No, just let it be what it was. Yeah. I mean, Larry Craig, my guitar tech, maintained it for me and still does. I mean, he does the real lion's share of the work on it. But going back a little further into the time travel thing, that thing you did with Jack down in Nashville in the Story Tone album. Yeah.

In the machine. That's literally a time travel machine. Oh, that one. The voice of a graph. That was, what's that called? That album was called A Letter Home. Oh, yeah, A Letter Home. Yeah, that was a voice of graph.

And you just did that because you thought it would be interesting to do it in the voiceograph yes yeah it was kind of it was all covers yeah some of them by guys you knew yeah yeah i i wanted to make a record that sounded as old as the songs that i was singing yeah and it really does sound like they were you know in some cases you'll listen to it and go well maybe that's like from before when the record came out you know it's so old sounding so it's it's unique in that respect i i thought it was a very uh very rewarding project and he did two uh gordon lightfoot songs yeah did you know him coming up

uh yeah i met him a few times yeah he's canadian right a real good guy yeah yeah he wrote some good songs huh he's written some great songs so you know, Dylan thinks he's one of the very best ever. So when you were like, you know, when you starting, because there seems to me to be something that, you know, like, this is how I work, because I heard about your issue with Set List. This is what it looks like of what I wanted to talk to you about. It's a fucking mess of words that I'm going to come at it like a collage. Like I wrote here, I wrote, the sadness and anger that floats eternal.

And like, because there's a quality to your music that it doesn't ever date itself, Neil. Like, it's better than time travel, because if you put on most of your records, you know, outside of, you know, some production elements later, but there's no time to it. It's timeless. Do you feel that? Well, I try to be early into it while I'm doing it and let that all happen, whatever it is. I don't think about it that way. I really think about each day and each performance and each song as a unique thing. And that's where I put my energy.

Right. What's your writing process? There isn't one. It just comes to you sometimes? Yeah, sometimes I just get it. I'll put down anything to finish a song or to do something if I have an idea. Yeah. Whatever I'm doing will be second.

So I always have learned that if you're going to do something, you know, and you have a musical gift, it's like you have to accept the gift. It's not like if I'm sitting there thinking of what I'm going to do, I'm fucked. Yeah. Okay. That's not it. Right. Right. That's not it.

You know, if you get something that comes to you, that's it. Grab it. Don't do anything else. Whatever you're doing, whatever you're doing, stop and go and follow whatever that idea is. Yeah. And that's how I write. Something that connects with your music is very, is heavy hearted.

Yeah, but I'm a happy guy, really. I'm not an unhappy person. No, no, you're right. I mean, you look at me, you can see that I'm here. Yeah. And I'm doing okay. I know. So the thing is that the world is not quite there.

Right. There's things going on in the world that people don't see. Yeah. And there's a lot of damage being done and we don't see it. And so that makes me a little heavy hearted. Right. That it seems so hard to get the message out. And it's so hard to actually even with the technology we have today, it's so hard to get through the murk of the technology.

I mean, I know this is a podcast. Yeah. But, you know, for listening to music, it it's very degraded it's less than five percent of what you heard on the pono player but when you go but when you do like um you know stuff from you know all the way you know from the first record you know through uh zuma which is like for some reason that's like out of all your records i listen to zuma a lot i was walking on zuma this morning you were yeah you listening to it no just the beach yeah listening to the ocean yeah yeah yeah and the seagulls but did you feel this pressing idea that there was something uh some darkness

afoot you know all your life not depression but that you know the tone of what is unknown is is somewhat menacing it's there always been there you've got, you know, the tone of what is unknown is somewhat menacing. It's there. Always been there. You've got to, you know, recognize it. Yeah. You can't ignore it. It's just, you know, no fear of no fear.

But do these fears, I guess what I'm trying to get at, that what people are afraid of, you know, that what you've sort of been through, you know, in your career, you know, that they were always sort of the same in the 60s. You know, now it's what they're not afraid of that bothers me. Like what? Well, what's going on in the climate, what's going on in the environment. The thoughtlessness. What we're doing to the world, the amount of animals and living things that are just going away. We are not seeing what's going on. The insects are threatened.

