{"id":556920,"date":"2026-08-03T01:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/556920\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T01:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:45:14","slug":"how-neil-young-stole-crazy-horse-as-his-backing-band-in-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/556920\/","title":{"rendered":"How Neil Young ‘stole’ Crazy Horse as his backing band in 1969"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Neil<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Tidal<\/p>\n

Sun 2 August 2026 18:45, UK <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a common misconception that Crazy Horse<\/a> are Neil Young\u2019s on-again \/ off-again \u201cbacking band\u201d, when in reality, they\u2019ve always been a stampeding herd of broncos that Young has sporadically tamed and worked with.<\/p>\n

In between the first two \u201cNeil Young & Crazy Horse\u201d collaborative records, 1969\u2019s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and 1975\u2019s Zuma, the band put out three albums of its own, sans Neil, albeit with a rotating cast of musicians. The first of those releases, a self-titled 1971 album, featured the same cast from Everybody Knows and some bits of After the Goldrush: singer\/guitarist Danny Whitten<\/a>, Billy Talbot on bass, and Ralph Molina on drums, plus guitarist Nils Lofgren and pianist Jack Nitzsche. When Crazy Horse reconvened for their next Young-less effort a year later, however, only the rhythm section remained, leaving fans sceptical about the revised line-up, led by new guitarist George Whitsell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From Whitsell\u2019s point of view, however, he was actually reclaiming his own band back, rather than joining someone else\u2019s. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was angry at Neil [Young] for taking my band, or what I considered my band, because I\u2019d helped them along so much,\u201d Whitsell told Uncut<\/a> in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As it turns out, Crazy Horse, under a few different names, could trace its origins back way back to 1963, when Neil Young was still playing with his high school band The Squires up in Canada. <\/p>\n

Originally known as Danny & the Memories, they started out as a street-corner doo-wop group in LA, fronted by Danny Whitten, with Talbot and Molina as his sidemen, before eventually realising around 1965 that they probably ought to learn to play instruments. Rebranded as The Psyrcle at the dawn of acid rock, the band managed to get a record made up in San Francisco<\/a>, produced by a local DJ and future funk pioneer Sly Stone, but nobody heard it. Finally, around 1967, guitar-playing brothers George and Leon Whitsell joined the group, leading to another rebrand as The Rockets, and a new album, released on the Turtles\u2019 label, White Whale.<\/p>\n

While Danny Whitten was the founder, soul, and cornerstone<\/a> of the group, George Whitsell clearly felt that his supposedly more advanced talents on the guitar had elevated the Rockets into legitimacy, and indeed, despite the commercial failure of their self-titled 1968 album, the band was generating a pretty strong following in the LA rock scene.<\/p>\n

Further reading: Features<\/p>\n

Future Crazy Horse road manager Willie \u201cBaby John\u201d Hinds was part of the Rockets\u2019 crew at the time, and in a 1973 interview with Zigzag magazine, recalled that the Whitsells had turned the band into a \u201cdynamite\u201d live act.<\/p>\n

\"Danny<\/a>Credit: Press \/ Reprise Records \/ Neil Young<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a residency somewhere and would play the Whisky once in a while,\u201d Hinds said. \u201cOne night, Neil Young, who we all knew from the Buffalo Springfield days, walked in. He used to come around and jam with Danny [Whitten]. . . . Anyway, Neil saw one set and asked if he could come in and play on the second. He walked away that night with Danny, Ralph and Billy as his rhythm section.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Whitsell brothers, for whatever reason, didn\u2019t get the same invitation, but in line with the peace and love messaging of the era, Young tried diplomacy, suggesting that he was merely borrowing the other members of the Rockets for a minute. Whitten, Molina, and Talbot seemed to legitimately think that it was a temporary arrangement, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d already started recording a second Rockets album,\u201d Whitsell told Uncut, \u201cAnd the word I\u2019d gotten from Billy, Ralph, and Danny was that Neil was going to bring them back and help us complete it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, that didn\u2019t happen. Coming out of his rough power struggles with the Buffalo Springfield, and still generally displeased with how his 1968 solo debut album had turned out, Neil Young was singularly focused on his own project and didn\u2019t have the mental bandwidth to worry about returning his new pals back to George Whitsell<\/a> like overdue library books.<\/p>\n

Whitten, Molina, and Talbot, having never really been part of a successful musical enterprise before, were caught up in the moment, too. They gladly accepted Neil\u2019s new name for them, Crazy Horse, and went along for the ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt, Danny [Whitten] and I, that as the big guy [Young] went up the ladder, we, the Horse, would also rise,\u201d Molina told Perfect Sound Forever<\/a> in 2021. \u201cThe sessions [for Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere] went free and easy, like they are to this day. No rehearsals. Neil walks in with a song, then we jump in. We get it in one, two takes. After that, the feel, heart and emotion are lost. Any more takes, and now you\u2019re just playing a part\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re young, there are no politics, nothing to get in the way. We just had fun playing. No thinking, just playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralph Molina<\/p>\n

Young was gracious enough to release Everybody Knows as an LP by \u201cNeil Young WITH Crazy Horse,\u201d rather than just using his own name or attaching Crazy Horse with an \u201cAND\u201d. Nonetheless, even after 50 years of regular working with Neil, Ralph Molina ultimately felt that those original dreams of \u201cgoing up the ladder\u201d with him were misguided.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t climb as we thought we would,\u201d Molina said, \u201cAnd still haven\u2019t really. We never have, nor do we consider ourselves a backup band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young\u2019s first of many break-ups with Crazy Horse came in 1970<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything went fine until Danny [Whitten] got very heavily into junk,\u201d Willie Hinds told Zigzag. \u201cNeil said, \u2018Either you quit being a junkie or we can\u2019t play together\u2019. When Neil lost Danny there wasn\u2019t much point in keeping the rest of Crazy Horse around, so it all broke down for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Crazy<\/a>Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n

While Young had tried to give Danny Whitten an ultimatum, Crazy Horse, for better or worse, \u201cput up with him,\u201d as Hinds described it, carrying on to record their own self-titled debut in 1971.<\/p>\n

\u201cDanny was too loaded to play but they got him singing all his parts for the album,\u201d Hinds said. \u201cThey took him away to a house and fed him well, looked after him, and after six weeks he came out fairly straight. Nils Lofgren and Ry Cooder came in to do most of the guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, with Whitten sinking deeper into his addiction (his 1972 death would inspire Neil Young\u2019s \u2018The Needle and the Damage Done\u2019), the other members of Crazy Horse decided to move on without him, recording their follow-up album, Loose, towards the end of 1970, with George Whitsell making a surprise return to the outfit he\u2019d previously known as the Rockets.<\/p>\n

Sadly, for Whitsell, the return of the prodigal son was short-lived. He didn\u2019t participate in the third Crazy Horse album, 1972\u2019s At Crooked Lake, and never re-emerged as part of the band\u2019s line-up. He did eventually work with Neil Young, however, playing guitar on the track \u2018Vampire Blues\u2019 from the 1974 album On the Beach. <\/p>\n

Irony upon irony, Whitsell was also briefly hired by Young in 1988 as a replacement for his old Rockets \/ Crazy Horse bandmate Billy Talbot, whom Young had fired out of frustration during the This Note\u2019s for You sessions. It was a brief arrangement, though, as Whitsell was swiftly replaced by Rick Rosas.<\/p>\n

The story has a bit of a happy ending, though, as original Rockets Whitsell, Talbot, and Molina all reunited, at long last, to record a 2014 album under yet another band name, Wolves.<\/p>\n

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