Ne i l’s Youn gg un i ns p i red h itfi lm
He’s one of the music industry’s oldest rockers.
But 73-year-old legend Neil Young still knows how to enjoy himself. I’m told he spends most of his time meditating, talking to animals and scoffing scones.
Chatting to me backstage before his Hyde Park show yesterday, bandmate
Lukas Nelson says: “Neil is a guru. I think of him as a Chinese sort of master.
We do warm-ups every show and I will sit in lotus position and go into a meditation at the same time.”
And when it comes to talking to animals, peacocks are a favourite.
Lukas, 30, continues: “There was a peacock near our hotel. We went and looked at it. I said, ‘Hey buddy’. And it put its feathers up.” As for rider demands, Canadian Neil likes a scone, while American Lukas enjoys an Earl Grey tea.
Lukas – who fronts band Promise Of The Real – is the son of country superstar Willie Nelson, 86. When he was 16, they toured with Bob Dylan, 78, who also took to the stage last night.
“Longevity and being able to believe what you believe in,” he says. “That’s what Neil’s message to me was, and Dad and Dylan.”
Lukas also inspired hit film A Star Is Born after director Bradley Cooper, 44, saw him on stage with Neil. But Lukas says his band have not got the recognition they deserve: “A Star Is Born is a picture of what we were with Neil. Bradley saw us and that inspired him to call me and say ‘This is how I want to be presented on stage’. I wish that Bradley and Gaga gave more credit to that. I wish my band had got more recognition.”
After last night’s performance, watched by Kate Moss and Noel Gallagher, he’ll be getting a whole lot of British love.