They have 10% of the fish in the ocean that we had when I wrote After the Gold Rush. We've lost 90%. It's crazy. There's three times more of us than there were then. So, you know, you just got to look at it. Don't do the math. We're doomed. Because it's crazy there's three times more of us than there were then so you know you just got to look at it don't do the math we're doomed it's ugly we're doomed so but no we really it's more than a word it's more than something to say or to make a quick joke about not that you're joking about it but people do yeah that's what they do when they hear someone say something like this it's like oh

you know what are you gonna do neil is just you know he's out there yeah he's out there yeah what is he looking at crazy old hippie i got this stuff yeah you know i got this stuff's gonna make everything okay so i say break it out let's try it yeah yeah yeah break out that stuff that can make it all good yeah there's an urgency to it for you yeah there is for at least the past decade of very specific urgency around war and seeds and you know people and pollution we just have to keep a uh keep a record of a point of view you know that's that's what i'm trying to do keep a record of a point of view what's going on because this is the times these times in the history of what's going on in the world right now they're going to be looking back at this hopefully as well that was the yeah well not in the too distant future

yeah but they'll be looking back at this going wow you know during this time so many things could have been done to keep what it is that we now only have pictures of right and and what do we read about but you know we'll see what happens. Mother Nature is incredibly strong. Yeah, it'll adapt. We might not. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. We might not make it. Mother Nature will. Mother Nature will be fine. Yeah. Actually, I think we're going to make it. I really do. No, I do too. I don't feel like a dark.

I don't feel dark. I feel like Earth is just mistreated. And I think it's uh you know you just have to keep pointing it out and maybe people will want to make a change you know want to eat food that they know is cleaner and better for the earth yeah study the way things are done well sadly with humans it seems it's something fairly catastrophic and very you know uh, more than just a gradual erosion of climate or that something horrible has to happen that's tangible to most people all at once. Yeah.

You would think that something like Hurricane Sandy would have been that. Not big enough. But it really wasn't big enough. No. No. It was not as big as it. And even the biggest thing that happens. Yeah.

You know, it's hard to say. You know, climate change is one of the great profit centers. Yeah. And, you know, that's the way a lot of people look at it like, that's going to be some good business coming out of it. I think that's true. And I think that's disturbing is that, like, you know, the free market can absorb and accommodate this and there's going to be a big business in these environments that need to be created. Yeah.

Where people can breathe. Imagine the money. Solar power. That would be so good. That that need to be created. Yeah. Where people can breathe. Imagine the money. Solar power. That would be so good. That solar power would be easy. It would be easy. But no, but that's not as big a business as enclosed cities. There's the big business, Neil.

That would be one. What an air conditioner that would have. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, you know. Yeah. I think it's going to work out one way or the other.

I do, too. Can we talk a little more about the old days? Sure. Yeah. I think it's going to work out one way or the other. I do, too. Can we talk a little more about the old days? Sure, whatever. I'm okay. You all right? I'm in your garage. Yeah, this is it. Let's do what you want to do in here.

It's nice. Thank you, man. It's a nice place, folks. There's a lot of clutter here. There's a lot of clutter in here. A lot of nice, a lot of good books. I see the Something Doctrine, the School Doctrine by Naomi Klein right there. Have you read that?

No, I haven't. You know, I'm not an avid reader. That's the Shock Doctrine. Oh, the Shock Doctrine. Yeah, yeah. That's right up your alley, actually. Well, you know, there's a lot of interesting things in here. But when you did, like, when you did like um and i i know you've gone over this

stuff before but to track what you're saying that you know this history of consciousness when you when you were able to turn around the song ohio to really actually you know come out in a short enough time that was relevant to the time that that shit was happening there was an urgency that you feel now that's the same back then and well there's no way to if something happened and we wrote a song about it, there's no way it would come out. Right. It's just nowhere to play it.

Now. Now. Right. You'd play it. Right. If you heard it. But back then. You might not know what happened.

