Jimmy McDonough

Neil Young Biographer

Author of "Shakey"

Neil Young News

Jimmy McDonough is the author of the acclaimed book "Shakey: A Neil Young Biography". The chronicle of writing "Shakey" turned out to be nearly as fascinating as the subject itself. Weighing in at over 700 pages, the biography -- while flawed -- is considered to be one of the most definitive rock and roll biographies ever written. McDonough spent eight years writing the book and interviewed more than 300 of Neil's associates.

In an interview on National Public Radio, Jimmy McDonough commented on the nickname "Shakey" as the title of his biography on the rock and roll icon Neil Young:

"'Shakey' was a nickname Neil Young's pals gave him after they watched some home movies he had made. His camera was none too steady. If you know the cat, the nickname fits. Nothing is too solid about the guy. Whatever happens around the guy, you can't count on it continuing."

Jimmy McDonough's credentials to profile Young are unarguably impressive. In a L.A. Weekly article by Jonny Whiteside, McDonough's music writing career is put into perspective:

"McDonough is one of the best music writers in the nation. Almost single-handedly responsible for re-introducing the public to presumed-dead R&B-jazz balladeer Jimmy Scott via his groundbreaking Village Voice cover story, McDonough characteristically used the money from the story to pay for a Scott demo session; not long after, the singer had a Warner Bros. contract and a chart-topping album.

McDonough’s writing is tough, probing, full of street-hustler style, yet hits with a cerebral impact. He was ready for a challenge, and Young magnanimously offered him a free hand, typical of the singer’s renowned image as an unfettered, purely creative force: He consented to sit for five consecutive days of interviews and would have no approval over McDonough’s work, save for passages dealing with specific members of his immediate family. With this assurance, McDonough committed himself to “devote his exclusive services and full time” to the book, and a lucrative deal was struck with Random House in August 1991; the contract was a $350,000 deal; the initial advance topped $100,000, with $85,000 going to McDonough and $20,000 to Young. McDonough relocated to the West Coast in 1991 to begin research."

While the project ended in a $1.8-million lawsuit for fraud, the book was eventually published. In the lawsuit McDonough v. Young (BC 229130) filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in May 2000, it stated:

"Over a period of eight years (1991-98) McDonough devoted himself to writing the biography. While doing so, he was repeatedly assured by Young that Young would abide by his agreements with McDonough, and that McDonough should trust that Young would allow the biography to be published. Young repeated these assurances to McDonough, even after the initial time period for delivery of the manuscript under the contract with Random House, Inc., had passed, and even on the day McDonough delivered the manuscript to Young.

"In December 1998, however, Young revealed himself to be a contradiction in terms, using the wealth and power he had accumulated from his musical and business success to squelch publication of the biography. Unilaterally and without contacting McDonough, Young, through his handlers, repudiated his agreements with McDonough and with Random House, Inc. Young did so without ever stating a single specific objection to any material in the biography. But for Young's actions, Random House, Inc., would have published the biography."

"The loss of almost a decade of Jimmy McDonough's creative life has been devastating to him. The lawsuit alleges that it is the final result of Young's actions."

In an article on Slate, Marc Weingarten writes on the "Shakey" lawsuit:

"Is this a book worth suing over? Not exactly. McDonough never suggests any serious criminal malfeasance. Young did have a tequila problem in the mid-'70s, smoked and snorted like everyone else, endured some nasty breakups, and laid some bad emotional trips on those closest to him. But it's banal rock-star stuff, certainly nothing his fans don't know.

Yet, as McDonough enumerates in painstaking detail, Young the rock star wields control obsessively, and that, more than anything else, may explain why he tried to spike the book. This is a man who will ruthlessly punish those who don't bend to his will. Drummer Kenny Buttrey tells McDonough that, during one tour in the early '70s, Young made him play so hard, with oversized sticks — vengeance, apparently, for an exorbitant salary request — that a pool of blood began to amass on his snare. Young fired him shortly thereafter. There are lots of anecdotes like that in Shakey, and despite Young's well-known rep for heartlessness, they're chilling to read."

McDonough seems to have finally moved on from what became the most challenging writing assignment of his career and commented on the challenges of interviewing Neil and the publishing lawsuit ordeal:

"You should wear garlic around your neck and carry a cross when you meet these guys," McDonough says. He describes the process of winning litigation and publishing the book as something like "having your gall bladder and appendix out simultaneously on a remote farm in Iowa where there isn't a doctor present but maybe a shaman who is blind in one eye . . . I've almost died nine times. Put 'em all together and I'd rather face that than Neil's lawyer."

(More of Denver Gazette (July 2003) interview on Bad News Beat.)

From Guardian Unlimited article by Adam Sweeting with Young commenting on the Shakey biography:

Young:"I think Jimmy McDonough is a great writer and that's why I asked him to do it. I didn't want some watered-down flowery version of who I am - that's nothing but a self-serving piece of shit. But rather than let anything happen officially, I should have just let people do whatever they wanted to do. That was a mistake, but I'll live with it. I fought it coming out because I wanted it delayed until after my daughter turned 18, and I managed to delay it for a couple of years, so I did OK.' "

From McDonough's interview with Neil in the Village Voice (Winter 1989) which is where Jimmy and Neil first meet to discuss writing the liner notes for the infamous, and still unreleased, Archives Box Set:

""So I'm sitting in a dark blue limo, surrounded by huge redwoods and thick fog, somewhere near Santa Cruz, California, waiting for Neil Young. The limo driver, a clean-cut kid, scurries across the empty two-lane highway, and he hops in the car, obviously relieved Young didn't drive up as he was taking a piss. It's four o'clock, already starting to get dark. Young is nowhere in sight. By now I was used to waiting. At half past nine Warner Brothers had called my San Francisco hotel room, assuring me Young would be calling. Ten o'clock came. Then 11, 12, and one. At two his management called, saying a limo would take me to a rendezvous not far from Young's home in San Mateo County.

I had plenty to think about in the limo. To me, Neil Young is just Jerry Lee Lewis with longer hair. Fuck 'Sugar Mountain' - Young's music is only good when he's crazy. His best records are his most obsessed - Tonight's The Night, Zuma, or On The Beach. While Young still seems crazy in the '80s, the records he made were straitjacketed by Young's insistence on playing characters: first he was a techno-rocker, then a rockabilly hipster, then a country conservative. He did everything but make music about Neil Young. And all the great material that he was playing live never made it to vinyl. "

Jimmy McDonough comments on the Greendale tour in the Denver Gazette (July 2003):

"I don't know what to say about it," says McDonough after he caught the tour on the West Coast. "Any self-respecting Neil Young fan should definitely see this one, because never has his chaotic, unique psyche been laid out in such utterly jaw-dropping detail.

"He's touring with, like, 50 people - dancers, family members - and they act out the songs behind Crazy Horse, playing them, and mime the words in a style you haven't seen since the silent era. I gotta tell you man . . . wow. He's definitely done something original again.

"You gotta admire the cojones on the guy. He goes out in front of a huge audience and plays 'em an entire album they ain't heard, with a bunch of non-actors emoting it out, and cardboard sets. It's just really Neil, for better or for worse.

"He's definitely following his muse . . . right off a cliff. It just blew the back of my head off. I don't know where he goes from here."

Also, for more on Jimmy McDonough, see the biography book "Shakey" page.

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