Two days after trashing Amazon for Jeff Bezos’ support of Donald Trump, Neil Young has set his sights on Apple and Verizon for the very same reasons. In a new post on the Neil Young Archives, Young writes that he’s going to get rid of his Verizon flip phone and stop giving money to Apple.
“I can’t use a Verizon phone,” he writes. “Verizon is a supporter of Trump, with big $. What can I do? I’m checking with our office to see if I can get a T-Mobile flip phone. T-Mobile is not a supporter of the Trump fascist regime…I am trying to not support the companies that support the regime with huge donations, just to cover their own asses, while people are being shot in the streets of America, not just Minnesota, America!”
Young uses an Apple computer, but he’s not happy about it. “I have to stop and re-asses,” he writes. “No more upgrades! That feeds Apple, Apple supports ‘The Regime.’ I’m stopping right now to call my business manager and make sure I do not upgrade anything from Apple. Ok, she says I can still keep the computer. It’s paid for already. But no more upgrades. That money is going to Apple now. Tim Cook, the CEO, falling over backwards to support the regime! He was at the Melania premiere at the White House just the other night, kissing ass. Yikes! What a world.”
“I have to re-asses everything I am doing,” he concludes. “I will sue Apple if my computer doesn’t work without the new costly upgrade. What about Warner Brothers?”
Elsewhere in the post, Young links to an article listing contact information for the CEOs of 11 corporations – Amazon, Meta, American Airlines, AT&T, Microsoft, Home Depot, Verizon, FedEx, UPS, Dell, and Apple – and urges readers to reach out. “Let them know you are opposed to their doing business with ICE and the un-American and illegal actions of ICE, including unwarranted killing, tear-gassing, kidnapping, and arresting of innocent people.”
On Tuesday, Young conducted a live Zoom chat with premium members of the Neil Young Archives. He told them he’s written six songs for his next album. “One of them is really interesting,” he said. “I call it ‘The Second Song.’ I woke up one morning thinking about this melody. I went, ‘Did I write this already or is this already a song?’ I tried to think, ‘What is it?’ I figured it must have been a song I wrote, but I couldn’t figure out what song it was. And so I wrote a bunch new lyrics and so I have a second song on that now. I’m excited about that one. And I like all the others I have going.”
He even shared the lyrics to one in-progress song: “Soon I might be going/So I wanted you to know/It was Christmas in the Rockies/Just like summer with no snow/The Crimson Pirate was showing at the movies/It’s the one you really should see/The water is like diamonds/And the ships are on the sea/The answer to our questions is lingering in the mist/And the revolution is coming like a fighter with a fist.”
One fan asked if he wanted to follow in Bob Dylan’s footsteps and create a biopic about his life. “I don’t know how you could do that while you’re still alive,” he said. “I’ve got some people that I know that are working on something, but I don’t want to have anything to do with that. I’d rather make another record. Can you imagine being there and having someone making a film and you’re going [goofy voice], ‘Yeah, this is a good film about me.’”
Finally, Young commented on his recent 80th birthday. “I thought I’d be scared,” he said. “I was scared of getting to be 80 all the time until I was 80. And then I went, ‘I’m 80. What the heck? Who cares?’ It doesn’t matter any more. Lots of things don’t matter that used to matter. I like to be healthy. I like to be physical. I like to go out and walk. I don’t like to go to the gym, but I walked three miles yesterday at 8,500 feet. That’s what I like to do.”