Right. Because it never would be on the radio. People wouldn't be talking about it because radio and TV and all the media and everything is all controlled by a certain amount of people and corporations before it used to be many many people doing this but the telecommunications act in 1996 or so made it possible for corporations to own all the media so it's six companies well but you know it's also fragmented it's a divide and conquer media landscape back then they were

corporate owned but there was only five of them. It was intimate. You know, it was always corporate owned, but at least like they were like on the pulse enough to go like, well, I think the kids like this music. And, you know. And they had people working for them that could make their own minds up. That's right. That was part of the way they did it. Those were the days when people could make their own decisions in the studio about what they were going to play.

Now there's a format coming out of Philadelphia. It's coming coming out it gets all the stations get it that subscribe to it it's like could be like 300 stations all playing exactly the same thing no and yeah it's hard you know so that's it's you're in rotation on some of those stations programming yeah it's programming i i feel dizzy already from the rotation but there was a but at the time that you did the stuff with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and that there was a shifting of the guard, I think that what you speak to and what I'm experiencing as well is that nobody's on the same page, really. Everyone can pick their own page, and it doesn't matter if the page is bullshit or not. But it seemed that somehow or another you guys were able to get through because the

corporations that were in charge of the music business wanted to sell records for kids, and you guys got out what you wanted to say. Yeah, because kids were listening to the radio stations. Right. And then around the time of Woodstock, business realized, wow, there's a whole generation of people here. The 500,000 of them came to listen to these bands. Yeah. You know, business realized, wow, there's a whole generation of people here. The 500,000 of them came to listen to these bands. Yeah. We've got to start making commercials with bands in them.

Right. You know, and we've got to get ourselves involved in this. We've got to sell out the 60s. Yeah, we've got to make this happen. We can use this energy. Right. And that's what happened, and that's the way it goes, you know. But those records that you continue to make,

that even after everyone knows there's another one, or after the gold rush harvests, time fades away, that these records that happened that were intimate records and that later became these revered classics, you had already pulled away from collective consciousness in a way to do your own thing, right? Well, I wasn't thinking about it that way. Well, you think about it that way now a little bit.

I just didn't want to do what I did before. Yeah. And I wanted to keep changing and trying things. And what they call, who gave it the name, the Ditch Trilogy? Oh, I don't know. Somebody. Not me. I know, right?

Does that bother you? No. You know, that's what it's for you you if i can make things and put them out there yeah then it's up to other people to decide what they are that's not what my job is not to decide sure you're the artist i just want to create it and what do you think that you know like uh an album like on the beach and Tonight's the Night, or Tonight's the Night, that the story around that record was that it was very played all at once, right? You didn't, it wasn't a lot of time you spent in the studio.

No. And it was a direct reaction to the loss of your friend, Danny, right? Yeah, Danny and Bruce. Both of them. Yeah, two people. And, you know, it was sort of, I think, a realization culturally at that time of how horrible heroin was as well.

Well, yeah, and, you know, Danny and Bruce were just two that I knew. I mean, you know. Sure. It's everybody. That's what it was about. And at that time, it was really all over the place, right? That was after the 60s, the crashing of the 60s.

It was a crash going on, yeah. And it wrecks us, you know. So, you know, yeah, it's just real feelings. These people were friends of mine. I worked with them and had great times with them and admired them. And there was nothing you could do to stop them? No. That's the most fucked up thing about that shit.

It's bad. So, you know, I reacted to it. And just like I could do to stop them. No. That's the most fucked up thing about that shit. It's bad. So, you know, I reacted to it. And just like I'm reacting to things now. It's the same thing, the same guy, same MO, same damn thing. Yeah. Nothing unpredictable about it at all. It's the same thing over and over and over again. Right.

