Neil Young Appears to Rebuke Beck’s NFL-Sponsored “Old Man” Cover

Neil Young seems unhappy with Beck for releasing an NFL-sponsored cover of “Old Man,” as Stereogum points out. Beck’s cover came out yesterday after trailing a Sunday Night Football game; a few hours later, Young posted a still from his anti-sponsorship video for 1988 song “This Note’s for You.” In the image, shared on Instagram, Young holds a bottle labeled “SPONSORED BY NOBODY.”

Young has long defied the unnecessary commercialization of his music, and “This Note’s for You” is one of his more explicit rallying cries. “Ain’t singing for Pepsi/Ain’t singing for Coke/I don’t sing for nobody/Makes me look like a joke,” he sings. “This note’s for you.” But, in 2021, the ardently independent singer-songwriter sold half of his catalog to Hipgnosis. That includes the copyright and income interests for approximately 1,180 songs. Though the terms and content of the sale are undisclosed, Young may have lost the right to veto sponsorship deals for songs like “Old Man.” Pitchfork has emailed Young and Beck’s representatives for comment.

For his part, Beck had deemed the line “24 and there’s so much more” a fitting nod to both Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, who won Super Bowls when they were 24 years old, according to a press release yesterday. The cover came a day after the NFL announced Rihanna as the halftime performer for the 2023 Super Bowl.

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