Neil Young Says Crazy Horse Will Return, ‘God Willing’

Neil Young hoped Crazy Horse would return after canceling the band’s summer tour due to illness.

At the time he said “a couple of us got sick” without providing more details. In a recent Q&A with subscribers to his Neil Young Archives website (via Rolling Stone) Young recounted what had happened.

“A couple of us really hit a wall,” he said. “I just woke up one morning on the bus and I said, ‘I can’t do this; I gotta stop.’ I felt sick when I thought of going onstage. My body was telling me, ‘You gotta stop.’ And so I listened to my body.”

READ MORE: How Neil Young Roared Back With ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’

He continued: “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.”

Young, who is 78, will return to action at this year’s Farm Aid event in Saratoga Springs, New York, on Sept. 21. He said he’d also deliver 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 said.

Neil Young on Crazy Horse’s Future

He added that no one should expect “two hours and 10 minutes of blasting rock ’n’ roll like it was with Crazy Horse,” before turning his attention to that band’s future. “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.”