I am sitting in the Jet Blue Terminal at JFK Airport for my flight to Los Angeles to catch Neil Young’s long awaited solo Coastal Tour for two of the four nights at the Ford Theatre in the Hollywood Hills. I was planning to catch an Angels baseball game tomorrow afternoon and just found out The Beach Boys are playing the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow night, so I will hit that also before seeing Neil again on Monday and returning on the Fourth of July.
I have attended over ninety Neil Young performances since Rust Never Sleeps in 1978 and I am always thinking that “this one” could be the final tour. After Neil sold half his catalogue and Covid shut everything down, with the success of the Archives website, release of reissues, compilations, and rediscovered, formerly scrapped album projects, I was starting to believe we had seen the last of Young in concert. Neil has not done Farm Aid in a couple of years, but after the Willie Nelson birthday bash and the Stephen Stills “Light Up the Blues” benefit show, Young apparently found the urge to perform in front of an audience again. For now, the tour is only on the west coast, so rather than take the chance he does not make his way east any time soon, I am flying out for the beginning of the tour that started last night.

Chrome Dreams

Rock on!

GQ