Neil Young Says Retirement Tours Are ‘Bulls—‘
As prolific as Neil Young has been throughout his career, you wouldn't expect him to be thinking about calling it quits, as so many of his peers are doing. But in a recent interview, he not only dismissed the idea of retiring, he seems to be against the idea of a farewell tour.
"I'm going out with Cher," he joked to Rolling Stone. "Cher and I are doing a retirement tour: 'Neil and Cher.' When I retire, people will know, because I'll be dead. They'll know, 'He's not coming back! He retired.' But I'm not gonna say, 'I'm not coming back.' What kind of bullshit is that? I could go out and play if I felt like it, but I don't feel like it."
Young is currently preparing the release of Paradox, a film written and directed by Daryl Hannah and starring Young and Lukas and Micah Nelson. It will have its premiere tonight (March 15) at SXSW and will be available on Netflix beginning March 23, the same day its soundtrack comes out. The plot centers around a group of outlaws on the run and is described as a "fantasy, a loud poem and a whimsical tale of music and love." The budget was only about $125,000, with Hannah purchasing the costumes in thrift stores, and Young admitted that it shouldn't be thought of a cinematic masterpiece.
'We have no illusions," he said. "It's not Cecil B. DeMille or [Clint] Eastwood. We don't care about that shit. Let them make those movies. That's great. That's what they do and they do a good job of what they do. This is us. We are making this for our peeps. We're not trying to impress anybody."
But he also noted that the high profile it will have by being on Netflix comes with expectations that might not be met, "We don’t expect everyone to like it," he continued. "We're a little nervous because we're on a platform and everybody's gonna see it on the platform. It's like Facebook – people are gonna scream at you, and throw tomatoes and talk about your sex life and everything. Who knows what they're gonna do. We really don't fit there, but we’re OK."