Neil Young Will Play What He Wants At Desert Trip

At age 70 Neil Young isn’t slowing down and isn’t mellowing out. Young is in the middle of a tour with Promise Of The Real that has been a dream come true for fans as he busts out an old classic at nearly every show and has taken songs like “Down By The River,” “Like An Inca” and “Cortez The Killer” deep. He just released a live album featuring overdubs of animal and nature sounds and soon will play the inaugural Desert Trip in Indio, California.

Neil was the focus of a Rolling Stone feature published today which includes a number of interesting tidbits. While you can expect Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, The Who and The Rolling Stones to play the hits at Desert Trip, not so much when it comes to Neil Young (and a lesser extent Bob Dylan). When asked whether he’d cater his set towards those wanting his most beloved material, Young responded “I don’t give a shit. I don’t care what people want to hear – that’s not why I’m playing. I’m not an entertainer in the classic sense. I play what I feel like playing, and I hope the people like it.” He also shared that he was surprised to be asked to play Desert Trip.

The other big news is that we may be closer to the second installment of Archives, the groundbreaking series of previously unreleased live and studio material started in 2009. “Young says the project will include Dume, an album of songs from the Zuma era, and Hitchhiker, an acoustic LP from the mid-Seventies,” reports Rolling Stone. The magazine says the big hold up for Volume 2 “has been developing technology for presenting the ambitious project.” As per Neil, “We’re gonna have a website that’s, like, 60 years of music in chronological order, with links so you can look at my archives and play the music off the high-res source at the same time.” Bring it on!

Head to Rolling Stone for more with Neil Young.