Pegi Young Opens Up About Neil Young Divorce on 'Raw' Album

BY Josiah HughesPublished Nov 17, 2016

In 2014, after 36 years of marriage, Neil Young filed for divorce from his wife Pegi Young. While Neil has been actively releasing music as usual, Pegi will finally address the split on an album of her own. 

The release is called Raw and marks the fourth LP from Pegi Young. The album is a mix of covers and original songs that were co-written by Young and her bandmate Spooner Oldham.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Pegi explained that her breakup with Neil took her by surprise. "We were having a rough patch," she said. "But I never would've thought in a million years we would be getting divorced. So, yeah, there was a bit of a shock value there."

Pegi used that shock to write the songs on Raw. As she explains in a press release, however, she hopes its themes are more universal. "Writing [Raw] was very cathartic for me," she said. "What happened was real, but I also look at this record as having a universal quality to it. I'm certainly not the only one to go through a late-in-life divorce, and I'm not going to be the last.

"I've begun to look at this record as a soundtrack to the seven stages of grief. We all have our inside voice and our outside voice and I chose to let more of my inside voice out on this record. And each song could be sung by either party."

You can hear Raw's lead single "Too Little, Too Late" below. In addition to original compositions, Raw features covers of Dolly Parton, Otis Clay, Randy VanWarmer and others.

Raw will arrive on February 17 via Baltimore Thrush Records. Pegi Young & the Survivors will also embark on a tour in 2017, the dates of which are yet to be revealed.

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