Neil Young performs during the ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ rally at Grand Park on April 12, in Los Angeles.Mario Tama/Getty Images
“Old man take a look at yourself,” Neil Young sang in 1972. This year the singer-songwriter turns 80. To celebrate the occasion, a just-announced tribute concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall is scheduled for Nov. 12, his birthday.
The confirmed artists for NY80: A Celebration of Neil Young and His Music include Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, Kathleen Edwards, Donovan Woods, Joel Plaskett, City and Colour’s Dallas Green, Serena Ryder, Julian Taylor, Skye Wallace and Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson, with more acts expected to be named. CBC Radio’s Tom Power will host.
Dale Gago, the concert’s promoter, plans to invite Young to the soirée.
All proceeds go to MusiCounts, Canada’s music education charity associated with the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the Juno Awards.
“I tried to get it going in 2020 for Neil’s 75th birthday,” Gago told The Globe and Mail. “People liked the idea, and some big industry players were interested, but COVID-19 got in the way.”
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The Toronto-born troubadour was previously feted at Massey Hall, a venue he first played on Jan. 19, 1971. That early career concert and the subsequent live recording was commemorated in 2009, when Luminato Festival presented the Canadian Songbook: A Tribute to Neil Young’s Live at Massey Hall.
Young did not attend the Luminato event. Neither did he participate in a public screening at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival of Jonathan Demme’s concert film Neil Young Trunk Show.
Young left Canada for the United States in 1966 at age 21 and became a dual Canadian-American citizen in 2020. Earlier this month, he and his current band, the Chrome Hearts, released an angry new song, Big Crime, which is highly critical of the Donald Trump administration.
“Got to get the fascists out, got to clean the White House out,” Young sings. “Don’t want no soldiers on our streets.”
Young’s 80th-birthday event in Toronto is expected to cover music spanning his entire career.Tom Pandi/Supplied
Last week, Los Angeles luxury fashion brand Chrome Hearts sued Neil Young and his band for trademark infringement. The complaint sought an unspecified amount of monetary damages and a judicial order blocking Young from using the name.
His summer tour ended Monday with a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In recent years, Young and his actress wife, Daryl Hannah, have spent more time in Canada, including at their cottage in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario. In May, he gave a solo concert in Lakefield, Ont., in benefit of a historic 160-acre farm that belongs to Lakefield College School.
Young has been the subject of a pair of tributes already this year. This spring, popular artists such as Fiona Apple, Brandi Carlile, Eddie Vedder, Sharon Van Etten, Steve Earle and the Doobie Brothers with Allison Russell contributed to Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol. 1, with proceeds directed to the Bridge School, a non-profit organization in California for children with severe speech and physical impairments.
The Bridge School was founded in 1986 by Young and his then-wife Pegi Young, inspired by their son, Ben, who was born with cerebral palsy.
In July, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival celebrated Young’s 1970 album After the Gold Rush at Jericho Beach Park.
The 80th-birthday event in Toronto is expected to cover music spanning Young’s entire career, including songs from his stint in the 1960s with Buffalo Springfield. Tickets go on sale on Sept. 19, at 10 a.m. ET, through the Massey Hall website.
