Three months ago Neil Young canceled his Crazy Horse tour with a vague explanation: “A couple of us had health problems.” Now in a Q&A with his Archives subscribers, the rocker explained what happened.
“A couple of us hit rock bottom. I woke up one morning on the tour bus and realized I couldn’t go on, that I had to stop. I felt sick just thinking about going on stage. My body told me I had to stop. I listened to it. Then came all the legal stuff: ‘There’s this, there’s that, people have already bought tickets, they did this, they did that.’ I understand all of that. But for me, it’s the art of playing and the music that matters. That’s what matters. And that’s what people appreciate. That’s why they come to see me. And if it’s not there, it’s all over. It was my body that told me not to continue.”
The good news is that Young will resume playing on September 21st at Farm Aid in Saratoga Springs, New York and that he is preparing a tour of American theaters with guitarist Micah Nelson (who, as is well known, is the son of Willie Nelson), drummer Anthony Logerfo and bassist Corey McCormick, i.e. the rhythm section of Promise of the Real.
The idea, Young said, is to do acoustic songs alone in the first part, and then have the band join him on stage. “It won't be two hours and ten minutes of rock like the Crazy Horse concerts,” said the rocker, who turned 79 in November. “But God willing, Crazy Horse will come back. But no one knows when. I feel sorry for those who bought the ticket, but I listened to my body.”
