Crazy Horse

About

Crazy Horse are the Los Angeles rock band that became Neil Young's most enduring creative partnership, a connection stretching back to 1969 when they backed him on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. That album gave the world "Cinnamon Girl" and the sprawling, guitar heavy "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand", tracks that set the template for the raw, loose limbed rock the band would keep delivering for decades. Their sound sits at the crossroads of folk rock, hard rock and psychedelic rock, built on the deceptively simple rhythm section of bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina, who are the only two members to have been there from the start. Founding guitarist Danny Whitten, whose songwriting shaped the early records, died in 1972 not long after the band's self titled debut. Frank Sampedro then held down the rhythm guitar slot from 1975 to 2014. After Sampedro retired, Nils Lofgren stepped back in, and the band cut three more studio albums with Young between 2019 and 2022. Most recently, guitarist Micah Nelson, previously part of Young's band Promise of the Real, joined the lineup in 2024.