August 28, 2025 • 8 mins
Since Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts are appearing at Fiddler's Green in Denver September 1, here's a conversation I had with him in 2012, discussing the new album at the time, AMERICANA. The album still holds up! I hope the interview does as well. Listen to me occasionally stammer because I was in the (virtual) presence of a hero!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm delighted you are listening Brett Sonders here this week,
let's go back into the archives twenty twelve for a
conversation with singer, songwriter, bandleader hero Neil Young. My single
favorite world class rock artist of all time. What a
phenomenal history he has. Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts
are coming to Fiddler's Green September. First, we talked about
(00:23):
his Americana album, which by the way, still holds up
folk music MP three's collaborations. Neil Young on the Brett
Sonders Podcast. Hey, how are you. I'm all right? How
are you?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Let's get right to Americana and the word itself. What
does the word Americana mean to you?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, Americana is something that's American. It's like classically American,
you know, kibb its stuff. You know, it can be
you know, Chippendale furniture or whatever. You know, so you know,
it can be any kind of thing that's that reminds
you of old America.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Now, do some of the these songs hold a personal
meaning for you when you were growing up?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, you know, when I was growing up, I heard
all these songs and they're associated with the with the
American history and the culture of the country and the
country and actually the culture of all of North America.
So it's, you know, something that we're all familiar with.
And we heard the folk music versions of these songs,
you know, when the folk revival thing happened a long
(01:26):
time ago with the Kingston Trio and the Christy Minstrels,
they all sang these songs too. So there's an historic
thing about, you know, about these songs and this music.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So what brought you, Neil to these songs? Now? Why
is now the time to put this music out?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, there was just an accident. You know. I was
writing a book which I finished. In the writing of
the book, I was traveling through time and I was
in nineteen sixty four and I was playing with my band,
the Squires, in a nightclub called the Fourth Dimension in
thunder Bay, Ontario, up in Canada, and we had a
(02:01):
job there. We were kind of like the house band.
And so one day a band arrived from New York
called the Thorns, and they sang a song called O Susanna,
and they did this wild arrangement of it that I went, Oh,
my god, that's great.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I would love to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
And they completely changed the melody and did a few
things to it, and they had cool harmonies and a
chant going behind it. So I picked that up right
away and I taught it to the Squire's and then
we started playing that at our gigs, and then I
saw I arranged five other songs or something like that
the same way, because it was very popular. It was
(02:42):
like the beginning of folk rock. I was writing about that,
and then by the same time, this is about last
year sometime, and we were recording and Crazy Horse was there,
and I had no new songs, so I decided to
play these songs because we wanted to rock and have
a good time, so we just played them.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Hey, you cover high Flying Bird, which I believe you
wrote this in the liner notes. You actually played that
song as a member of the Squires back in nineteen
sixty four.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
That's right, we did that one too. That was another
band came through the Fourth Dimension club called the Company,
and in that band as Steve Stills was in that band,
and he sang his solo song that he sang in
the show was high Flying Bird, and I instantly fell
in love with his voice, and as you know, we
(03:34):
became close friends and vowed that later on that we'd
get together and we'd do something musically, and got right away.
I grabbed that song and taught it to the Squires
and started singing it myself.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And so, you know, there are three songs in a
row on Americana Clementine, Tom Doola which we know as
Tom Dooley as well, and Gallows Paul. And it occurred
to me while I was listening to them and reading
your Life I don't know notes that all of those
songs were death centric, and that a lot of this
music is death centric, and I was wondering if that's
(04:11):
something that you have run into. Looking back on all
this music.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It's hard to find one that doesn't, you know. So
that's just the way they were written. We were looking
for the darkness. We've sensed that it was there, and
we sensed that, you know, Crazy Horse is very good
at bringing that out. So that's the way we went.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Is there anything in these songs that you find absent
from contemporary music or is it all continuum?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You know, it's hard to say that contemporary music is
we're looking at it right now. We don't see it
with the same historic view that we see these old
songs with I'm sure there are some songs that are
that are around now, that are just coming around that
are going to live for a long time.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
How did you know Crazy Horse was the right band
for this particular project.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well, usually I don't start project without knowing who I'm
going to play with, you know, And when I I
just listened to my to you know, I just listen
to myself, you know, if I want to, I just
wait and see what I want to do. I'm not
trying to figure it out. I just wait until I
feel it. And part of what I was writing about
in that book is about it's time for me to
(05:20):
play with Crazy Horse. I got to call them, and
then I throughout the book, I would call them and
it's kind of like a it's a kind of like
a memoir, except it's like a diary and it's also
like a look into the future. So it's like I
don't know what it is, and Crazy Horse was there.
