Neil Young hangs up on reporter, insists he use Pono

What really is the "shock" and "horror" is the whole "that's our charming Ol' Neil" that fans think is part of his charm. (Spoiler: It's not part of his charm. I like his music in spite of it. People think it makes him a cool, edgy dude. Not really...)

 

Because the interviewer had a poor attitude and the comments he made, plus even publishing the article prove that. Very unprofessional. It seems he made no attempt to contact Neil again...

 

He's made some excellent records but what a dick. Was waiting to read the reaction to any question regarding Daryl Hannah

 

Neil's a spoiled rock star that has treated people like disposable tissues since the early '70's. Nothing new here.

 

On Friday I saw Neil Young and his band on Orange stage at Roskilde Festival in Denmark, an amazing concert, one of the best I've been to. 3 hours of classics played with dedication and commitment from Neil and the band. I did not see a grumpy man, I did not see a senile man - I saw an old man who did an extraordinay effort to present his music the best possible way, the sound was beyond anything except maybe for Floyd/Waters/Gilmour...what a man...one of the biggest - all reviews was top character in Danish press. I think Neil Young deserves the right to hang up on some snotty reporter...

This coming Friday I will see another thundergod and "grumpy" old man aged 70, Mr. Gilmour - 2 of the biggest in one week...what a joy...

When it comes to Pono I agree, its not nearly up to standards as a playerI will never own one, I play my highres audio on my Meridian gear - thank you Neil for your commitment to highes audio in the age of crappy phones, compresion and MP3.

BTW: my wife tells me that I have become a grumpy old man because I complain about seeing a concert through other peoples stupid phones while listening to them talking through quiet songs - Neils thunder made them quiet on Friday night in Roskilde...

 

Some one else who didn't read the article.....

The realization hit me: It wasn’t a phone issue. Young had hung up on me. He didn't want to get back on the line either. Maybe another day, I was told. I struggled to recap the interview to my editors, not quite sure what I’d said to aggravate the Godfather of Grunge. I went home in a daze. Neil Young hung up on me. Neil Young hung up on me. The words cycled through my head like some weird mantra. Now what?

Later, I was told that Young did not want to retry the interview, that it wasn't my fault—he can be tough sometimes. This was just one of those times. I watched the singer’s appearance with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. I wondered whether Fallon had listened to the album on a PonoPlayer. Did Fallon even own Everybody’s Rockin’?

 

Funny, that. Every other rock star who doesn't have hardcore fans making endless excuses is just rude, unpleasant and bullish.

 

Neil hasn't been easy to get along with for a long, long time. Maybe never. It's well documented. He was a curmudgeon as a young man.

 

God, you need more than two hands to count the passive aggressive swipes made by the so-called "big fan"- and that's just two paragraphs. Who knows what kind of tone offended Young, but if it was anything like the one used in the piece...

 

Never having even seen a Pono player in real life, much less listened to one, all I can go on are reports of blind tests. And in the vast majority of these, subjects were unable to distinguish 24-bit high-res from 16-bit wav. (link link link link). None of the people administering the tests had any "vested interest" in the results.

 

"Please deposit 25 cents for the next three minutes or your call will be disconnected. This is a recording..."

 

Yes, I like Neil Young.

No, I don't need to hear anything on a Pono to know if I like it, or to hear all the detail.

 

And that right there is why Neil aborted the interview. I tend to think after doing about 10 million different interview with 10 million interchangeable "journalists" over the last 50 years, Neil's radar is pretty damn good. Whether or not the article features an accurate transcript of their conversation is a concern, as is the possibility that the author made some other comparably dismissive comments in the run-up to the phone call. Regardless, for as much of a kook as Neil can be, I'm inclined to think he sniffed out this guy's m.o. early on in the game and kept him on a short leash.

 

I agree that most would not be able to tell the difference. That is why I said it would only appeal to a hardcore few. I assume you know all the people performing the tests though as you seem to know that none of them had "vested interest" in the result?

 

And you know this......how?

 

I explained my opinion in, you know, the sentences after that one.

 

...but we NEED Neil. He tells us what kind of car to drive, what food to eat, what device to listen to music with...where would we be without him?

 

Personally, I respect Neil's persona as the 'batty old crank in the woods' far more than I respect his music. YMMV.

 

This thread brought to mind an interview of Lou Reed that I read in Creem magazine back in the mid 70s. Reed was being quite mean and belligerent throughout the interview. The only response that stuck in my mind was the interviewer asking, after taking a lot of abuse, "Am I speaking with the real Lou Reed right now?". Lou Reed responded "Pull your pants down, turn around and bend over. I'll show you the real Lou Reed." That was kind of the tone of the entire interview.

I found it an unpleasant read, but not really a big deal.

 

Divorce notwithstanding, I believe most of the ranch has been sold off over the years. I get the impression Neil only owns a fraction of the land he initially bought. Maybe he's down to the acreage he had in Laurel Canyon or Topanga in 1968. But who am I to know the details. I haven't checked the public land transactions.

 

I think he did try to re connect but really , why should he anyway? Neil hung up for no reason. If you wanna do promo and hock your wares then you listen and answer questions. The reporter was more than pleasant. Maybe too pleasant.

 

What a stupid thing to say: "Pono is an obscenely overpriced, poorly designed device that nobody needs, and very few people seem to want. It holds much less music than comparable devices and costs much more".

 

Yeah, you are missing something since the op didn't print the transcript of the "call-back" a few minutes after the hang up. That part of the conversation is in the actual Newsweek article.

In general, Neil got a vibe during the phone conversation that the reporter had not listened to the album all the way through and.... got an internal vibe that the reporter also didn't listen to it on a pono player. Neil felt that the question about the vocal processing followed by the question about the animal sounds "proved" that the reporter didn't do the pono route in prep for the interview.... so Neil hung up.

The call back by the publicist was the conversation not only confirming that the entire album had been listened to on a pono player (provided by Warner/Elliot), but was where the publicist said Neil's internal "vibe" (my word here) is that he shouldn't have to be explaining such mundane things (like the animals) to "one" who listened to the album on a pono player. Sounds logical to me . The call back highlighted that Neil's internal "vibe" had been incorrect..... noted by the publicist.......... but hey, by then ten minutes later, Neil no longer felt like trying the interview again.

It helps to read the actual Newsweek article.

Neil hanging up on people for convoluted reasons, not accepting some RRHoF awards and accepting others, insisting that lofi should always be ultrafi, slamming the door in Ken Viola's face before three words got out of his mouth.............Sounds like Neil to me. Another day on the planet.

 

You make a couple good points, but I don't blame people for being a bit tired of his "act" by now. If indeed it is, an "act"--which I hope it is, because if it's not, he's in a lot worse shape than we think.
That said, I don't believe that being a fan of the guy's music for 40+ years means you have to accept everything he does without question--whether it's his art, his craft or his behavior. Neil has always come across--to me at least--as a very unpleasant person. Of course I never met the man, ( and I never will) but I'm talking about how he "comes across" through public statements and reports. And like a lot of unpleasant people, the unpleasantness seems to become worse as they age.
Like I said, I've loved the guy's music since i first became aware of him over 40 years ago, but I long ago shook of the "hero" aspect of the fan-performer equation--as I've done with all of the artists who's music has affected me positively. But it's become clear that many haven't and still cling to their boyhood idols and feel the need to stick up for them every time someone says something critical of them.
Too bad.

I agree with you about the crass dementia and Alzheimer's speculation. I hope he's well and remains so for as long as he can.

 

Hmm. New iPhone SE? You get something that sounds better than a Pono, AND a phone.