Canadian-born Neil Young is worried he may be barred from returning to the U.S. by President Donald Trump’s administration after his upcoming European tour, lamenting Tuesday his outspokenness against Trump may make him a target for summary retribution.
The musician made his fears public on his Neil Young Archives website, saying:
When I go to play music in Europe, if I talk about Donald J. Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminum blanket.
That is happening all the time now. Countries have new advice for those returning to America. You can read about it at the CANADA Desk.
If I come back from Europe and am barred, can’t play my USA tour, all of the folks who bought tickets will not be able to come to a concert by me.
The 79-year-old musician – who has dual Canadian-American citizenship – continued, “That’s right folks, if you say anything bad about Trump or his administration, you may be barred from re-entering USA. If you are Canadian. If you are a dual citizen like me, who knows? We’ll all find that out together.”
Young will tour across Europe in June and July – his first shows on the continent in six years – before returning to the U.S. in August.
The Guardian reports Young has a long history of protesting against Trump.
In 2015, he said the then-presidential candidate was “not authorised” to use his track Rockin’ In the Free World during a campaign launch – and later filed a lawsuit to prevent Trump from using his music.
“Imaging what it feels like to hear Rockin’ in the Free World after this president speaks, like it is his theme song,” he wrote at the time. ‘I did not write it for that.”
Trump hit straight back reminding Young of his attempt to get his financial support, as Breitbart News reported.
After Young became a U.S. citizen in 2020, during Trump’s first term, he penned an open letter calling the president “a disgrace to my country.”
He doubled down on his website, writing: “If the fact that I think Donald Trump is the worst president in the history of our great country could stop me from coming back, what does that say for Freedom? … Remember Freedom of Speech?”
On Tuesday, the septuagenarian railed against what he called “spineless” acts of enforcement and attacks on freedom of speech he feels his words embody.
“It seems that those who speak out freely with their own opinions are now vulnerable to a non-existent Trump law,” he wrote, “that makes it possible for you to go to jail or be detained, punished in some way for not showing allegiance to what?”
Young concluded by invoking the pledge of allegiance. “One country, indivisible, with Liberty and Freedom for all,” he said. “Remember that? I do.”
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