In your heart. But, like, the only thing that's unpredictable is how you're going to it with your creativity which is what you like to do yeah that's that's I don't know that either right you know yeah you know what album I just got recently I picked up the the rockabilly record oh ho that's a wild record it is man yeah I mean that was like it's sort of an interesting time there there's a record before that either I don't know what it was what trans yeah and a guy from a record company said neil why don't you just play some rock and roll man why don't you just get you know

just do your thing that guy yeah and you just did your thing here you go when you do something like that that was sort of like isn't that you paying a somewhat of a homage to what you know what you grew up with i mean isn't that isn't that there're like, it's fun music to play, right? Yeah, yeah. It was a culmination of things, working on that one. Yeah? Like what? Well, I thought at that point in my life, and I was still very young, I said, well,

here, I'm walking down a hallway now, and I am in my painting period. Uh-huh. And I'm going to do all these different uh you know yeah it's gonna be different times uh-huh different characters and different pictures for for like a few records you mean well each record was a different one and they just they're there starting at like reactor somewhere yeah yeah i don't know but you just said why not just fucking explore at all and go into different beings? Yeah, I can do whatever I need to do now because it doesn't, you know, there's no sense in doing things over again. Yeah.

I saw a lot of people doing things over and over again and it didn't work for them. No, no, because... A lot of them didn't even live. I mean, they just, they lost what it was they had. Because the record company pressured to repeat themselves. Whatever. I don't know if the record company or their own soul or their own manager or their wife or what. Or fear.

I have no idea. Sure. And it may be that they just wanted to stay where they were because they succeeded. Any number of reasons to repeat yourself. And you just never wanted nothing to do with that. Well, like I said, in my own way, I've been doing the same thing over and over again for my whole life, which is just doing what I want to do. Right.

But you have a voice. Not the voice voice, but you are as a view. Yeah. I have a point of view. And it changes all the time, but it's mine. That's right. You know what it is? It's style.

Like, you know, there are certain, even if it's a note, even if you're doing something like if I listen to trans, there's a melody there that I know is you. Yeah. Okay. So you're a melody. What am I? It's point of view, but it's a tone. there's a melody there that I know is you. Yeah, okay. So you're a melody. What am I? It's point of view, but it's a tone. It's a nearly young tone.

There's something in there. I can still remember doing the trans stuff and having people boo me when I would do that. I'd put on a little microphone and sing through the machine with the vocoder and somebody playing the melody that I'm singing and I'm enunciating the words and the melodies coming out of my mouth through the machine kind of thing. It was all based on my son not being able to talk. Yeah. Okay, I had a son who couldn't talk. Okay, he can't do anything. He can't move.

Yeah. So I was... Trying to get through to him? Well, I was trying to represent what that must be like. So I was trying to get through to the audience in a way where to represent what that must be like right so i was trying to get through to the audience in a way where they knew that they couldn't understand what i was doing that's just like my son trying to talk to me yeah and do you like over the years like i imagine do you do you have a way of communicating with him oh yeah no we're very uh

this just comes in the eyes and sounds and body language. And that's Zeke? No, that's Ben. Ben. That's Ben, yeah. Ben's the one who's... Ben's a quadriplegic, yeah. And he still travels with you everywhere? Yes, he goes with me on the road as much as he can. Yeah.

And it's sort of like he's your best audience, I'd imagine. He's great. He's great. I just like to travel with him. He enjoys traveling. Yeah. You know, he's in a moving vehicle. Yeah. You know, he's in a moving vehicle. Yeah.

You know, he's always in a wheelchair, you know, so just to be jostled around in a moving vehicle and flying down the road, I mean, for him, it's a great experience. He loves it. And trans was sort of a way for you to try to understand? A way for me to emulate what it must be like to be trying to talk and not have a voice and be trying to communicate and not have what it is that people expected you to do. And you're still trying to get through. And that's what all that record is. Yeah. I'm in that machine.

Yeah. Yeah. Trying to get out of the machine to get through. And some people just were going, what the heck is going on? Fuck them. Yeah. And I'm going, this is it. Here we are.

This is good. And then two albums later, you do a country record. I worked that shit out. I like that. I figured that out. And now I'm moving on. I've always loved music, and I like all kinds of music. I'm not trying to be, what do you call it?

Somebody said to me when I did that well you know people they don't trust you because you know they don't think you you change styles yeah

it's like so they can't believe you yeah yeah and I'm going well you know that's okay yeah they don't have to

they'll get over it yeah either that or they won't but I don't have to worry about it let them go listen to the old records if they want to. Yeah, or maybe one, three or four down the line. Who knows? Somebody will hit.

