Chrome Hearts drop lawsuit against Neil Young
Fashion brand Chrome Hearts has dropped its lawsuit against Neil Young.
The legal battle began in 2025 and relates to Young’s current backing band, the Chrome Hearts, with whom he has been playing since 2024.
The filing was made on September 11th, 2025, in a federal court in Los Angeles. In the lawsuit, the luxury brand alleged, “Defendants’ continued use of the confusingly similar name in commerce violates Chrome Hearts’ valuable intellectual property rights.”
The fashion brand, which has been active since 1988, claimed, “Defendants have intentionally and knowingly capitalized off of confusion between the Chrome Hearts (trademarks) and the NYTCH name.”
Chrome Hearts also said Young had capitalised on the “unique and valuable” name they have established over the last number of decades.
However, the case has now been resolved. According to Billboard, a court filing made on May 14th states that Chrome Hearts said it would voluntarily dismiss the case against Young and the other members of the band.
It wasn’t stated whether a settlement had been reached privately or whether Chrome Hearts simply dropped the case.
The band name is believed to be a reference to Young’s 1976 song, ‘Long May You Run’, with Stephen Stills, which contains the following lyric, “With your chrome heart shining in the sun.”
Young and the Chrome Hearts are currently gearing up to release their new live album, As Time Explodes, which will arrive on May 29th through Reprise Records and captures their Love Earth Tour throughout Europe and the USA in 2025.
Additionally, he’s also got another studio record on the way with the Chrome Hearts, which he has been working on in recent months.
Last month, Young confirmed he’d reunited with producer Rick Rubin for the project, which features three songs that he wrote with his first band in the early 1960s.
He shared with fans, “We were then out of songs. We needed more. The next morning I had a song going through my head and I was playing it. I checked it out in the archives and found it was from 1963, unreleased.”
Young was due to tour Europe again this summer, including a huge show at Heaton Park in Manchester, but cancelled the run of dates, later explaining to fans that he was “listening to my body”.
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