Neil Young’s Talk Show Appearances

Later this coming week Neil Young will appear on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert as a guest on the late night talk show. The veteran rocker will be making his debut on the CBS program hosted by Colbert, though he was on The Colbert Report in 2014. Young has also been a guest on several other talk shows throughout his storied career, and below is a look back at videos featuring several of those interviews and performances.

Before looking back to the start of his career, starting off the collection of videos is the October 2014 episode of The Colbert Report. The segment involved an interview and saw Young duet with Colbert as “Neil Young & Crazy Host” on a silly rendition on Neil’s environmental anthem “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?,” here it is:

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/namhpu/the-colbert-report-neil-young

In 1971 Young was a guest on The Johnny Cash Show for solo performance. Playing acoustic guitar, Neil delivered the take on “The Needle And The Damage Done” which would be recorded for his masterful 1972 LP Harvest. Watch Neil solo here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQdeBgVPmVM

Before going solo Young was a member of Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills and others. The group performed on The Hollywood Palace variety show in 1967. Stills’ “For What It’s Worth” quickly gives way to Young’s “Mr. Soul,” check it out below:

Country legend Waylon Jennings and Young were both on the popular Ralph Emery-hosted Nashville Now talk show. After an interview with Little Jimmy Dickens and Faron Young sitting with Neil and Waylon, the latter pair performed together. Below watch Young and Jennings play the Harvest favorite “Are You Ready For The Country?” followed by Young playing his previously unreleased tribute to his daughter “Amber Jean”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uqTPd4otM0

Young recruited many of the same musicians that helped with Harvest for the recording of 1992’s Harvest Moon. Much like the 1971 video from The Johnny Cash Show above, Young performed solo acoustic on an episode of The Tonight Show in 1993. Watch his offering of “Harvest Moon” followed by a chat with host Jay Leno:

This video is of a panel appearance Young made on The Late Show With David Letterman in 2008. He and the host talk cars and more at the Ed Sullivan Theater – the same room Young will return to this Thursday. Watch the interview here:

Lastly, current Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon is notorious skilled at spot-on musical impersonations. The funny but still impressive resulting duet between Young and Fallon dressed up to look just like Neil on a performance “Old Man” can be seen below: