He’s responsible for several classic rock hits, but several rock stars still hate Neil Young. Maybe not as much as he hated sharing a streaming platform with Joe Rogan (Young pulled his catalog from Spotify), but it’s a close race. Though several bands revere the Canadian singer and guitarist, several musicians hate Young’s music, including Beatles legend George Harrison.
1. David Crosby
David Crosby spent years playing alongside Young in the sporadically active folk rock supergroup Crosby, Still, Nash & Young. The collective made some beautiful songs together, but Crosby hated Young.
“Well, he’s probably the most self-centered, self-obsessed, selfish person I know,” Crosby told The Guardian in 2021. “He only thinks about Neil, period. That’s the only person he’ll consider. Ever!”
Listening to the sweet melodies and vocal harmonies of CSNY’s biggest hits — “Teach Your Children,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping,” and “Our House” among them — it’s hard to believe the friction between them was so intense. Or that they were able to put it aside to record those songs. Yet Crosby is no Neil Young fan, and neither is one of his other former bandmates.
2. Graham Nash
Everything Crosby said about Young goes for Graham Nash, too. The David Crosby, Stephen Still, and Graham Nash trio has plenty of testosterone flowing among them. Adding Young to the mix made for a tsunami of toxic masculinity within the group.
Nash once said he respects Young’s willingness to adhere to his artistic principles. The Canadian guitarist is not above canceling tours if he feels he won’t deliver the goods. Like Crosby, Nash also says Young is selfish and only ever looking out for his own self-interests.
3. George Harrison
The so-called quiet Beatle’s restrained demeanor hid a sharp wit and opinionated personality. George Harrison was painfully honest at times, so he didn’t hide his hatred for Young and his music.
During a 1992 recording session with Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof (via YouTube), George lays into Young, saying, “I hate it. Yeah, I can’t stand it.” Young’s singing voice is an acquired taste, and George calls out his lack of vocal talent. At the very least, he did with a heavy dose of self-deprecating wit, saying, “[H]is singing is even worse than me.”
4. Bob Dylan
Young and Bob Dylan have quite a bit in common. They’re both classic rock legends, renowned singer-songwriters, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. (Young appears twice — on his own and with Buffalo Springfield).
The folk music icon actually likes his Canadian counterpart, but Dylan’s hate for Young comes down to one song: “Heart of Gold.” It’s one of Young’s biggest hits, and Dylan’s complaint about the song was that it sounded so much like him that he should have written it.
It’s not hard to hear Dylan’s point. Between the acoustic strumming that sets the melody in the early seconds, the mournful harmonica playing, and the unpolished vocals, it’s only a stone’s throw from Young’s “Heart of Gold” to any number of Dylan tunes from his heyday.
5. Lynyrd Skynyrd
The perceived loathing between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Young was more myth than fact.
Young’s songs “Southern Man” and “Alabama” called out the racism of the American south. They were his responses to the race riots and segregation making news in the 1960s. Lynyrd Skynyrd answered with “Sweet Home Alabama” and the cutting lyric, “Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”
It seemed as if Lynyrd Skynyrd hated Neil Young for his takes on institutional racism, but the artists actually shared a mutual respect for one another. After they took shots at each other, the artists from opposite sides of the 45th parallel found a way to get along.
To be fair, Young inspired a sizable list of musicians. Some of Young’s best songs inspired several Seattle-area grunge musicians, such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Still, several musicians hated Neil Young for his singing and his abrasive personality.
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