Frank Sampedro Weighs In on Crazy Horse’s Future

The mild stroke that Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot suffered this past summer may spell the end of Neil Young's longtime backup band. In a new interview, guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro gave an update on Talbot's health and said that he can see a day in the near future when they call it quits.

"He seemed to be fine," he told Uncut. "He’s just finished another record, he’s working on his own music. I talked to him -- he said he played piano on a lot of songs, and he’s playing guitar and bass. All his faculties are back. He’s got to gather his strength, they put you on a lot of medications when you have a stroke. So it’ll be a matter of time before they take him off some of those."

Talbot's stroke happened on the eve of a European tour, and even though he quickly recovered, Sampedro said Talbot lacked the strength and energy needed for the road. He was replaced by Rick Rosas, with backup singers to cover Talbot's vocals. Then Rosas passed away last month.

The way Young works, it's impossible to predict whether he'll use Crazy Horse on an upcoming project. But Sampedro has an idea about how he wants the veteran band to go out.

"My hopes and dreams, if you want to know those, is that Neil writes a bunch of songs, and in January [or] February, we start recording and we go out on a big tour," he said. "I always want to call it a farewell tour, but I don’t think Neil would ever accept that. But for me, I like to live in a perfect world. ...There’s been people listening to us and supporting us, and we’ve been counting on them to buy our records and show up at gigs, and it would be nice to do something where we all were together saying goodbye, we appreciate it. I don’t know how to put it in words. Like a Frank Capra movie, a big happy ending."

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