The only evidence left that Neil Young suffered a near-death experience five months ago is a couple of pills he takes daily, says the legendary musician.
In an interview on the weekend in Nashville, where he filmed a concert documentary with director Jonathan Demme, Young said nothing much has changed in his day-to-day life since the brain aneurysm last March.
"There's just a little bit of medication that I take. . . . They just want to keep my blood pressure down because I run pretty hot," said a trim-looking Young, dressed head-to-toe in black.
"I feel a little bit like a diesel engine with a governor on it," he added, using the lingo of the model train aficionado that he is.
Young, 59, has been keeping a frenetic pace lately.
He brought the house down in Nashville with concerts Thursday and Friday. He partied into the wee hours and then, the typically media-averse Young held court with music press from around the world to discuss a variety of upcoming projects including Prairie Wind, his new CD due out next month. He's also toiling on a DVD box set of archival material dating back to the early 1960s.
Surgery to fix the blood clot forced the singer to cancel a highly anticipated appearance at the Juno Awards in Winnipeg, the city he lived in during his formative music years. Young was supposed to be the marquee star of the show.
"I will come back another year," promised the Toronto-born singer. "I hesitate to say anything right now because I haven't made the plans so I don't want to get anything going that I'm going to bail out on."
He's currently trying to map out a tour for the new year.
In making those plans, he said he's looking for a way to route the journey home -- whether it's to the Junos, in Halifax next April, or perhaps the Prairies that he so fondly sings about on the new CD.
Prairie Wind is due out Sept. 27, but the first single, The Painter, was released yesterday to radio. It will be available on iTunes on Aug. 30.