Neil Young's Rough Ride: A Look Back at the Freedom of Speech Tour

Young: Well, you know, death threats and bomb-sniffing dogs and everything every night, and people were glaring at you and standing up and giving you the finger. Just getting up in front of a lot of people makes you nervous. But when you know that some of them are really going to be angry at you, and you're in a crowd and it's a volatile situation, people have been drinking, whatever — you know, it makes you nervous. It was just that critical time in history where things were turning. Things were changing. At least, they didn't change that much, but the balance shifted. Those who feel the way we do had some hope and those who don't feel the way we do were angry that the change happened. And those people have got a voice and they have a reason for feeling the way they do. They strongly believe in the convictions. They believe in the military. They believe that we're doing the right thing for the world and they have every reason to be respected for their beliefs.

RS: I was interested in the part of the movie when you said that you made your Web site to sort of go around the media and talk directly to the people. Do you think that the media has dropped the ball on this whole war?

Young: Well, that's a loaded question. There's just so much media. There's just so much that it becomes saturation and people are numbed. Whether the media is telling the real story or not ? They've told the story so many different ways at so many different times and they'll tell a story over and over again and then, they'll interview each other about it if they can't find anything new. It's mind-numbing. If you wanted to brainwash someone, you just give them the same information over and over and over again. So now, we have many multiple channels on television that do that. And if you watch one, you get slanted one way. If you watch the other, you get slanted the other way. So you've got to move around the variety to keep it balanced. And then, you know, even doing that, that means you're watching too much TV.

RS: Are you thinking about getting involved at all with the next election?

Young: I think I am involved, but I don't know, officially, what I'm going to be doing. I don't know really what to do as a citizen of Canada other than to voice my opinion. I don't have a vote at this time. I may support someone, if it looks like that person is a candidate.

RS: Are you inspired at all by the field of the candidates now?

Young: Definitely. I think there's interesting candidates on both sides of the fence. I like Obama. I think Hillary's got a lot of experience. It's a great feeling to hear Obama speak and to hear the way he can say things that many of us really feel. And that's a great feeling. There's nothing else like it out there. But is that enough? That's a question.

RS: Now that the movie has premiered at Sundance, what do you have coming up?

Young: Well, I just did thirty-one dates in the States, and I'm going over to do another twenty or so in Europe now. And I don't have any plans after that.

RS: What inspired you to play such rare songs as "Kansas," "Mexico" and "Campaigner" on that recent tour? What drew you back to that time period and those early songs?

Young: Well, you know, I wanted to be able to sing songs that I wanted to sing that felt right to me at the time. And I had done so many songs too many times that if I was going to do another tour, it had to be good for me. I had to want to do it, musically, in my soul. On this tour, I try to only do the songs that I feel like doing. And I'm doing songs that are mostly about relationships and feelings, and not doing any political songs for this tour. But that could change depending on how I feel.