Rock legend Neil Young has opened up about his secret family heartache – after claiming he has been banned from seeing his two young grandchildren.
The singer, who headlined Glastonbury and Hyde Park shows this summer, revealed his anguish in deeply personal lyrics on his new album after the bitter falling out with his daughter Amber Jean.
Now MailOnline can reveal the pair became estranged in the aftermath of the death of Amber’s mother Pegi.
Amber, 41, was left devastated after her mother died from ovarian cancer aged 66 in 2019 – five years after the rocker left her for Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah bringing their 36-year marriage to an end.
It’s thought Young, 79, has not seen Amber or her children – son Ronan, eight, and daughter Allyah, six – for a number of years.
On his newly released album Talkin to the Trees, Young – known for his protest songs and environmental activism – turns his attention to his family rift.
In one song called Family Life – in which he refers to his daughter by name – Young says: ‘Might be one I wrote for my grandchildren who I can’t see, But I’ll sing it from the heart and that’ll be the easy part, Singing for Ronan and Allyah so they know just how I feel.’
In another song called Dark Mirage he says of his daughter: ‘Well, I lost my little girl now, To the darkness inside, Her mama is gone now, And there’s nowhere to hide.’
Rock legend Neil Young (pictured at Montreux Jazz Festival last week) has opened up about his secret family heartache – after claiming he has been banned from seeing his two young grandchildren
The singer, who headlined Glastonbury and Hyde Park shows this summer, revealed his anguish in deeply personal lyrics on his new album after the bitter falling out with his daughter Amber Jean (pictured, with her children)
Now MailOnline can reveal the pair became estranged in the aftermath of the death of Amber’s mother Pegi (pictured)
In the song he tells how his ‘dark daughter’ called him a ‘stealing daddy’ but ‘won’t say what I stole’.
The lyrics continue: ‘I lost my grandchildren, though, In the dark mirage, Now I can’t see them, They’re in the dark mirage.’
Die-hard fans were left shocked by Young’s angry barbs which stand in stark contrast with his gentle hippie-style folk songs about his family in his younger days including one touching song called Amber Jean which he wrote shortly after she was born.
One fan wrote on the Heart of Gold singer’s official archive site: ‘Man, talk to your kids over the phone, not on an album.’
Another asked: ‘What the f*** did Amber do?’
A show business insider who has tracked Young’s career spanning six decades said: ‘It’s unusual for him to talk about his family and to name his grandchildren in a song is a real surprise.
‘There has been talk of him being estranged from his daughter Amber Jean, I wonder what she makes of it?
‘You can understand she may be hurting, her mum died soon after Neil married Daryl Hannah.’
Amber, 41, was left devastated after her mother died from ovarian cancer aged 66 in 2019 – five years after the rocker left her for Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah (pictured with Neil Young) bringing their 36-year marriage to an end
Young – who performed in front of a 65,000-sell-out crowd in Hyde Park on Friday night and headlined at Glastonbury (pictured) last month – married third wife Daryl in August 2018 after they began dating four years earlier
Young – who performed in front of a 65,000-sell-out crowd in Hyde Park on Friday night and headlined at Glastonbury last month – married third wife Daryl in August 2018 after they began dating four years earlier.
At first things remained cordial with Amber, a painter and ceramic artist who lives outside San Francisco in California with her children and husband of 12 years Rajib Chowdhury who works as an investment banker.
In April 2021, Amber posted a photo of her family with Young on Instagram saying: ‘Reunited. This week I saw my dad and Daryl for the first time in well over a year and my heart is full.’
The post is no longer publicly available.
In November that year, a message from the Grammy-award winning singer worth an estimated £150 million was posted on his archive page on his 76th birthday in which he described Amber and her two brothers as ‘the light of my life’.
He added: ‘Amber Jean, you have given me such wonderful grandchildren Ronan and Allyah and I couldn’t be happier for you and Rajib. You are such a beautiful family. I love you all.’
But their relationship seemingly subsequently broke down and there appears to have been little contact since.
The insider added of the musician’s latest heartbreaking songs: ‘It feels like Young is reaching out to his daughter and grandkids. He’s 80 later this year, maybe he wants to reconnect before it’s too late.’
In April 2021, Amber posted a photo (pictured) of her family with Young on Instagram saying: ‘Reunited. This week I saw my dad and Daryl for the first time in well over a year and my heart is full.’
The rift happened around the time Amber held a month-long exhibition at a gallery in Palo Alto, California as a personal tribute to her mother in 2022.