Suddenly they were there. I'd called them all and I
wanted to play and I didn't have any songs. I
(05:41):
just wanted to play with them. So you know, we
took these songs and played them.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
There have been videos floating around YouTube for some of
these songs, did you direct any of these videos?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I directed all of those. Those are all Americana videos.
They're all available when you get the iTunes. You know
that has comes with the video.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
You have directed a lot of films, have you ever,
as Bernard Shaky considered directing other features?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Bernard Shakey just did another feature that's on the internet.
It just came on about two hours ago. Yeah, that's well,
that's the age we live in. You know, it's hard
to keep track of these things. It's a forty minute
short film, so it's but it's Bernard Shaky Presents.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Has Bernard Shaky learned a lot from Jonathan Demi?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Not much?
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah? A whole other trip. Jonathan would say the same thing.
You know, he hasn't learned much from Bernard, but you know,
there's really not much to learn.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You'll be at Red Rocks August fifth and sixth with
Crazy Horse. You have a good relationship with Red Rocks.
I was at that show that was turned into a
DVD and it was snowing pretty hard, and you seem
to be having the time of your life up there
with that snow pounding down.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, Weather, it's been my friend.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It did have a visual impact on the DVD, that's
for sure. Hey, we only have a couple of minutes left.
You've expressed concerns about MP three technology, MP three files
and the quality of MP three files as we move
toward the future with sound. Could you tell me a
little bit more about that and what you would like
to see done about it.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
It's a mission of mine now to try to rescue
the art of recorded sound because it's taken such a
huge hit that music lovers can't even hear music anymore.
They can only hear a very small part of the music,
about five percent in some cases. What you end up
with when you compare the original recordings to what people
(07:44):
get today digital music is reconstituted. It's like rebuilt and
if you rebuild it, but you don't use all the pieces,
that's what an MP three is.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Americana is the new CD from Neil Young and Crazy Horse,
and you'll be at Red Rocks in August on the
fifth and sixth. Sir, thank you for your music and
thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Thank you all right, take care.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
And you take care. Thanks for listening. I'm Brett sunders,
We'll see you next week.
I'm delighted you are listening Brett Sonders here this week,
let's go back into the archives twenty twelve for a
conversation with singer, songwriter, bandleader hero Neil Young. My single
favorite world class rock artist of all time. What a
phenomenal history he has. Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts
are coming to Fiddler's Green September. First, we talked about
(00:23):
his Americana album, which by the way, still holds up
folk music MP three's collaborations. Neil Young on the Brett
Sonders Podcast. Hey, how are you. I'm all right? How
are you?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Let's get right to Americana and the word itself. What
does the word Americana mean to you?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, Americana is something that's American. It's like classically American,
you know, kibb its stuff. You know, it can be
you know, Chippendale furniture or whatever. You know, so you know,
it can be any kind of thing that's that reminds
you of old America.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Now, do some of the these songs hold a personal
meaning for you when you were growing up?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, you know, when I was growing up, I heard
all these songs and they're associated with the with the
American history and the culture of the country and the
country and actually the culture of all of North America.
So it's, you know, something that we're all familiar with.
And we heard the folk music versions of these songs,
you know, when the folk revival thing happened a long
(01:26):
time ago with the Kingston Trio and the Christy Minstrels,
they all sang these songs too. So there's an historic
thing about, you know, about these songs and this music.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So what brought you, Neil to these songs? Now? Why
is now the time to put this music out?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, there was just an accident. You know. I was
writing a book which I finished. In the writing of
the book, I was traveling through time and I was
in nineteen sixty four and I was playing with my band,
the Squires, in a nightclub called the Fourth Dimension in
thunder Bay, Ontario, up in Canada, and we had a
(02:01):
job there. We were kind of like the house band.
