Richie Furay recently joined Rock History Music for an interview and reflected his thoughts on his long-time friendship with Neil Young.
Neil Young achieved his first commercial success with Buffalo Springfield. The band was formed in 1966 in LA, where Young and Bruce Palmer were looking for Stephen Stills. They thought they couldn’t find Stills, but they came across him and Richie Furay on Sunset Boulevard while stuck in traffic. With Dewey Martin’s addition, they formed Buffalo Springfield and quickly built a reputation with their self-titled debut.
In November 1966, Stills wrote ‘For What It’s Worth’ to respond to a violent protest. It became a top 10 hit by March 1967 and appeared on the first album instead of the song ‘Baby Don’t Scold Me.’ Due to drug-related arrests and changes in their line-up, Buffalo Springfield decided to split in 1968. After that, Neil Young embarked on a solo career before joining CSNY.
Throughout his music career, Neil Young has used music to reveal his political stance with often overtly political lyrics. On the other hand, Stephen Stills has also been involved in liberal causes and politics for a long time. However, Richie Furay wanted to stay away from politics and focused on writing love songs.
Speaking to Rock History Music, Richie Furay stated that politics never became an issue in his relationship with Young. He said that Neil Young has been more politically inclined than him, as Furay has preferred to write love songs instead of songs like ‘Don’t Tread On Me,’ ‘Wind Of Change,’ or ‘Someday.’ Despite their different perception of activism and political involvement, Richie Furay said they know how to respect each other’s ideas and work together on music.
Asked whether politics got in the way of his relationship with Neil Young, Richie Furay said the following:
“It’s never been an issue. I mean, I do believe that he’s been obviously more politically inclined and vocal over the years than I have. I was talking to someone the other day. Listen, I’m the guy that writes love songs; I don’t know where songs like ‘Don’t Tread On Me,’ ‘Wind Of Change,’ or ‘Someday’ on the last project that I did. I don’t know where all that came from. But no, you know what? We have learned to respect each other for who we are as we identify with one another through the music.”
You can watch the interview below.
