Neil Young Says He’s One Year Sober [VIDEO]

Neil Young revealed that he's one year clean and sober from booze and pot for the first time in decades. On October 2nd Young will publish his autobiography, called, Waging Heavy Peace, and spoke to The New York Times in advance of it's release, revealing, "I did it for 40 years. Now I want to see what it's like to not do it. It's just a different perspective." Young explains in the book the differences he sees in himself as a sober man: "The straighter I am, the more alert I am, the less I know myself and the harder it is to recognize myself. I need a little grounding in something and I am looking for it everywhere."

In Waging Heavy Peace, Young recalls his CSNY partner David Crosby's own heavy drug days, joking, "I still remember 'the mighty Cros' visiting the ranch in his van. That van was a rolling laboratory that made Jack Casady's briefcase look like chicken feed. Forget I said that! Was my mike on?"

Over his 45-year career Young has touched upon, folk, country, blues, rock, rockabilly -- and even grunge -- on some of his albums. We asked him if there was a certain method to the madness when recording so many different styles of albums: "There's no real logic to it. I may do two rock n' roll albums in a row at some point, or I may do two soft ones in a row, or I may do some different kind of album that everybody wonders what the hell I did that for. I mean, y'know, I could do that. Y'know, it just depends, and there's no plan. I'm just going with the songs. The songs dictate the direction."

Neil Young & Crazy Horse tour dates (subject to change):
September 29 - New York, NY - Global Festival at Central Park
October 3 - Windsor, ON - WFCU Centre (with Los Lobos)
October 5 - Kingston, ON - K-Rock Centre (with Los Lobos)
October 6 - London, ON - The John Labatt Centre (with Los Lobos)
October 8 - Cleveland, OH - Wolstein Center / Cleveland State University (with Los Lobos)
October 9 - Pittsburgh, PA - Petersen Events Center (with Los Lobos)
October 11 - Chicago, IL - United Center (with Los Lobos)
October 13 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park
October 14 - Tulsa, OK - Tulsa Convention Center Arena (with Los Lobos)
October 17 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl (with Los Lobos)
October 20, 21 - Mountain View, CA Bridge School Benefit Shoreline Amphitheatre
October 25 - Tuscaloosa, AL Tuscaloosa Amphitheater
October 26 - New Orleans, LA Voodoo Experience at New Orleans City Park
November 10 - Seattle, WA - KeyArena At Seattle Center (with Los Lobos)
November 11 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena (with Los Lobos)
November 13 - Calgary, AB - Scotiabank Saddledome (with Los Lobos)
November 14 - Saskatoon, SK - Credit Union Centre (with Los Lobos)
November 16 - Winnipeg, MB - MTS Centre (with Los Lobos)
November 19, 20 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre (with Los Lobos)
November 23 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre (with Patti Smith)
November 24 - Ottawa, ON - Scotiabank Place
(with Patti Smith)
November 26 - Boston, MA - TD Garden (with Patti Smith)
November 27 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden Arena (with Patti Smith)
November 29 - Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center
(with Patti Smith)
November 30 - Fairfax, VA - Patriot Center (with Patti Smith)
December 3 - Brooklyn, NY - Barclays Center
December 4 - Bridgeport, CT - Webster Bank Arena (with Patti Smith)

SIDE NOTES

Coming on October 30th is the new Psychedelic Pill collection, which features eight new songs, plus a bonus track. The double-CD is and triple-vinyl set is available for pre-order -- with the vinyl edition coming on November 23rd.

As with Neil Young and Crazy Horse's June release, Americana, full-length videos for each of the songs will be available for viewing and purchase. A "recommended high-resolution 24/192 full-fidelity version" of Psychedelic Pill will be released on Blu-ray and will include all the videos.