During a recent fan livestream, Neil Young opened up about his decision to cancel his tour with Crazy Horse.
Two months after announcing on his website that the remaining dates of the Love Earth Tour were canceled due to unspecified illness among the performers, Young, 78, gave a more detailed explanation.
Speaking to his fans in the livestream, which has since been shared on his subreddit, Young revealed that both he and a few other performers on the tour had reached their limit.
“One morning, I just woke up on the bus and thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore, I need to stop,’” Young recalled. “I felt physically ill at the thought of going on stage. My body was telling me to stop, so I listened.”
The “Harvest Moon” singer acknowledged the challenges of canceling the tour but emphasized that it was the right decision because he couldn’t deliver the performance his fans deserved.
“There’s all the legal stuff — tickets were bought, people had plans — and I understand that. But what matters most to me is the music and the art of performing. That’s what people came to see.”
He added, “If I can’t deliver that, I won’t go on. My body told me to stop.”
As for how he’s doing now? Young shared that he’s starting to feel ready to perform again. “It’s a great feeling,” he said.
However, he noted that some band members haven’t fully recovered yet. “Crazy Horse will be back, God willing, and we’ll play again. In the meantime, I have a lot of friends I can play with.”
Young is set to return to the stage this fall at New York’s Farm Aid Festival, where he’ll join a lineup that includes Willie Nelson and family, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews (with Tim Reynolds).
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