In an appearance last night (June 7th) in New York City, Neil Young revealed that contrary to rock legend, there was no ill will between him and the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Ever since Young was called out by Skynyrd in the lyrics of "Sweet Home Alabama" because of Young's song "Southern Man," there's been an assumption that the two musical camps were bitter rivals -- but Young made some enlightening comments to the contrary.

Young was appearing along with director Jonathan Demme to promote his latest album with Crazy Horse, Americana, and for Journeys -- a new concert documentary starring Young and created by Demme that was filmed in Ontario. The interview, conducted by public radio's Leonard Lopate, got around to the subject of the Skynyrd-Young war of the words, with Young wryly commenting, "They weren't criticizing (me) . . . they noticed me. It was nice to be noticed. . . nice to know that I had an affect."