Neil Young going on first tour in 4 years
Neil Young has not toured since the pandemic, as one of the more vocal artists about the need for safety during covid times, and has only recently begun making live appearances. He will make tentative steps back on the road in July, though, with a West Coast solo acoustic theater tour.
Though dates have yet to be released, Neil Young talked about the tour on a Zoom for subscribers to his Neil Young Archives Patreon on Wednesday evening. Via Rolling Stone, Young said, “I don’t want to come back and do the same songs again,” he said. “I’ll feel like I was on some sort of carnival ride. I’d rather be doing these others songs I haven’t done…I won’t have to compare how I’m doing ‘Heart of Gold’ to [how I played it in] 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020…”
Young says he’s put together a setlist of around 15 songs — including Trans outtake “If You Got Love,” “Song X” from Pearl Jam collab Mirror Ball, and “Prime of Life” from 1994’s Sleeps With Angels — and estimates that 80% of them are deep cuts and rarities. “They’re not new songs,” he says. “They’re old songs. But I wake up with them in my head every morning. They are songs that apply to my life right now, and apply to everyone’s lives in this era that we’re in. Some of them were written 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago, but never really played live.”
Tour dates will begin with a multi-night residency at a “tiny, little unknown theater that’s close to one of the most well-known theaters in the world.” Details and dates will be announced Friday, June 9. Stay tuned.
In other news, Neil Young will release Official Release Series Volume 5 on July 14 via Warner Music, a box set featuring Freedom, Ragged Glory, Weld, and ARC that will be available as a vinyl box set of the original four albums on 9 vinyl LPs and the 4 CD releases now issued on 6 CDs. This is the first time these albums have been remastered for vinyl.
