Neil Young explains why he sold his publishing catalog

(Note Language) Neil Young is one of the many artists who in recent years have sold the publishing rights to their catalog, and for him, doing so was a no brainer.

“I wanted to sell my songs because I don’t have to worry about a f****** thing now,” he tells Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. I’ve got the end of my life to go out doing exactly what it is I want to do and not doing what I don’t want to do.”

Neil adds, “That’s the way I feel about it. I don’t have to go on a tour if I don’t want to go on a tour.”

But even with the sale, Neil insists he doesn’t want to hear his music “associated with a product or with a movement or with a politician or with a sport or with anything,” adding, “I like the songs to be the songs.”

And fans shouldn’t think the sale means Neil’s about to stop making music. “It’s what I have to do. I want to do this,” he says. “That’s why there’s 51, 52 albums because I want to do this and I can still feel it. I’d be crazy to stop.”