2014 Neil Young Year in Review: Yes, Only Love Can Break (& Fix) Your Heart

Neil Young Dedicates the Hall of Fame Award to Ben Keith in Heaven
Nashville, 1/28/14 - Photo by Karen Kraft / The Tennessean


Neil Young
The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing GRAMMY Event
Village Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California - January 21st, 2014


Neil & Pegi Young - GRAMMY's 1/27/2014


Stephen Stills & Neil Young
The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing GRAMMY Event
Village Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California - January 21st, 2014


NEW ALBUM: Neil Young's A Letter Home Vinyl LP Released


Neil Young
Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 04/02/2014
Photo by Jeff Allen


Thoughts on the Return of “Thrasher” After 36 Years
Setlist Los Angeles, CA, 3/29/2014
Photo by Candy Butterscotch


Maybe The Best Neil Young Concert Review EVER
Dallas 18 Apr 2014
photo by Sten Thorborg


Jack White and Neil Young on The Tonight Show - May 12


Neil Young & Crazy Horse cover "Born In The USA"
w/ Nils Lofgren & "The Signing Cheerleaders"
Photos via Wildaboutmusic - David Wild


Laurel Krause (Allison Krause's sister)
44th Anniversary Update on Kent State Truth Tribunal


Neil Young Rejects & Protects: KXL Rally - Washington, DC - April 26, 2014


Neil Young and Crazy Horse Europe Summer 2014 Concert Tour Reviews


Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2014-07-12, Hyde Park, London, England
Photo by Paolo Brillo


Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Live 1974 Box Set Details Announced


Neil Young's Donates To Coexistence Music Following Israel Concert Cancellation


"Plastic Flowers"


Neil Young is Back in the Recording Studio with Full Orchestra + Choir (Storytone Album)
George Doering, Chris Walden, and Neil Young (L to R)
Recording Chris Walden's arrangements at Sony Pictures Scoring Stage
via Gina Zimmitti Music Contracting | Facebook


Interview: "You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile" - Neil Young's early years explored by Canadian author Sharry Wilson


Neil Young at Farm Aid 2014 Press Conference
Walnut Creek Amphitheatre - Raleigh, North Carolina - September 13, 2014


EXCLUSIVE: Q&A on Human Highway Director's Cut
World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival


Field of Dreams: "Harvest the Hope" Cornfield Concert


neilyoung.com/


"Who's Gonna Stand Up?"


Lukas Nelson, Neil Young, Micah Nelson & Promise Of The Real
HIGHLIGHTS: 2014 Bridge School Benefit Concerts - Pearl Jam, Florence & The Machine, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, + More
Photo by Jay Blakesburg | Facebook


"Happiness is the valuable commodity and that's what makes life good"- Neil Young | WSJ
Photo by Matt Furman for The Wall Street Journal


Neil Young & Al Gore
“I don’t think there’s anybody, I know a bunch of musicians, I know the culture, and I don’t think there’s anybody in the world that has the position and respect that you have in the music community. All these young rockers out there, they look up to you.”
~~Al Gore


Neil Young Keynote at DreamForce '14


Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life & Cars by Neil Young


Neil Young On Howard Stern


The Colbert Report Interviews Neil Young, Oct. 14


Neil Young & Crazy Host


Neil Young's 1st Art Gallery Exhibit: Special Deluxe


36 Years Since Our Last "Thrasher": Neil Young, Philadelphia - October 8, 2014
Neil Young, Philadelphia - October 8, 2014
(Video by Sister Terri)


"The Missing Link" in Neil Young's "Ditch Quadrilogy" Finally Released


A Message From Neil: "How hard should I try?"


Neil Young Says Goodbye to Starbucks


Crazy Horse's Billy Talbot Suffers Mild Stroke, Expects Full Recovery
Melbourne, AUS Concert Reviews of Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Mar 13, 2013
via Michael S.J. | Photos of Rusties


Broken Arrow Magazine To Cease Publishing - The Final Issue for NYAS?
Photo by Uwe Grahl | Facebook


Dr. Rainer B., AKA “The Baron,” “Baron Rouge” and “Dr. Nusskopf”
In Memory of The Red Baron: Human Highway Founder Completes Final Upload To Cloud


Rick Rosas: 1949 - 2014
Liverpool, England - July 13, 2014
Photo by Paolo Brillo


Neil & Pegi + Ben & Friends
2014 Bridge School Benefit Concerts
Photo by Chuck N. | Rusties | Facebook


"Who's Gonna Stand Up and Save The Earth?"
Neil Young @ "Harvest the Hope Concert
Photo by Ryan Henriksen for The New York Times

Unlike some of those years of Neil Young past -- 2014 was one of the most heartbreaking years of all.

