The heroic reason why Neil Young cancelled a show
The one rule about Neil Young is that he does whatever the hell he wants. When going through his discography, Young is only looking to follow his muse, and if that means something isn’t as commercially successful, so be it. It’s a bit of a different story when he ditches his fans, though.
During Young’s prime, he began to get some pushback from the southern United States based around the song ‘Southern Man’. While Young’s music is drenched in a sense of Americana, Young isn’t one to pull any punches when it comes to critiquing the United States either. Throughout ‘Southern Man’, Young is brutally honest about the division going on in the south, and how the country would work much better if there was more acceptance. Since Young hails from Canada, some fans didn’t appreciate being thrown into the mud like that.
When Young doubled down with the song ‘Alabama’, Lynyrd Skynyrd were inspired to write ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ as a direct retort to what Young was saying. During the genesis of the song, Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant mentioned feeling hurt by Young’s comments, as he explained: “We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two”.
Though both Skynyrd and Young sounded like bitter enemies, Young actually saw the irony of the southern classic. Skynyrd were not interested in getting into politics, and Young sent a telegram in gratitude for being a part of their song.
Once Young got on the road to tour, things came to a head when he reached California, where a fight broke out onstage during ‘Southern Man’. Although there was a fan who crashed the stage, Young didn’t feel threatened and was not happy with the way security handled him. Instead of clearing him offstage, Young witnessed the kid get the crap kicked out of him.
Seeing no way out of the situation, Young put down his guitar and walked off the stage, never to return. When talking about the incident later, Young thought the safest thing to do was to get off the stage. The emotional weight behind the song had to do with tolerance and being able to accept your fellow man, so when one of your fellow men is getting torn to shreds in front of you, the message is lost. Since both the security guard and stage crasher were of different races, the problems became even more ironic, highlighting the longstanding racial tension in America.
While the fans weren’t treated to a full show that day, Young acknowledged that it could have turned a lot uglier if he had continued on with the rest of the set. He might have been there to play music, but continuing on with the show meant that he’d be supporting the behaviour that went on while he was playing his song.
The problem with unity wasn’t lost on Young’s old friends either. Around the same time, Lynyrd Skynyrd had started to retire, waving the Confederate flag at their shows: “That was strictly a gimmick to start us off with some label,” they said. “It was useful at first, but by now, it’s embarrassing”.
Although Young might not have finished the show that night, the scuffle onstage spoke to a greater problem with the politics of rock and roll. Even though artists might speak their mind, rock and roll has always been a place for people to come together in peace, not beaten up for expressing themselves.
