Nils Lofgren on why he considers Neil Young his “big brother”
Things were a struggle around Washington D.C. in the early 1970s. The home of go-go music wasn’t exactly a music mecca in America, and with hardcore punk still a decade away, D.C. didn’t have much in the way of a musical identity. Nils Lofgren felt that stifling feeling. The young guitarist had his own band, Grin, but was languishing in the relatively modest music scene around the Nation’s Capital.
In came Neil Young, the iconic singer-songwriter who was right in the middle of joining Crosby, Stills, and Nash as a fourth member. When Young came to town, Lofgren made sure that he met the legendary guitar player and singer. The connection eventually led a 19-year-old Lofgren to appear on After the Gold Rush, among many future Young releases.
“I met Neil when I Was 17, at the Cellar Door (in Washington, D.C.),” Lofgren shares. “Shortly after I met him on Crazy Horse’s first tour, I was out in California. I looked Neil up. True to his word, he took me under his wing. He introduced me to David Briggs, his producer. Long story short, after a lot of Hollywood misadventure, I moved in with David in Topanga Canyon. So, I saw a lot of Neil.”
Lofgren remembers the pair as being very kind but also stern with Lofgren when they needed to be. One example came when the two were brutally candid with the young guitarist. “They were my big brother mentors at a very young age,” Lofgren adds. “They were very encouraging and very honest. I remember my band, Grin, became the house band at the Topanga Canyon Corral. Neil came down and jammed with us one night, and we really hit it off and were playing great.”
Adding: “So, the next day, I was at his house with David Briggs. And we were feeling pretty good, you know? Neil and David were telling us how good the drummer was and how much Neil enjoyed playing with us. Being the hard-ass, show-biz, music-biz friends they were, they said, ‘The band’s pretty good, but you need a better bass player.'”
“I was crestfallen because we were a team — a family. But I was only 17, and I had Neil Young and David Briggs — who had moved me into his home with the plan of getting me a record deal and producing us — what are you going to say to that? ‘Oh, you guys don’t know what you’re talking about?’ So, we got our bass player, Bob Gordon,” Lofgren concludes. “Sadly, we lost Bob a number of years ago.”
After Grin failed to take off, Lofgren renewed his connection with Young on 1975’s Tonight’s the Night as a part of Young’s new offshoot of Crazy Horse, The Monica City Flyers. After a long period with Bruce Springsteen as a member of the E Street Band, Lofgren rejoined Crazy Horse for good in 2018.