The man's productivity, resilience and sheer drive continues to be both amazing and inspiring.

We began 2014 with our sense of dread as the looming "Big Shift" rolled on, yet here we all are -- both irrevocably changed -- and yet still much the same as we ever were.

2014 had many amazing highlights as noted above for both Neil Young and Thrasher's Wheat.

Once again, we ponder that age old question: Is Neil burning out or fading away? We argue that he is neither. Neil Young is the quintessential survivor.

So we celebrate the music, achievements and all the good folks at Shakey Pictures. Onwards to 2015!

As for us? We're still excited about evolving our collaboration Thrasher's Wheat Radio with WBKM.org. So we'll see you down the road in 2015.

because it's not about me.
and it's not about you.
it's all about about us.
you & me.

peace & love,
thrasher & thrashette
ps - For all of you who help us wage heavy wheat and made contributions of support recently, thank you notes have been going out and we hope to get them all completed by the end of the year. Apologies on delay and we truly appreciate your support.

It means that much to us, to mean that much to you.


Cowboy Indian Alliance Protests Keystone XL Pipeline in Washington, D.C. - April 26, 2014
Photo by Hounds That Howell

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FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: Poncho Sampedro - Uncut Magazine, Jan 2015

Poncho & Neil - ~1991

As we promised on last night's Thrashers Wheat Radio Hour on wbkm.org, we've now linked the full transcript from Uncut Magazine's Jan 2015 Neil Young cover issue interview with Frank "Poncho" Sampedro on Uncut.co.uk by Michael Bonner:

Uncut Magazine: How’s Billy doing?

Poncho: I talked to him last week. He seemed to be fine. He went to The Bridge concert and I also talked to some people who saw him there and they said he looked fine. He looked just the same as ever, just maybe moving a little slower. He’s just finished another record, he’s working on his own music. I talked to him he said he played piano on a lot of songs and he’s playing guitar and bass. Al his faculties are back. He’s got to gather his strength, they put you on a lot of medications when you have a stroke. So it’ll be a matter of time before they take him off some of those.

Uncut Magazine: You’d been rehearsing with Billy before he had a stroke?

Poncho: We rehearsed for three days for that tour at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. Rehearsals were going really well. We had a set made up, at least a lot of possibilities for a set. Neil was going to work on that. We were going to have a few more days to rehearse in Iceland before we started. Then I came home from that. I got a phone call the next day; on the drive home, Billy was driving from Oakland to South Dakota and that’s where he suffered the stroke. I got a phone call from Elliot Roberts telling me that Billy had a stroke. We were pretty worried at that time. His wife was driving. He actually told me, it was kind of odd, he said he didn’t even know that he had a stroke. They stopped, I guess at Salt Lake City, Utah, he said then when he went to step out of the car, his foot wouldn’t work. He said, ‘If I hadn’t got out of the car I wouldn’t even know that I’d had a stroke.’ So I guess it was a mild stroke, my mother had a few mild strokes and she said she just felt like she took a nap. So unless it’s something that really disables part of your system, you don’t notice it too much.

Uncut Magazine: Was it ever likely the tour might not happen?

Poncho: My first inkling when Elliot called me was the tour is cancelled. Then the next day, I got a call from Neil and he said he talked to Rick Rosas and said, “We got a bass player, we can do this.” He said, “Why don’t you just sing most of Billy’s parts?” You know I don’t sing that often in the band. I’m not the world’s best harmony singer, in fact I pretty much suck at it. If I know a part, once I get it, I can sing it over and over again forever. But getting it is the hard thing! I was enthusiastic that morning. I told Neil, “Yeah, I’ll fill in for Billy, I’ll take over, I’ll do what I can.” I worked on it all that day. I went through all the songs we had, I started singing background parts to figure out Billy’s parts. I remember I called Neil back the next morning, my voice was hoarse. I said, “Neil, I can’t do it. I’m going to be the cause of really screwing up some shows if I have to sing on all of those. It’s not going to be fun.” He said, “Don’t worry, we’ll get some background singers.”

(Thanks bh @ BNB, Nathan & all!)

To continue to full transcript from Uncut Magazine's Jan 2015 Neil Young cover issue interview with Frank "Poncho" Sampedro on Uncut.co.uk by Michael Bonner.

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