Behind the Scenes of Neil Young’s New Protest Album ‘The Monsanto Years’
Last September, just before he took the stage at Farm Aid, Neil Young was hanging out on his tour bus with Willie Nelson‘s sons Micah and Lukas. Out of nowhere, he asked if they wanted to come out and join him on “Rockin’ In The Free World” at the end of his set. “We were like, ‘Fuck yeah, dude,'” says Micah. “It felt great, like we’d been jamming together forever.”
Lukas and Micah both play guitar and have their own bands. Lukas, 26, fronts Promise of the Real, while Micah, 25, plays with Insects vs Robots and occasionally plays solo under the name Particle Kid. They have known Young as far back as they can remember. “He’s ‘Uncle Neil,'” Micah tells Rolling Stone. “But until a couple of Farm Aids ago, we never had a chance to just hang out and get a vibe from each other. At the same time, I feel like I’ve always known him forever through his music because it’s so honest.”
In the fall of 2007, Lukas met his future Promise of the Real bandmate Anthony Logerfo when they both caught Young’s show at Nokia Live in Los Angeles. “After the show, we went back to his place and went surfing in the night with a bunch of his buddies,” says Lukas. “I got stung by a stingray, and that night I had to sleep on his couch with my foot in a bucket of hot water to neutralize the [venom] protein. He brought me this huge pile of weed and I knew we’d be best friends after that.”
They called their new band, which features Logerfo on drums, Tato Melgar on percussion and Corey McCormick on bass, Promise of the Real after Young’s line, “Some get stoned, some get strange, but sooner or later it all gets real” from 1974’s “Walk On.” “We listened to Neil Young every day when we started the band,” says Lukas. “And ‘Walk On’ has always been one of my favorite songs.”
“Monsanto is the poster child for the problems we’re having with the corporate government,” Young recently said.
Two weeks after last year’s Farm Aid, Young and Nelson headlined the Harvest the Hope concert in Neligh, Nebraska to protest the proposed Keystone Pipeline. “We were playing as my father’s band that night,” says Lukas. “And Neil called us onto his bus and worked out a few songs he wanted to play with us. All of us just had a blast.”
The Bridge School Benefit came about weeks later, and once again Young called out Micah, Lukas and Promise of the Real to back him on a few songs. “We didn’t know that was going to happen,” says Lukas. “But we brought our instruments just in case he wanted us to join him. It went really well, but after that we didn’t talk for a while.”
Sometime in December, an e-mail arrived from Young. “He was like, ‘Hey, I wrote a bunch of new songs,” says Micah. “I want you guys to come do the record with me. Love, Neil.” They were stunned beyond belief. “I was so stoked,” says Lukas. “I can’t even describe how elated I was.”