The rock legend that Peter Hook was too scared to meet: “I said no and locked myself in the toilet”
Most of what people say about not meeting their heroes tends to hold true in rock and roll. For every artist who is a down-to-earth human being, there are 50 more who look at everyone else in their entourage as nothing but peasants looking after their every whim. Although Peter Hook never claimed to buy into the rock star pageantry, he admitted that he had no desire to meet Neil Young purely out of fear.
Then again, Peter Hook is far from the same meagre musician trying his hand at post-punk in the late 1970s. After rising from the ashes of Joy Division, Hook’s ability to create ringing basslines across New Order’s catalogue gave the band a shot in the arm, practically becoming the lead instrument alongside the synthesisers.
Just like Young, though, nothing was off the table for Hook. Throughout his time in the music industry, Hook has been known to work on all types of experimental records, whether mainstream experiments like on ‘Aries’ with Gorillaz or his own solo outfits like the band Revenge.
As New Order started to get things going, though, Young had already become a living legend who didn’t suffer fools gladly. For all that he did for genres like grunge and punk later on, Young usually knew what he was after and would often push over any musician who got in his way of achieving his vision.
Although any musician was liable to leave a Young recording session with a bruised ego, there was just as much chance they would be the backbone of one of his tracks. Through his time working with Crazy Horse, albums like Rust Never Sleeps are works of art because of how well Young responds to the rest of his band, often getting everyone in the right emotional headspace before recording started.
While Young was becoming a rock star, he never forgot the importance of being a normal person. Caring less whether his album sold a million copies or a hundred copies, Young was known for switching up his styles without caring what anyone thought of him, making him an inspiration for anyone looking to follow their muse over their paycheck.
While Hook was a Young acolyte when putting together New Order, he admitted that he missed one occasion to meet him, saying, “We were on a train going to Festival Fuji in Japan, and Bernard Sumner came running into me, and he said ‘Okay,’ he said ‘Come here, Neil Young’s in the next carriage, let’s go and say hello.’ I went ‘Neil… Neil Young…’.Neil Young must have been with me when I’ve been at my lowest. And to get the opportunity to meet him, I just said no and locked myself in the toilet”.
If Hook was choked up at the time, he more than made up for it with the music he made after the fact. Even though New Order may have been the furthest thing from Young’s signature sound, the folk-rock legend would eventually adopt his own synthesisers on his 1980s albums, making songs that fit into the sounds of the time like on Trans.
While most of Young’s fanbase would consider these albums sacrilege, Hook could see that it was just another stop on his musical journey. No artist is an island, and even if Hook didn’t meet one of his idols when he had the chance, Young’s reckless spirit comes out whenever he straps on his bass guitar.
