Neil Young Explains Tour Cancelation: 'I Listened to My Body'

Neil Young has elaborated on his decision to cancel his tour with Crazy Horse, offering fans a clearer explanation two months after the abrupt announcement.

At the time, the 78-year-old singer-songwriter vaguely cited illness among the performers but in a new livestream, Young explained that "a couple of" the tour's performers — including himself — "really hit a wall," according to People.

"I just woke up one morning on the bus and I said, 'I can't do this, I gotta stop.' And it was like, I felt sick when I thought of going on stage," the musician recalled. "My body was telling me, 'You gotta stop.' So I listened to my body."

In their initial announcement, Young and Crazy Horse explained the tour's pause, saying several band members fell ill after a concert and had "still not fully recovered." The "great tour" subsequently had a "big unplanned break." The musicians promised they would "try to play some of the dates" missed "as time passes" and they were "ready to rock again."

Despite the difficulties of canceling the tour, Young said he felt it was for the best as he could not deliver the performance that fans deserved.

"Then it gets into all the legal matters. 'You got this, you got that, people bought tickets, they did this, they did that.' I understand that, but what matters to me is the art of playing, and the music," Young explained in the livestream. "That's what matters. That's what people loved. That's what they loved to come and see."

But, Young continued, "If that's not there, me going isn't happening. My body told me to not do it."

The musician also offered fans a health update, saying he was "starting to feel" as if he could walk onto the stage and perform again.

"And that's a great feeling," Young said, noting, however, that some band members are "not all the way back."

"Crazy Horse will be back, God willing, and we'll play more," Young said. "But in the meantime, I have a lot of friends that I play with."

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