In the Van With Neil Young: An Exclusive Interview

Have you thought at all about what's next?
I really don't know right now. Maybe by the end of the tour I'll have some idea, maybe I won't. I really haven't thought about it. I just wait for it to happen.

You've been off the road for about two years, right?
Yes. The longest I've been off the road since I started touring.

How does it feel to be back in the swing of things?
It feels pretty good. I feel good about the way we're doing it and everything, we still have energy to play. We played a show last night and traveled and still have energy, so I'm grateful for that. I'm enjoying it. I'm having a great time doing it.

How about the boxed set? It's been sixteen years --
Yeah, it's been a long time. It's a lot of music. It's going to come out, and we get closer and closer to having it finished. I'm not exactly sure when it's coming out, but I don't think it's going to be a year from now when it will be out, I think it will be out before then. We have a lot of it finished now.

Will it be chronological?
Yeah, there will be a series of sets. There are four volumes, and each volume has a number of CDs in it. It's a big set, but it's a chronological thing. It's a trip from my first recording up through the most recent ones. That's how we can divide it up.

Where will the first one stop?
The first one stops in 1971 or '72, I think it's '72.

Is there Squires stuff on there?
Yeah, there's four Squires songs. There's a lot of stuff people haven't heard before.

Is there going to be a video component?
Yes. There's a lot of video stuff that's going to be in it. There's going to be a live performance, actually, two live acoustic performances, solo acoustic performances, that are groups of songs, long groups of songs, full sets. And it's kind of interesting to see the early Seventies and late Sixties that way. With this funky old 16-millimeter film and everything.

I've heard about that Fillmore East show from '70 with Crazy Horse -- is that going to be on there?
I believe that's going to be in the first volume. That's a very, very hot little number right there.

I've heard some of the shows, but never with great sound quality.
These are good. These are eight-tracks -- or eight-track multi-track mix downs.

So do you tape every show you do?
These ones, we're running a digital. I've done a lot of recording and filming of things over the years, just to keep a record. I like to collect things, so I just keep track of it.