Crazy Horse’s Billy Talbot on Neil Young, the ragged glory of their live shows, and the road ahead
there is acoustic neil Young. there is solo neil Young. but there is no neil Young like crazy Horse’s neil Young: some wild alchemy explodes from the gate, kicks up red dirt, never relents.
for original crazy Horse bassist billy talbot, the ride is as natural as breathing.
“it’s just the way it’s supposed to be,” talbot, 80, says of the chemistry between Young and the band, a kinship formed more than half a century ago. “When neil straps on that electric guitar, the Horse plays with him. We just do it. We don’t think about it. that’s the key.”
perhaps no album better captures that spirit than 1990’s “ragged Glory.”
so for Young and crazy Horse to play “ragged Glory” in its entirety, live, and then release the fiery show last month as the album “fu##in’ Up,” feels like a gift to fans. Young writes in the liner notes: “made this for Horse lovers … the Horse is runnin’ … i don’t want to mess with the vibe.”
recorded at a private show in toronto in november, it offers new tweaks for fans — like the addition of some classic Young harmonica, always a crowdpleaser. save for “farmer John,” a cover, Young renamed every “ragged Glory” track with a lyric from that song: “country Home” becomes “city life.” “over and over” is now “broken circle.” “days that Used to be” is “to follow one’s own dream.”
original Horse members talbot and ralph Molina — along with new member Micah nelson, Willie’s son — will jam with Young on the first Young & Horse tour in more than a decade, which includes a date friday at the Xfinity center in Mansfield. (nelson also played on “fu##in’ Up,” along with nils lofgren. lofgren is touring now with bruce springsteen.)
Ahead of the tour, talbot spoke by Zoom from his south dakota ranch about how those plans came together, his admiration for Young, his early friendships with his crazy Horse bandmates, and creating a sound that could stop traffic — literally.
Q. i was starting to think we wouldn’t get another show in Massachusetts. How did this new tour and album come together?
A. i guess it just had to. We’ve recorded, i think, three albums in the last couple of years. because of the pandemic we didn’t tour. then [in september 2023] we did shows at the roxy for charity [the bridge school and the painted turtle]. that brought us together.
At the roxy we did [the full albums] “everybody Knows this is nowhere” and “tonight’s the night.” in toronto we decided to do “ragged Glory.” it was a lot of fun. We’d hardly played those songs live through the years. the audience loved it. it wound up being recorded, because we usually record everything. neil called me up later and said: “You should hear this! it’s great!”
Q. Why rename the songs? A. You’ll have to ask neil.
Q. Micah nelson is touring with you and played on the album. both he and lukas [nelson, his brother and frontman of lukas nelson & promise of the real, named after a Young song] often play with neil, and fit in so naturally. is Micah part of crazy Horse now?
A. Yes. i would consider Micah as part of crazy Horse. He just loves the music. He loves neil’s songs, as we all do. We’re lucky we have neil writing such great songs. they really sustain us.
Q. How did you meet neil?
A. back in the day, we were young puppies, trying to get along and make music. that’s all we were interested in doing. [the late] danny [Whitten] and i and ralph started playing in my garage up in laurel canyon. cars would go by and stop and listen.
Q. oh, wow.
A. Well, they had no choice. traffic would jam up.
Q. [laughs] oK.
A. but they seemed to enjoy it. in any case, neil came along, then he came up to the house. We just started getting together after that. All we need to do is give him the beat. it was the right beat. He liked it. that’s the story and it’s been the same ever since.
Q. You were born in new York, and [have been] singing since 14. How did you go from there to bass?
A. i was in vocal groups back in new York in the bebop days. so was ralph, in vocal groups in new York. [in los Angeles] ralph and i and danny Whitten started singing together. then we figured we better start learning how to play. i had a piano in my basement. ralph sat on a stool with a telephone book on a chair, and a tambourine hanging on the corner of the chair as the hi-hat. danny played guitar. it wasn’t bad with piano, but we realized we needed a bass guitar in there.
Q. before that, you’d left high school and moved by yourself out to lA.
A. Yeah, i left high school and took a bus. All my friends knew i was gonna go to california because my mom and brother had moved out there. i was living on my own. i was 16. i decided to take a bus out to los Angeles. seemed like a good place to go at the time, especially — ’66, ’67.
Q. so for a time you were just making it on your own as a teenager in new Jersey?
A. Yeah. My mom and brother left. i wasn’t going to school anymore. so i got a job and made enough money to sustain myself. the grocery store owner on the corner would lend me money to take the bus to work; i’d pay him back when i got paid. stuff like that. i was a young guy. people help young people do things. then i eventually stopped working because i was working in factories and didn’t really want to do that. so i hopped on a bus for greener pastures.
Within a few months, i was singing and playing with a couple of guys i met at the Whisky a Go Go. the owner of the Whisky would pay me and danny Whitten and a couple of other guys to dance with people, to make it lively. We’d get the party going.
then danny and i and ralph started singing in the alley next to the Whisky. that’s how it began. ralph and i have been playing together all these years. that’s one of the reasons the band works — the history.
Q. What’s neil like to work with? seems like he’s always got something cooking. A. He’s an incredible artist. He’s come into his own through the years. the more he realized how much he could do, the more he did.
Q. looking back on over 50 years together, what are some highlights?
A. sometimes the music takes over and we get to this other place. that’s really magical. it’s happened all over the world in different places at different times. i think of all of that as one thing: this really magical place.
When poncho [crazy Horse guitarist frank sampedro] retired, we didn’t really know how it would work out. but recording three albums with nils, and now with Micah on this — i don’t know what the name of it is. What is the name of this record? do you know?
Q. “fu##in’ Up.”
A. [expletive] up. something that we all do. trauma and drama is part of life. [solemnly, slowly] Why do i keep [expletive] up?
Q. [laughs] the timeless question. You said you last toured more than 10 years ago. did you think that was the last tour?
A. no. but then neil started playing with promise of the real. We had other things to do. We were busy. then neil said, “Wait a minute, let me see what those guys are doing.”
Q. on that phone call you mentioned, did he suggest a tour?
A. no, we just talked about how great the toronto recording was. then he decided that this is an album. then he decided maybe we should set up a tour. it came in bits and pieces.
We don’t have a master plan. it seems to be that the master plan is written somewhere else. We’re just following it.