The exhibition, called Pegi’s Garden, featured colourful floral and garden-themed works which Amber said she painted to help process her grief following her mother’s death.
While there is little mention of her father on her social media pages, Amber frequently pays tribute to her mother who she said ‘put her dreams on hold’ to raise her children.
In one message on Instagram, Amber highlighted an artwork she painted shortly after her mother’s death.
She wrote: ‘Grieving, dragging my body through my days. I was lost.’
Amber told how she had changed from working with textiles to painting with bright colours saying: ‘The hope was that it would trick me into a state other than complete despondency.’
Amber has spoken of how her parents encouraged her love for art growing up on the family’s Broken Arrow Ranch which Young had bought around the time he split up with first wife restaurant owner Susan Acevedo in 1970.
Young went on to have a relationship with actress Carrie Snodgrass with whom he had a son Zeke, 52, who suffers from a mild form of cerebral palsy.
The rift happened around the time Amber held a month-long exhibition at a gallery in Palo Alto, California as a personal tribute to her mother (pictured) in 2022
Young met Pegi in 1974 when she was working at a diner near the ranch and living in a teepee with her dog.
They married in August 1978 and had a son Ben, 46, who was also diagnosed with cerebral palsy, before Amber was born six years later.
Young once told how becoming a father to two children with special needs changed his priorities, saying: ‘I became much more involved in family, taking care of the family, making sure the family was secure.’
Pegi went on the road with her husband as a backing singer and they performed together at the 1994 Oscar ceremony.
As well as being musical collaborators, the couple co-founded a school which teaches communication skills to students with severe disabilities.
Ben, who is severely disabled, was a student there and his father also built a special train set for the youngster to help his development and enable them to spend more time together.
Ben also features in Family Life – one of 10 songs on Young’s new record which is his 48th studio album and the first with his new band the Chrome Hearts.
Young says his son ‘always smiles when I sing to him’.
He tells how he ‘loves and adores’ his wife adding in the song: ‘Yeah I’ll sing it from the heart, And that’ll be the easy part, Singing for my best wife ever, The best cook in the world’. Pictured: Daryl Hannah and Neil Young
He describes ‘my man Zeke’ as ‘growing tall and strong and free’ before adding he is ‘Building dreams with his new girl, Living life that’s meant to be’.
And he tells how he ‘loves and adores’ his wife adding in the song: ‘Yeah I’ll sing it from the heart, And that’ll be the easy part, Singing for my best wife ever, The best cook in the world.’
Young, dubbed the Godfather of Grunge, has not performed the song so far on his current European tour, sticking instead to classics like Rockin’ in the Free World and Like a Hurricane.’
Young quit the family ranch when he began dating Kill Bill and Splash star Daryl after they met while working on an environmental documentary for Greenpeace.
The couple left the US to live in Young’s native Canada in a remote cottage close to the town where he grew up.
When their relationship was revealed, shocked friends included the late David Crosby – the star’s former bandmate from the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young supergroup.
He branded Daryl a ‘poisonous predator’ before later apologising for the remark.
Young went on to defend Daryl as ‘a wonderful human being’ adding: ‘When we got together, even some of my good friends were negative about it, and I could never understand it.
Pegi (pictured), who was also a songwriter, released five albums of her own but it was only in 2007 that she recorded her first, aged 55
‘I’m very lucky. We’re very lucky to have found each other. I’m eternally thankful for the opportunity to share my life with her, and she feels the same.’
Pegi, who was also a songwriter, released five albums of her own but it was only in 2007 that she recorded her first, aged 55.
And, like her ex-husband, she chronicled her raw emotions in her final album Raw which was inspired by the heartbreak of her split.
At the time she said of her marriage break up: ‘We were having a rough patch, but I never would’ve thought in a million years we would be getting divorced.’
On the album’s opening track she sings: ‘Why’d you have to ruin my life? Why’d you have to be so mean? Why’d you have to tell me such lies? Why not be straight with me?’
Speaking of the album she said: ‘It told a story. I kind of look at it as a soundtrack to the seven stages of grief.
‘You’ve got anger, then shock and disbelief. As we go through the album, the later songs show my growth and … I can’t say total acceptance, but I think the last song…talks about forgiveness. That’s really where it’s at, you know?
‘Making the record was very cathartic for me. I’m certainly not the only one to go through a late-in-life divorce, and I’m not going to be the last. But in my case it was so painful because we’d been together for so long.’
Amber Jean has been contacted for comment.
