While Stephen Stills alluded to it a few weeks back, we now can confirm that Neil Young is definitively working on his memoir. Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, acquired the book after several years of discussions with the iconic musician.
“He’s been very busy playing and touring and making records, and the guy has 100 things going on all the time,” David Rosenthal, president and publisher told the New York Times. “He felt that this was a really propitious moment to try and put some stuff down on paper.”
The book, tentatively titled Waging Heavy Peace, will be released in the fall of 2012. Mr. Young has already finished writing “a good deal of material,” Mr. Rosenthal said. “The intention is to cover pretty much everything — growing up, music, life,” he added. “I am astounded at his memory for detail.” But then he had the ten-disc Archives to refer to.
Rosenthal isn’t a stranger to the rock memoir genre. When he was the publisher of Simon & Schuster he acquired and published Chronicles, Vol. 1 by Bob Dylan. Just like with Bob Dylan, there was no traditional literary agent involved with equally inscrutable Neil Young’s negotiations; only his manager, Elliot Roberts was involved.
