Neil Young made his first live appearance of 2026 at a benefit concert celebrating Canadian environmental activist David Suzuki's 90th birthday in Vancouver, where he performed “After the Gold Rush” and “Heart of Gold.”
Neil Young canceled all of his 2026 concert dates earlier this year, and has remained relatively quiet since. But he reappeared on May 22 for a surprise acoustic set during the benefit concert organized for David Suzuki's 90th birthday, at the Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver.
Young performed “After the Gold Rush” and “Heart of Gold”. This is his first live performance of any kind since the Painted Turtle charity concert on October 25, 2025.
Neil Young pays tribute to David Suzuki
David Suzuki is a major figure in environmental defense in Canada, former host of the show The Nature of Things on CBC, author of 55 books and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Bruce Cockburn, Tara Cullis, Jane Fonda, Al Gore, Rick Hansen, Chantal Kreviazuk, Janelle Lapointe, Sarah McLachlan and Danny Michel also participated in this anniversary concert, which aimed to raise funds for the David Suzuki Foundation.
Young has long supported Suzuki's work. On November 9, 2014, he participated in a Vancouver leg of his Blue Dot tour, sharing the bill with Barenaked Ladies, Margaret Atwood and Wanting Qu. His set then included “Human Highway”, “Pocahontas” and “Who's Gonna Stand Up?”.
Neil Young, a new album and a slow concert schedule
In February, Young canceled his planned European tour with the Chrome Hearts and Elvis Costello as a special guest. “I have decided to take a break and I will not tour in Europe this timeâ€he wrote. “Thank you to everyone who purchased tickets. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but now is not the right time. I love playing LIVE and being with you and the Chrome Hearts. LOVE Neil, be well.”
He has just completed a new album, Second Songrecorded with the Chrome Hearts at Rick Rubin's Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California. In April, Young wrote that the album included three previously unreleased songs from his archives, written in 1963. However, he clarified more recently that these were only two archival tracks, dated 1964.
Young's concert schedule remains empty, but the annual Farm Aid will be held on September 26. The program and location have not yet been announced, but Young has participated in almost all editions since the creation of the festival in 1985 – he had only skipped 2021 and 2022, for fear of the spread of Covid during concerts.
On May 29, Young and the Chrome Hearts will release the live album As Time Explodes. It documents their 2025 World Tour and includes “Vampire Blues”, “Like a Hurricane”, “Ohio”, “Cortez The Killer”, and many other classics.
