Neil Young announced that he was cancelling Farm Aid earlier this month due to health concerns regarding COVID-19, and now the rock legend has his eye turned toward concert promoters in his latest blog post “Concerts and Covid.” In the blog post Young criticizes major concert promoters such as Live Nation and AEG, who are continuing to host live music events across the country.
Young alleges that large scale promoters are more concerned about their financial interests over their consumers, stating, “It’s all about the money, I think they should protect the people who are their livelihood.” While several music festivals have been postponed for this year, other major events such as Bonnaroo and Life Is Beautiful are still set to take place this year.
“These giants of entertainment just renovated a lot of old venues and spent a lot of cash to do that. Now they can’t stop selling tickets to pay for it. Money and business. That doesn’t make this OK. It’s a bad example,” Young explained. “Folks see concerts advertised and think it must be OK to go and mingle. It’s not. These are super-spreader events, irresponsible Freedom Fests. We need Freedom to be safe. Not a bad example. This could be just the beginning.”
While Young won’t be hitting the road any time soon, the performer has been digging up some rarities throughout the past year. Earlier this year, Young released the Young Shakespeare live concert recording, which was originally recorded in 1971. In 2020 Young also released Neil Young Archives Vol. II (1972 -1976), and Homegrown, previously unreleased studio album that was originally recorded in 1974. Young also released The Times EP last year, which contained several new recordings.
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