Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream

Waging Heavy Peace is the remarkable memoir of rock icon Neil Young.

Neil Young is a singular figure in the history of rock and pop culture over the last four decades, having been inducted not once, but twice, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Reflective, insightful, and disarmingly honest, Waging Heavy Peace is his long-awaited memoir. From his youth in Canada to his extraordinary journey out to California, through Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash, to his hugely successful solo career and his re-emergence as the patron saint of grunge, right up to his current role as one of the last uncompromised and uncompromising survivors of rock 'n' roll – this is Neil's story told in his own words.

Young presents a kaleidoscopic view of his personal life and musical creativity; it's a journey that spans the snows of Ontario to the LSD-laden boulevards of 1966 Los Angeles, culminating in the contemplative paradise of Hawaii today. Along the way, he writes about the music, the victims, the girls, and the drugs; about his happy family life, but also about the health problems he and his children have experienced; about guitars, cars, and sound systems; about Canada, California, and Hawaii. Candid, witty, and revealing, this book takes its rightful place beside the classic memoirs of Bob Dylan and Keith Richards.

The Guardian describes it as 'Wryly funny, deeply moving, painfully honest'. The Independent notes, 'He's talking to you, not at you, unravelling himself as well, and you don't want it to end... You see rock and roll history from the inside out, and in the present tense'. The Sunday Times finds it 'Bounteous and joyful, a genuinely happy hippy... Unusually for a rock memoir, this one is almost completely angst-free'. Rolling Stone hails it as 'Dryly hilarious... poignant... Waging Heavy Peace shows that Young is still in full possession of that stubborn, brilliant, one-of-a-kind instrument'. Metro calls it 'A real treat... he writes openly and movingly about the key figures in his life... you feel you know Young better for reading it'.