{"id":5318,"date":"2025-09-19T11:19:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T11:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/micah-nelson-on-touring-with-neil-young-rocknroll-energy-151464\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T11:19:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T11:19:59","slug":"micah-nelson-on-touring-with-neil-young-rocknroll-energy-151464","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/micah-nelson-on-touring-with-neil-young-rocknroll-energy-151464\/","title":{"rendered":"Micah Nelson on touring with Neil Young: \u201crock\u2018n\u2019roll energy!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the youngest son of Willie Nelson, guitarist Micah Nelson has been in Neil Young’s circle since childhood. He later played with Young between 2014 and 2019 as a member of of The Promise Of The Real, recording two studio albums The Monsanto Years<\/a> and The Visitor and a live album Earth<\/a>. More recently, as a member of Young’s latest backing band The Chrome Hearts, Nelson has appeared on Young’s latest studio album Talkin To The Trees<\/a> and the Love Earth World Tour<\/a><\/strong> — which wrapped on September 15 at the Hollywood Bowl.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As the youngest son of Willie Nelson, guitarist Micah Nelson has been in Neil Young\u2019s circle since childhood. He later played with Young between 2014 and 2019 as a member of of The Promise Of The Real, recording two studio albums The Monsanto Years<\/a> and The Visitor and a live album Earth<\/a>. More recently, as a member of Young\u2019s latest backing band The Chrome Hearts, Nelson has appeared on Young\u2019s latest studio album Talkin To The Trees<\/a> and the Love Earth World Tour<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 which wrapped on September 15 at the Hollywood Bowl.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here, Nelson talks us through some highlights from the tour: from the surprise appearance of \u201cAmbulance Blues\u201d, the arrival in the setlist of rarities like \u201cSail Away\u201d and \u201cSinger Without A Song\u201d<\/strong><\/strong>, the origins of new song \u201cBig Crime\u201d to\u2026 what\u2019s next for Young as he prepares to turn 80?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Neil
Photo: Tim Mosenfelder\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe might know what we\u2019re going to play first\u201d<\/h2>\n

UNCUT: The setlist seems to have become more fluid as the tour has progressed. Is that just Neil on a whim or does the band also get involved in terms of what you perform?
<\/strong>NELSON: It\u2019s both really. Back in the day [Nelson touring with Young as part of The Promise Of The Real between 2014 and 2019<\/em>], we\u2019d play for three hours and just have a list of 200 songs on stage. We might know what we\u2019re going to play first. We might know that, typically, when Neil puts on a specific guitar, it could be one of a number of songs. There\u2019s little cues like that. \u201cOkay, he\u2019s got the White Falcon on. So it could be this or that\u2026\u201d Then that\u2019s the show. We\u2019d just play until we were done playing. I think we did the longest Neil Young show in history in Amsterdam [July 9, 2016<\/em>]. It was three hours and 45 minutes or something. That was something like ten years ago\u2026<\/p>\n

So how did that change on this tour?
<\/strong>Starting in Europe, he started doing this thing where he would come up with a setlist and all the crew would know it. We were trying to get the crew to understand this. \u201cYou guys are gonna come up and tell us what\u2019s next? You bring me a guitar and say \u201cSouthern Man\u201d, or whatever it is?\u2019 So that was a new thing. Neil\u2019s writing the setlist, then the crew come up and tell us what\u2019s going to happen. But that soon started to crumble a little bit. Neil would be like, \u201cOkay, now we have the map. But in this section of the show, we could do one of these few songs\u2026\u201d and it might be in a different order. We might decide to do something else. But part of it is thinking, too, at least for Neil, about what tuning his guitar is in, what harmonica he needs and how to put the set together to where there\u2019s the least amount of switching around between songs.<\/p>\n

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