I have many memories of being a young, crazed Neil Young fan in the 70s and 80s. My best friend and I found out about a free concert at The Corral Club in Topanga Canyon, featuring Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, and the Eagles. We finagled a ride out there and stood in a long line for hours. My friend was reading a book by Yoko Ono out loud, but she eventually succumbed to many loud requests to kindly stop. I was waiting under some stairs around the back of the wooded structure, just hanging out. Suddenly up walked Neil Young and Carrie Snodgrass, and she tried to open a door near where I was standing. I was looking straight at Neil Young, my biggest influence — and he stopped and looked at me as if he thought he knew me but said nothing. I said nothing. I could not even think of talking. He grabbed Carrie and pulled her backwards, and they went through another door. Oh My God, no words could come out! Later, maybe hours later, I was still hanging around, and I found his beautiful black car in a dirt lot. Suddenly he came towards the car — he was leaving. I told my friend he is probably going to come around the other way, to shake off the 100s of fans trying to say hey, like me. I said to my friend, let’s run around the other way. He was not going to go out through that crowd. As we made our way around the southeast direction of the front of the Corral, he came along in his black car, speeding along nicely, right as we came around the corner. He swerved to miss me, and almost hit my friend! Yikes!! Um . . . we missed paths again. It was a close one. No, I never met him, but about as close as I got was right next to him for about 20 seconds. Okay, I was 18 years old. I’ve gotten over it. The Music Lives On.
Another show I went to in this period was at the San Diego Stadium. I didn’t have a car, so I can’t tell you how we got to these places! It was a huge stadium, and it was packed with kids. Up at the stage, we held our own, rocking to new tunes like “Don’t Be Denied,” and I don’t remember what else, but the crowd was rowdy, and we were all sitting, but people started standing up in waves. It was so crowded that we had to get our asses up or be CRUSHED – so I grabbed my friend (who almost got hit by Neil) and pulled her up with all my might, before the crowd would have crushed her. We really weren’t looking for trouble but going to rock concerts had a high degree of danger to it. It wasn’t long after that that I made a kinda connection with Neil — screaming at the top of my lungs “What did you do to my life?”!!!! And he smiled so big — he heard me! I was over the moon!!! One more story — The Roxy. We hung out for hours before we could get in. I met the biggest flirt, a Neil Young fan with the same name as me. She was dressed to impress and had written him an incredibly long letter. I don’t know how it happened, but we were talking to some guys outside who were recording every bit of the shows, and I think one of them delivered her letter or got her in to deliver her letter. So, she was happy. All I remember is I spent a lot of time hanging around outside of these shows. And I don’t have a thing to show for it really! But the shows were great — and Crazy Horse blew me away when they played “Beggar’s Day” with Nils Lofgren!!!! Unreal!!
I went to many more concerts over the years. We were die-hard fans and spent our money and time buying the albums, learning the songs, and hitting the shows. Neil was a major musical influence for me, and I learned many of his songs. My own songwriting has a Neil Young feel to it. And I’m proud of that. The first song on guitar that my sister showed me was “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” But me and my girlfriends played every song at weddings, people’s parties, etc. We were so young and had so much friggin’ fun! ❤️😎🎸