Neil Young

Neil Young is a Canadian musician best known for his creative and eclectic music career. As a teenager he played in bands and by himself around Toronto, then moved to L.A. in 1966. There he joined Buffalo Springfield, a band difficult to place in just one genre. He attempted to go solo with little success in 1969, but gained popularity later that year with his album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, made in collaboration with the band Crazy Horse. Young went on to join Crosby, Stills, and Nash, but still desired a solo career. He continued to experiment on his own throughout the 1970s. Young regained popularity with a burst of album releases between 1979-1983. His most recent album to Farm Aid, Everybody’s Rockin’ (1983), had a rockabilly sound. However, his experimental spirit was still as strong as ever. 

After gaining popularity, Neil Young also dedicated much of his time to activism. Farm Aid is one instance of this; along with John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson, he was an original founder of the concert. Young's mission with the original Farm Aid was policy changes, acknowledging that “We're trying to raise a lot of money here but that's not really the most important thing, and thank God because no matter how much we raise it wouldn't be enough”.

Instead, he urged concert-goers to support the Harkins Farm Policy Reform Bill of 1985. Not long after, on October 4th 1985, Young put out a full page ad in USA Today targeting President Ronald Reagan with the question "Will the Family Farm in America Die as a Result of Your Administration?" Young has continued his activism and performed in every Farm Aid concert since 1985 (excepting 2021 and 2022, which he withdrew from due to concerns over COVID-19).