Inside Neil Young’s Nature-Themed Opus
You can hear him from the hallway. Neil Young is kicked back on a couch in the center of his suite at New York’s Carlyle Hotel one recent morning, stabbing away at the strings of his acoustic guitar. His wet hair is combed back and he’s wearing a T-shirt that says “Earth,” with jeans and sandals. He places his beat-up 1940s Martin – previous owner: Hank Williams – next to him on the couch. “Sit down, make yourself at home,” he says. Just then, his Samsung phone rings; the ringtone is his own voice shouting “Hello?!” He picks up – a wrong number. “I’ll just turn it off, that’ll solve it.”
Young is in the middle of a quick New York trip, and, as is typical for him, his schedule is ever-shifting. He just decided to do a sketch on The Tonight Show, forcing his team to cancel several interviews today. In front of Young are lyrics to the comedy bit, a song called “Two Neil Youngs Sitting on a Tree Stump,” sent to him by Jimmy Fallon. Young doesn’t like singing his own name, so he’s been tweaking the words with help from his manager, Elliot Roberts. “You’re gonna get a credit on this one,” Young says to Roberts with a smile.
Roberts, 73, has worked with Young since the late Sixties, and the two still speak several times a day. “I’ve never seen him happier,” Roberts says. That’s a recent development, however. In the past few years, several of Young’s close pals died, including longtime film collaborator Larry Johnson and guitarist Ben Keith – losses that Young took hard. Then, in 2014, he parted ways with Pegi Young, his wife of 36 years, and moved out of Broken Arrow Ranch, the property in Redwood City, California, he had since 1970. “I got a divorce, and I gave my wife the ranch,” he says matter-of-factly. (His son Ben, who has cerebral palsy, still lives at the ranch: “All his support systems are there.”)
Young is dating actress Daryl Hannah, who said a big hello as she stepped into the hotel elevator just now. The couple live in L.A., putting Young in the city “for the first time since Zuma.” The move has allowed Young to reconnect with several old friends. “I was so remote for so long,” he says. “All my old friends are now just a few miles away.” One is Stephen Stills, who’s been making music with Young lately. Stills and other friends, including Graham Nash and the members of Crazy Horse, celebrated Young’s 70th birthday in November at L.A.’s Roxy. “Daryl put together a great party,” Young says. “I felt really loved.”
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