Neil Young Hopes for Crazy Horse Return, ‘God Willing’

Neil Young had high hopes for Crazy Horse’s return after the band had to cancel their summer tour due to illness.

When initially addressing the situation, Young mentioned that “a couple of us got sick” without sharing more details. Later, in a Q&A session with subscribers on his Neil Young Archives website (via Rolling Stone), he provided more insight into what transpired.

“A couple of us really hit a wall,” he explained. “One morning on the bus, I woke up and realized, ‘I can’t do this; I have to stop.’ The idea of going on stage made me feel ill. My body was telling me, ‘You have to stop.’ So, I listened.”

He continued by discussing the complications that come with such decisions. “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 people loved. That’s what they come to see. … if that’s not there, my going isn’t happening. My body told me to not do it.”

Neil Young, now 78, will make a comeback at this year’s Farm Aid event in Saratoga Springs, New York, on September 21. He also mentioned he’d perform a series of low-key shows around the same time. “They’re mostly theaters that I played before – little theaters. … I can play a little bit of acoustic and then have the band come out and play,” he shared.

Young set expectations regarding Crazy Horse’s future, noting that no one should expect “two hours and 10 minutes of blasting rock ’n’ roll like it was with Crazy Horse,” before shifting focus to the band’s future prospects. “Crazy Horse will be back, God willing.

“We did a good service to the name [during the shortened tour] and paid respect to what that was. But when it got to the point where we had done it, and now we were doing it again, that’s why I stopped. That can’t be controlled. You can’t tell when that’s going to happen. I’m sorry to all the people who bought tickets who couldn’t go, but I listened to my body.”