Neil Young is a "control freak" when it comes to his music.
The ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ hitmaker’s favourite recording engineer John Hanlon has revealed that Neil is a stickler for having things done his way and admits it is "foolhardy" to even think about saying something because Neil is "10 steps ahead".
He told the New York Times magazine: "He wants the honesty of what went down, not some pasted-together overdubbed representation that’s not the truth. He’s a control freak. If he wants your opinion, he’ll ask for it. If he doesn’t, it’s foolhardy to wade in. He’s 10 steps ahead of you in his thought process."
Neil created his own online music archive, which features his entire back catalogue along with "unreleased albums".
He wrote: "Every single, recorded track or album I have produced is represented. View all albums currently released and see albums still unreleased and in production just by using the controls to zoom through the years. Unreleased album art is simply pencilled in so you can where unreleased albums will appear on the timeline, once they are completed."
And the site will be constantly updated with new information.
Speaking back in 2017 before its launch, he explained: "We have attempted to highlight the creative process and the creators. A lot of people and work are behind the music we hear. The musical information found here is a work in progress, always growing and adapting to new information as we find it.
"We have done our best to find all of the background pertinent to this music. The NYA Timeline shows you when and how the music was made. Every single, recorded track or album I have produced is represented. It is always current. You can browse through the music I made between today’s date and 1963, when I made my first recording in Canada and it was released as a 45 RPM single."
Neil Young is a ‘control freak’