And sometime we're bound to connect up with them again. The experience of living with a kid that had that difficulty, like I don't know the pain or joy of that. the pain or joy of that but there there must be uh not unlike your your sort of open-mindedness around engaging animals and engaging the world and having fearlessness there must be a a some sort of understanding of of ben's joy that is something that you couldn't even access that you know the way he feels saying he's just a great human being and i i love him and i know he loves me and we enjoy a lot of things together uh but he you know and he has so many things that we would consider to be hard things to deal with right but that's the way he's always been so when i see people complaining about struggling

to get something where they can't get it i'm going oh man i i think that you know yeah i've seen people with a lot bigger problems. In my family. Yeah, yeah. You know, I've seen this. And, you know, so I just have another perspective on it. And you have another son that has some problems as well? Well, you know, he's got cerebral palsy.

But he's a very, you know, he gets around great. Yeah. And he's a very smart,, and he's incredibly brilliant at the things he does. And you have a daughter, too, that's an artist? Yeah, she's an artist. She's great. That's great.

Yeah. A couple other things. It's hard because I know there's so many huge Neil Young nerds out there, and if I don't cover... You're never going to do that anyway. You'll never satisfy everybody. I know. I can't.

Just do what you want to do yourself. You know, that's going to work. Well, I'd like to know about the film work as well, working on Dead Man, which is a fucking masterpiece. Isn't that a great movie? It's a great movie. Unbelievable movie. I can't believe it.

And the soundtrack's amazing. Oh, thank you. I told Jim Jarmusch, I said, Jim, this is a classic. You don't even need a soundtrack. movie i can't believe it and the soundtrack's amazing oh thank you i you know like i told jim uh jarmish i said jim this this is a classic you don't even need a soundtrack right this could be a silent movie yeah and it's still a classic you can't miss with this movie this is a great movie yeah and he said well i really want you to play on it you know so i i did but was what was amazing about it was that you know the instrument like to you, you know, like just space it out like that. Like it was like it was like some it was a way that I know I had not heard you, you know, to where you're just honoring what's going on on screen.

But it's so clearly your shit, you know what I mean? But it wasn't, you know, all about, you know, what you were doing. I stood in a room about three times the size of this room with about 30 television sets. And they were all playing the movie, and I had all my instruments in there. It's maybe five times the size of this space. But I had all my instruments, and I just watched the movie, and we did it twice. Yeah. And I just played all of that live.

Yeah. We did it twice, and we ended up using the end of the first one and the beginning of the second one. Uh-huh. Up to that, and that was the soundtrack for the whole thing. And beginning of the second one uh-huh up to that and that was the soundtrack for the whole thing and you've like you've done other film work too i mean well i mean demi works with you over and over again to do the concert movies yeah we did some and you did uh did you do something with dean stockwell too um we did human highway oh yeah i didn't see that i mean you gotta check that one out yeah yeah i recommend that one yeah wait what i think you'll enjoy that one you're still

friends with him right who dean yeah yeah oh yeah yeah i love dean it's he goes you guys go way back i love that you have these relationships back to chapanga in the 60s but now they're pretty pretty distant back there but he was he was already a big success by the time i met him yeah he was already rocking and rolling and what was his how did you how what's the story on after the gold rush it was based on a screenplay that he run play that he wrote with uh uh herb berman uh-huh and you read it i read it and i wrote all the songs and it never got made and it never got made what and here's another thing that i ended up doing this morning was that i saw out of the blue the dennis hopper film oh man that's a dark dark film holy

man film though i saw when it came out when i was in college in boston and you like did they ask did you screen that movie before because they used the song in it yeah no i it's dennis whatever you want to do yeah yeah yeah you were friends with him too yeah he's intense guy very real hard so that is a dark film it's real i have not seen or heard of it in a long time oh it's a big it's it's classic it's a little yeah it's it's brutal and it's a classic yeah now what if i can ask your relationship with um with willie nelson he's like you know he's a real country dude and you guys are obviously pretty good friends and you know you have your hearts in a lot of the same places now when you put together farm aid when you got you and Mellencamp and Willie Nelson, that still goes on.

