‘Crazy Horse Will Return, God Willing’

Neil Young has shared why Crazy Horse’s Love Earth tour was cancelled, pointing to health concerns as the main reason.

During a recent Zoom call with followers of his Neil Young Archives, Young detailed the struggles that led to the tough decision.

“I was doing great, and we were moving right along. Everybody was loving the shows. Then I just woke up one morning on the bus and I said, ‘I can’t do this. I gotta stop.’ It was like I felt sick when I thought of going on stage,” shared Young in a video posted to Reddit on Aug. 28.

“My body was telling me, ‘You gotta stop.’ So I listened to my body,” he added.

The announcement, made in late June, followed an illness that affected several band members, including Young, after their performance at Detroit’s Pine Knob.

The band had to halt their first tour together in a decade. “We are still not fully recovered, so sadly our great tour will have a big unplanned break,” the band stated on Young’s official website at that time.

Young recognized the complex nature of cancelling a tour, including the legal and logistical issues involved.

“Then it gets into all the legal matters: ‘You got this, you got that, people bought tickets, they did this, they did that.’ I understand that. What matters to me is the art of playing, and the music. That’s what matters. That’s what people loved. That’s what they come to see. But if that’s not there, me going is not happening,” he elaborated.

Although faced with the setback, Young is optimistic about the future. “I’m starting to feel like I could do it again and that’s a great feeling. Not all of Crazy Horse — this happened to a couple of us, and we’re not all the way back. Crazy Horse will be back, God willing. And we’ll play more,” he said.

In the interim, fans can anticipate Young’s performance at this year’s Farm Aid, set for Sept. 21 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Looking ahead, Young hinted at potentially focusing on more intimate venues where he’s performed before.

Source: Reddit, Neil Young Archives, Farm Aid