Some very interesting statements from Neil:
AMSTERDAM INTERVIEW - 1989
INT: You have been known to support Reagan, which a lot of fans thought you were going right wing, and then I think in Rolling Stone you said you weren’t very fond of Bush. I was wondering why you apparently changed political views?
NEIL: Because that’s only an apparent thing. I don’t have a view, I have an opinion that changes because everyday is a different day. I’m not a liberal or a conservative. I’m not like that. With Reagan, some things he did were terrible, some things he did were great. Most people tend to take a president and say you hate...he does one thing you really don’t like. Like he builds excessive amounts of warheads or something. So you write him off completely. Which I think is completely stupid. And I think, is very narrow minded.
Anyone can have an opinion and be right, like you don’t want warheads on earth. I agree with that, but that is a decision that he made to do that and I disagree with that. On the other hand there are other things that he did that I agreed with. And because I had the ability to say what I feel, people only write part of it, because its news that I would agree with Reagan. So they say Neil Young supports Reagan, so .... ‘em, I don’t care what they do.
Everyday is different. Sometimes I like George, sometimes I don’t like George Bush.
MTV “FAMOUS LAST WORDS” INTERVIEW - 1990
MTV: At one point when you were sort of in a country mode, you were sort of making noises about Ronald Reagan was a good guy...you sort of come around from that position too?
NEIL: I never made, you know, I was never a Reagan supporter in a total blanket sense. I was one of those who felt that some ideas he had were good ideas. He had one point that he was stressing in the first six months of his job that he thought the people in the communities and neighborhoods should pull together and try to do things on their own more than depending on government to do it for them. And I thought that was a hell of an idea and here’s this old guy and he’s kind of got this image, of this fatherly image, telling all these people in their neighborhoods to pull together and get your own daycare centers happening, and get this and that happening.
I thought that was a cool thing, I thought it was a good thing. So then I’m on my bus, someplace in some hell hole somewhere, playing some show and the good part of it is when I’m on stage and the bad part of it is the rest of it. And these two dorks come on my bus, I don’t know how it happened, I swear to God, two jerks from some press service come on my bus and start asking me these questions and I just kind of burnt.
And these guys starting putting down Reagan left and right and everything and I looked at the guy and I said “You’re an asshole, you know, you don’t know what the hell you are talking about cause you probably put down every damn president, you know, that ever lived. You’re a president basher, that’s all you do is if they win, they lose.”
So I said the guy’s got some good ideas, I stand behind the way he feels about this and that, and I told him...I said, I think you’re full of .... for dismissing a person completely in every idea he has because he happens to be president and he makes some really stupid moves on one level, that I would never think of making. That doesn’t mean that the guy didn’t have some good ideas somewhere along the line maybe yesterday about something else.
So with the press, it’s so hard, even though print is in black and white, it’s so hard for them to make it clear what’s really happening.
So here I am - Reagan supporter! [Neil throws up hands in mock humor sort of way while shrugging and shaking his head in disbelief.]
“Even Richard Nixon has got soul.”
I agree with Neil. I’m glad Obama pulled the trigger on UBL. I support him 100 percent on that bit.
Clinton reformed Welfare. I’m not sure an R could have done it.
I can’t think of anything I supported Carter on - maybe the peace process between Egypt and Israel. Israel gave up so much to get that deal, and the Egyptians kept their word.
Reagan’s amnesty is why we are where we are today. Nixon created the EPA. Bush I stopped at the gates of Baghdad. W is the second big reason why we are where we are today with illegal aliens.
Neil Young - Four Strong Winds
I'm a longtime fan.