INTERVIEW: Nils Lofgren on the 1973 "Tonight’s the Night" sessions

With concerts this week in Fresno and Bakersfield, anticipation builds over what Neil Young's bandmates from Crazy Horse and the Santa Monica Flyers might play. (See LIVESTREAM: Neil Young + Crazy Horse*, Fresno, CA - May 1 .)

In the meantime, a great interview with original Santa Monica Flyers player Nils Lofgren on the 1973 Tonight’s the Night sessions. From Ultimate Classic Rock:

“Thanks to David Briggs and Neil Young, it became more and more a part of what I did with Grin and in my solo work," Lofgren notes.

With Young and the members of his extended musical family, Lofgren found that the doors would continue to open. And he was more than okay with the changing shape of what would be required from him as a player, depending on the situation.

“As I continued on, because of my friendship, I learned early on that if you’re with good people and great music, it’s nice not to be the boss every day of your life -- for me,” he says. “There’s a lot of solo artists that would be uncomfortable with that, but I found it very inspired and refreshing, because I love music. I love playing rhythm guitar and singing harmony, and when you’re the main guy, you can’t do that. So that was exciting and then it felt natural when Crazy Horse wanted me to make their first album with Danny Whitten, which I did [and] that led to the Tonight’s the Night tour.”

In a 2015 conversation, Lofgren addressed the question of whether or not he’d ever found himself on the wrong side of the mercurial singer-songwriter. “I don’t think I ever did," he says. "Neil kind of gets, I think, an undeserved bad rap like that. He is very intense, but not in a bad way. You know, everybody’s intense when they’re performing their own music. I think people really don’t realize what a great sense of humor and what a brilliant guy he is. And smart. He can be thoughtful and caring and cynical and sarcastic like all of us. I’ve had some great adventures with him. Putting the Trans tour together, we were at his ranch for over two months and you know, just to live and work with him, it was a real joy and blessing.

"Once in a while, there would be something going on live that might not be feeling right to him, and he’d just be glaring around, but he was professional. He didn’t ever fine people onstage like James Brown or anything like that,” he adds.

“I just always just felt like, I looked him in the eye and just stared at him, because he knew. We met when I was 17 and one thing Neil knows about me is that a) not only do I love his music, but b) he’s a very inspired artist to me and he’s been a huge mentor to me, so I show up prepared. Yes, I made mistakes, but it’s not for lack of caring or preparation.”

Full interview at Ultimate Classic Rock.

Also, see more on Nils Lofgren and Neil Young.

Nils Lofgren w/ Neil Young - "Believe"
29th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concerts
Photo by thrasher
(Click photo to enlarge)

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