And so one day a band arrived from New York
called the Thorns, and they sang a song called O Susanna,
and they did this wild arrangement of it that I went, Oh,
my god, that's great.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I would love to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
And they completely changed the melody and did a few
things to it, and they had cool harmonies and a
chant going behind it. So I picked that up right
away and I taught it to the Squire's and then
we started playing that at our gigs, and then I
saw I arranged five other songs or something like that
the same way, because it was very popular. It was
(02:42):
like the beginning of folk rock. I was writing about that,
and then by the same time, this is about last
year sometime, and we were recording and Crazy Horse was there,
and I had no new songs, so I decided to
play these songs because we wanted to rock and have
a good time, so we just played them.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Hey, you cover high Flying Bird, which I believe you
wrote this in the liner notes. You actually played that
song as a member of the Squires back in nineteen
sixty four.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
That's right, we did that one too. That was another
band came through the Fourth Dimension club called the Company,
and in that band as Steve Stills was in that band,
and he sang his solo song that he sang in
the show was high Flying Bird, and I instantly fell
in love with his voice, and as you know, we
(03:34):
became close friends and vowed that later on that we'd
get together and we'd do something musically, and got right away.
I grabbed that song and taught it to the Squires
and started singing it myself.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And so, you know, there are three songs in a
row on Americana Clementine, Tom Doola which we know as
Tom Dooley as well, and Gallows Paul. And it occurred
to me while I was listening to them and reading
your Life I don't know notes that all of those
songs were death centric, and that a lot of this
music is death centric, and I was wondering if that's
(04:11):
something that you have run into. Looking back on all
this music.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It's hard to find one that doesn't, you know. So
that's just the way they were written. We were looking
for the darkness. We've sensed that it was there, and
we sensed that, you know, Crazy Horse is very good
at bringing that out. So that's the way we went.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Is there anything in these songs that you find absent
from contemporary music or is it all continuum?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You know, it's hard to say that contemporary music is
we're looking at it right now. We don't see it
with the same historic view that we see these old
songs with I'm sure there are some songs that are
that are around now, that are just coming around that
are going to live for a long time.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
How did you know Crazy Horse was the right band
for this particular project.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well, usually I don't start project without knowing who I'm
going to play with, you know, And when I I
just listened to my to you know, I just listen
to myself, you know, if I want to, I just
wait and see what I want to do. I'm not
trying to figure it out. I just wait until I
feel it. And part of what I was writing about
in that book is about it's time for me to
(05:20):
play with Crazy Horse. I got to call them, and
then I throughout the book, I would call them and
it's kind of like a it's a kind of like
a memoir, except it's like a diary and it's also
like a look into the future. So it's like I
don't know what it is, and Crazy Horse was there.
Suddenly they were there. I'd called them all and I
wanted to play and I didn't have any songs. I
(05:41):
just wanted to play with them. So you know, we
took these songs and played them.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
There have been videos floating around YouTube for some of
these songs, did you direct any of these videos?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I directed all of those. Those are all Americana videos.
They're all available when you get the iTunes. You know
that has comes with the video.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
You have directed a lot of films, have you ever,
as Bernard Shaky considered directing other features?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Bernard Shakey just did another feature that's on the internet.
It just came on about two hours ago. Yeah, that's well,
that's the age we live in. You know, it's hard
to keep track of these things. It's a forty minute
short film, so it's but it's Bernard Shaky Presents.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Has Bernard Shaky learned a lot from Jonathan Demi?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Not much?
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah? A whole other trip. Jonathan would say the same thing.
You know, he hasn't learned much from Bernard, but you know,
there's really not much to learn.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You'll be at Red Rocks August fifth and sixth with
Crazy Horse. You have a good relationship with Red Rocks.
I was at that show that was turned into a
DVD and it was snowing pretty hard, and you seem
to be having the time of your life up there
with that snow pounding down.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, Weather, it's been my friend.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It did have a visual impact on the DVD, that's
for sure. Hey, we only have a couple of minutes left.
You've expressed concerns about MP three technology, MP three files
and the quality of MP three files as we move
toward the future with sound. Could you tell me a
little bit more about that and what you would like
to see done about it.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
It's a mission of mine now to try to rescue
the art of recorded sound because it's taken such a
huge hit that music lovers can't even hear music anymore.
They can only hear a very small part of the music,
about five percent in some cases. What you end up
with when you compare the original recordings to what people
(07:44):
get today digital music is reconstituted. It's like rebuilt and
if you rebuild it, but you don't use all the pieces,
that's what an MP three is.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Americana is the new CD from Neil Young and Crazy Horse,
and you'll be at Red Rocks in August on the
fifth and sixth. Sir, thank you for your music and
thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Thank you all right, take care.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
And you take care. Thanks for listening. I'm Brett sunders,
We'll see you next week.
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