The Billboard Q&A: Neil Young

Wes Orshoski
In the spring of 2006, Neil Young was just a year removed from a near-fatal aneurysm when he became so enraged with the war in Iraq that he quickly wrote, recorded and released the protest album "Living With War." Not two months after its release, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young launched their Freedom of Speech tour, during which unwitting fans expecting the band's sweeter side were greeted instead with its serrated edge.During a three-hour-plus concert, the band played nearly all of "Living With War" and many of the political anthems on which its legend was built, like "Ohio," "Military Madness" and "Find the Cost of Freedom." Despite CSN&Y's anti-establishment roots, the move angered some fans, while inspiring others.The forthcoming documentary "CSNY: Deja Vu" charts that friction, portraying fans who saluted the group's efforts and those who felt betrayed by them, while also introducing viewers to Iraqi War vets who are now protesting the war as musicians, politicians and social workers. Directed by longtime film buff Young (who uses the alias/nickname Bernard Shakey) and due in theaters July 25, the doc blends concert and behind-the-scenes footage with short news features created by ABC correspondent Mike Cerre.Billboard caught up with the 62-year-old Young recently at a small, rustic restaurant south of San Francisco, in an area surrounded by redwood trees. Just a few minute's drive from the ranch he's lived on for more than 30 years, the restaurant would be familiar to hardcore fans, as it was featured in the "Unknown Legend" video and on the "Greendale" DVD.With his alternative-fuel equipped 1982 Mercedes parked in front, on this day Young was particularly excited, as Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced impeachment articles seeking the removal of President George Bush. Young spoke from behind a pair of dark sunglasses, the conversation often drifting toward his passion for finding alternatives to fossil fuels for automobiles, which, he notes, "is bigger than a song."