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Fri 31 July 2026 17:00, UK
When listening to a Neil Young album, everyone understood that there was never a fake bone in his body.
Other legends may have had more consistent discographies, but Young’s fixation with authenticity is the reason why his songs have sounded so fascinating over the years. Some of them could be transcendent, others could be a bit off, and the rare exception could be downright trash, but as long as he was quoting his own heart the same way that his heroes used to do back in the day, he was more than happy to keep pushing through.
Because, really, Young could have rested on his laurels a long time ago if he wanted to. The greatest songs of his career tend to be in one sweet spot in the 1970s, and even if the rest of his audience had moved on to greater things, it was interesting to see him kneecap himself for the sake of his artistry. Sure, Homegrown could have sold millions of copies had it come out when Young was in his prime, but since he was reeling from the losses of his friends and bandmates, Tonight’s the Night is the record that made more sense for him to release at the time.
But when looking at the kind of people he associated with, Young’s approach to music wasn’t all that different from what the folk singers of old had done. Writing songs was a way of life for him, and while it took him a while to get a handle on the sound he wanted on a few of them, he would have much rather have gone down swinging with a song that worked for him than cashing in on what the audience wanted.
If there’s one genre that could see through authenticity in a millisecond, it’s country music. There have definitely been more than a few rhinestone cowboys who have made a pretty penny out of cosplaying as a good ol’ boy in Nashville, but when you look at people who were in it for the long haul, like Johnny Cash or Dolly Parton, they clearly lived through a lot of the nasty pieces of life that they were talking about.
And yet no one has made the life of a travelling musician feel as easygoing as Willie Nelson has over his career. His old records are among some of the finest country music ever made, but for Young, a song like ‘On the Road Again’ is more than a love letter to the road. It was the best indication of the kind of musician that Nelson was and always will be whenever he pulls out ‘Trigger’ onstage.
When asked about Nelson years down the road, Young said that the reason he held up was that he refused to mince words in his tunes, saying, “They’re all so honest, and they’re all so real. I like ‘On the Road Again’, and that’s really Willie. He really feels that way, and he defines that feeling of being a musician on the road perfectly.” But it was more about the songs about spending time with your buddies that put Nelson in everyone’s good graces.
Further reading: From The Vault
Despite looking like the embodiment of an older hippy, the real heart behind Nelson is what comes out after the fact. He never stopped making the best tunes that he could, and while many people will forever be asking him to sing a version of ‘Always On My Mind’, Nelson could still level someone with a tune that would have anyone bawling their eyes out if they had their heart broken.
In fact, that’s half the reason why Young and Nelson are perfect counterparts to each other. They don’t sing the same way and aren’t even in the same genre, but in between the countless albums they’ve come out with throughout their career, most people are seeing a picture of two musicians who lived every note they played and made sure that they were genuine whenever the tape started running.
