Neil Young confirms Harvest 'more barn' story

Neil Young and Graham Nash (Image credit: Getty)

Neil Young has confirmed that he did shout the catchphrase “more barn” from a rowboat in the middle of a lake during a Harvest listening session with singer-songwriter Graham Nash.

The story, which has spanned over four decades, appears in the booklet of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s 1991 debut CSN. Nash previously recalled his surprise when he was invited onto a rowboat in the middle of a lake at Young’s ranch, south of San Francisco, to listen to his then-upcoming album.

Young tells Huffington Post: “Well it’s funny, it’s just a little thing that happened one day and it keeps growing and getting crazier. But I had the left speaker, big speakers set up in my house with the windows open.

“And I had the PA system – that we used to rehearse and record with in the barn where I recorded Alabama and Words and a couple of other things – playing the right-hand channel.

“So, we were sitting in between them on a little lake and that’s what we were doing.”

When asked if he shouted the infamous line, Young replies: “Yeah, I think it was a little house heavy.”

Neil Young is to appear at California’s Desert Fest alongside The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and Roger Waters this October.

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Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.