That organization. Yeah, it's continuing on, yeah. And the fight now is mostly against genetic engineering? Or what is the fight? It's about educating people about the food that they eat and the choices that we have. Yeah. And the way that the earth is is uh damaged by certain things you know this industrial farming is very bad for the for the earth yeah it's not like good

yeah it's not what makes things go on forever yeah depleting it's very taxing on the planet all of that stuff the way they're doing it but they own it that doesn't make more food that's that's a myth yeah it's like not we're not feeding the world the world is basically a lot of the world is starving and we're not feeding the world with these chemicals what they are doing is they're controlling things and subsidies as well where you just like get all this stuff if they're if they're making cat litter out of corn there's a problem if there are people starving and they're making cat litter out of corn somehow something's wrong there's a lot of things there's a lot of things wrong but it's that's the way it goes and what in and what about performing like with um there's something about performing

like you know what what people call garage band you like to fucking play rock and roll and yes and you know the the there's something about performing live and performing as as real and in the moment as possible on records that that is what it's really about and that was not what it's that's always what it's been about yeah and this and earth is a real representation of that yeah record really is really good bands a really good band playing together yeah having a great time and improvising all the way through it oh yeah yeah yeah and what about with pearl jam did you like playing with those guys playing with that was fun it's just it's just like rock and

roll man right yeah and your guitar sound like how long did it i mean that's a dumb geek question but you know when did you arrive on that man because that's another thing that stays pretty consistent when you're playing electric guitar i know it's you 19 well you know like the way it is now really started in the mid 70s yeah but before that i just i had the same guitar and the same amp i just didn't put the gizmos in there oh yeah yeah to break it up to make it you know i just didn't add the other things to it and the motors and all that stuff that you know yeah and okay two other records and we're done the uh is that all i got left two more no no no i think you're making something like who was that said two more records and you're done i shouldn't have done that podcast shit who was that put the hex on me

put the curse on me no but the uh the greendale record dealing with all these issues that you find important but making uh you know almost a stage play out of it and building it around you know a family and around the struggles of that and it was that totally conceived just it was that a one thing that you were thinking of well you know all these projects kind of go together. That project is a lot like Tonight's the Night. Because it was the same kind of a thing. It's a story.

There's a thing in there. Yeah. And that I'm talking about all the way through it. And Greendale, I wrote in my car on the way to the studio every day. What were you recording? I was recording the song, the whole album. Oh, so you were writing that day. So every day I'd go to the studio, I'd drive across the ranch in my special deluxe Plymouth,

and I'd stop and I'd start writing songs. And then when I couldn't think of anything more, I'd drive another hundred yards and stop again. New location, new information. Yeah, yeah. So I was pretty sure that where I was on the planet made a big difference to what I was getting. Yeah. So I tried to see, well, how far do I have to go, really?

Very far, or is it, you know, like miles, or is it feet? So I had my writing tablet, and that's how I wrote every song on that on that album i would get up in the morning and play a few chords and that would be the basis of the song the first things that i played yeah i wouldn't think about i just pick it up and whatever happened i'd just go okay i'm gonna do that over and over again that's the song then i'd write the words on the way over and then we developed the song in the studio and finish it that night that's how i did greendale yeah and then the stage play was created was you was collaborating the story because the story is told in the song right and prairie wind was a a sort of a eulogy record

was it prairie wind was a unique uh record because it was when i found found out I was in New York and we were doing something, I think I was supposed to go and be at the Hall of Fame in Canada or something. And I'm sitting in the hotel and I had a couple of incidents with my vision. Yeah. And then I went to a doctor and they found a brain aneurysm. Yeah. And then they decided that, well, I'm going to have to have this taken out. And I said, well, okay, I have an operation on my brain.

And they said, yeah, we're going to do that. And I said, well, you know, we got a really good guy to do this. When can we get in and do it? You know, so it was like eight or nine days away. Yeah. So I went to Nashville. Yeah. I started taking the drugs that they gave me, which are like slowed me way down.

