Young’s enthusiasm belies his age, but reflects the title of Poco’s last album, 2013’s “All Fired Up.” Fans can thank him for that and for the classic tunes that make them feel forever young.Pedal-steel guitarist Rusty Young, the founding member of Poco who led the group through its many incarnations, died Wednesday of a heart attack at his home in Davisville, Mo. I’m really anxious to start recording some of this stuff.” “I can’t stop singing it or thinking about it. “I was rehearsing a couple of the new songs while we were on the road recently and one of them really got to me,” he says. That was then and now Young is focused – and excited – about a future that doesn’t include imminent retirement. Then he adds with a laugh: “You don’t want to break their hearts. “A girl would come to the merch table after a concert and say, ‘I made a bet with my girlfriend over there …’ Sometimes I would lie and say, ‘Yes we are,’ ” Young says. “I think I have some good ones, like ‘Neil Young Is Not My Brother.’ I haven’t really decided yet.”Īlthough Neil is from Canada and Rusty grew up in Colorado, apparently it only took the latter’s name in the credits on “Last Time Around” to forge a familial relationship in some people’s minds. “I’m still kicking around a bunch of different names,” Young says. Readers might not have to look further than the cover for this one. There’s another story that sounds as promising for the still-untitled book. He said to Richie and me, ‘You’re going to have to decide between me and Messina.’ So we said, ‘Gram, Jimmy’s the heart and soul of the band, we can’t let him go.’ ” “At some point, maybe a month of teaching him the songs we were writing and playing, he (decided he) couldn’t get along with Jimmy. “He was a friend of Richie’s from New York. “Gram Parsons auditioned to be in Poco, but he joined the Byrds instead,” Young says, springing a surprise story about the man who was instrumental in the country rock movement with the Byrds’ “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” and then the Flying Burrito Brothers. ![]() Other people also were interested in joining the band. By then, Stephen Stills and Neil Young were on to their next projects, so the hired hand joined Messina, Richie Furay and drummer George Grantham to explore the then unexplored world of country rock. He played pedal steel on the final Buffalo Springfield album, “Last Time Around” in 1968. Young has plenty of tales to tell in the book scheduled to come out next year. I had some new songs and I needed to get this book finished, so I thought what better thing than to have the book and record come out together.” “I have only done Poco records for whatever it is, 48 years. “I was totally flattered that they had so much faith in me. “I met this guy (Kirk Pasich), who has a label called Blue Elan,” says Young, who brings the current edition of Poco to the Sharonville Convention Center Saturday. By the time Young returned home to Missouri, he had agreed to record his first solo record. Young, one of the four founders of Poco in 1968, joined Jim Messina, another of the original members of the country rock pioneers, for three shows in California. As often happens, however, life interfered. ![]() Rusty Young planned to celebrate his 70th birthday this year by retiring after more than 50 years in the music business. And when we did start chatting, he had regained his inherent optimism that has made him one of music’s good guys since he hooked up Buffalo Springfield in 1968, then became an original member of Poco that year. But even for the perpetually upbeat singer/songwriter, the results were so disturbing that we postponed it for a day. 1, the day after the presidential election in 2016. I was originally scheduled to talk to Rusty Young, who plays the Ludlow Garage with Poco Dec.
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