Yeah. I went to Nashville and wrote and recorded Prairie Wind in Nashville during those eight days. So that was a just-in-case record. It was like, it could feel like a eulogy, but it just felt like I'd like to say a few things just in case. Yeah. One never knows. Do one. Had your dad passed around that time as well yeah yeah so it was a lot going on yeah mortality right yeah yeah that was but that was the just it was a passing study

of it yeah yeah the just in case record yeah kind of but you know it's a better late than never kind of right and they in right then not at all too yeah really i mean you know i'm so far late is working for me yeah keep it late yeah yeah do you uh how how you know outside of the songs and outside of working this stuff out you know the processing these emotions and music you know do you uh do you occupy yourself with that with much of that mortality thought? Not really. I mean, it creeps in every once in a while. Yeah. I mean, I'm 70.

Yeah. So it's bound to creep in every once in a while. I see a little glimmer of light around my field of vision. Sure. Who's there? Who's there? Wait a minute. I'm not ready.

I'm not ready. Go on. Get out of here. I'm recording. Get back in your box. Exactly. That's why you keep working here. You can't do it at work i'm working look i'm looking at all your little gizmos on the floor down i get those for your guitar playing gizmos they they give them to me i don't know are those plugins is that what they are no they're they're guitar plugins yeah those

are uh you know effects boxes and uh earthquaker sends to me, and I don't know what to do with them. You know what they are? They're really the new digital version of the kind of shit that I had in my, you know, I got all that stuff that I've got. I got old analog things. Yeah, fuzz pedals and shit. Yeah, even, you know, older, like original fuzz tones that don't have a pedal, but, you know, it's just the sound. Yeah, yeah.

And so I'm wired in and out of them, and I got it all wired into that thing on my – Yeah. I can hit with my feet. I got a whole bunch of selections, but I'm the only one who knows what they are because they're not labeled. And they're not digital. No, none of them are. They're all early. Yeah.

Yeah, these are all new things that they send me. I'm just a bedroom guitar player. I'm just a hobbyist. I mean, there's echo in there. Yeah, these are all new things that they send me and I like, I'm just a bedroom guitar player and I'm just a hobbyist. I mean, there's Echo in there. Yeah, sure. There's a repeat. There's phasers. I've got analog tape machines

running inside a box under my amp. You do? Yeah, it's always blowing up and they bring out another one and fix the tape and everything. It's great.

It's a constant battle just to get through the show and have the amp hang in there. It's so fantastic. I mean, what a great relationship. Yeah, that's the excitement of it. Are we going to make it? It is.

Or not. Yeah. Or is the whole thing going to, is this the night it's going to, like, explode and catch on fire? My amp goes to 12. Yeah, you got it. It's a regular production amp. Yeah. I don't know how it happened.

Right. You know, spinal tap. The joke is the joke. Yeah, yeah. I got my know how it happened. Right. You know, spinal tap. The joke is the joke. I got my amp that says 12. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not like I'm not even saying anything. So that locks into it right there. The way you approach life is exactly that, where it's sort of like, I don't know if it's going to make it through.

I'm not sure. I've heard these cars are great just before they blow up yeah exactly it's the motor sounds great it's never ran so good yeah and then it's boom yeah but that but that's the edge man that's the edge right it's nice to live there that's where it feels alive i hope i hope that you know it's a long cruise yeah it's going well so what but what what is the commitment to analog and the machinery i mean i hope that you know it's a long cruise yeah it's going well so what but what what is the commitment to analog and the machinery i mean i'm with you on that tone man just the tone it's the expression it's real it's real it's the real deal and it's a relationship i grew up with

that right the relationship with the equipment not the illusion of the chip it's the chip is the is a replacement it's the simulation everything's simulated copied and you know the original stuff is still rocks yeah it's the fucking shit yeah it is and that's why you know the old the vinyl of the of earth sounds like god it's amazing but so does the high-res pono version. And the CD sounds pretty good, but other than that, I don't even sell it. And I will say to your listeners, because this is a podcast, if you want to get it,

I think they play the whole album on Tidal in a couple of weeks. Go on to Tidal and just record it off of Tidal. It's going to be 44.1. So that way everybody can get it. Ready? Because I'm not selling that. I'm not selling the MP3. Yeah, we're just about ready. it's going to be 44 one yeah is that the way everybody can get it ready because i'm not selling that i'm not selling the mp3 we're gonna do it i'm gonna have one more question when i start talking like that my manager shows up he's nervous yeah he is hey don't give it away hey wait a minute no we want everybody to have it i don't

give a shit yeah it's like i can't sell it i can't sell that crap. Somebody else has to. You go make it yourself and take it home. 50 years? 50 years with that guy. Not easy for him. No, and not easy for him either. So I guess in closing, Neil, are you a spiritual man? Do you consider yourself that?

I must be. I may be a pagan, though. Sure. That's all right and that's yeah that's pretty good i mean i i i got nothing against god or anything yeah i i prefer to to think of god as the great spirit yeah because i i just don't like the uh i don't like the pictures i don't like the pictures and the stories i don't subscribe to the to that to this but i i recognize everyone has a right to have a story yeah that they can believe in that kind of organizes things for them, gives them something to relate to. But I don't think people should profit off of that.

I think that should be just something that you have. And that you can keep to yourself or not. Yeah, right. You can do it yourself. But that's just my view. All right. Well, I guess that's good. You feel all right about it? I feel good. Did can do it yourself. But that's just my view. All right. Well, I guess that's good. You feel all right about it?

I feel good. Did I do all right? I think you did great. That list you got over there, I think you've covered at least three or four of the things on the list. Oh, the last waltz. Well, you did that. That was fun, right? Yeah.

Yeah. As far as I remember, it was great. I was up for 48 hours when I did that one. I was like, I got a little out of control. I started that day in Atlanta, Georgia. Yeah.

And I did two shows. Right. Then I stayed up all night and then I flew. Doing the drugs? Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty shaky.

Yeah. And then I got, you know, that was probably one of the low points of the high points. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I know people say that you're pretty fucked one of the low points of the high points. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I know people say that you're pretty fucked up. You look like you're having a good time. I was doing all right. I was kind of grinding my jaw a little bit. It's kind of like on ice. It was not good. And captured for posterity. Yeah, right.

Why not? There it is. That's what it looks like. Well, you lived, man. It's great that all... The thing is, i didn't continue doing that but yeah that made a difference to the living yeah yeah yeah sure yeah definitely well you know the guys that uh you know like you and clapped and crosby and and fucking stills and

you know a lot of the real warriors and great artists are still around i know a lot of them are gone but you guys all went pretty hard. Yeah. And you did all right. Music is good for you. Thanks for talking, Neil. All right. Wow. Yeah, so that was me and Neil Young. It was one of those interviews

where it happens a lot with the giants, the music, the heroes, where I get a little like, oh my God, I'm talking to Neil Young. And I was nervous about it. And that happens to me. After the interview, I was like, oh, how did that go? Was that okay? And a friend of mine, I'll just share the story with you. A buddy of mine was at a family get-together,

and he was talking to someone who was on set for a Dan Rather interview that happened at Neil Young's house the afternoon of the day that he came to my house. And apparently they were setting up lights and stuff when neil got there and dan rather was just you know trying to make small talk with him to pass the time and he asked him what he'd been doing today and i guess neil said i just had this great interview some guy named mark we did it in his garage and and apparently dan rather asked him what made it great and neil said he was fearless he wasn't afraid to fail he didn't need to know all the answers and so we we actually had a conversation i wouldn't even call it an interview

neil young said that and i i gotta be honest you know it's the best praise i could get because i i barely call myself uh an interview. I call them talks. Go to WTFpod.com for all the WTFpod stuff. You can go to WTFpod.com slash tour for my dates that are coming up. What else?

Let's play some guitar. A little bit. For Neil. ¶¶ Boomer lives! You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea and ice cream? Yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats. Get almost almost anything.

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