Neil Young has paid tribute to his former wife Pegi, who died on New Year’s Day after a year-long battle with cancer. She was 66 years old.
Young, 73, spoke directly to his late ex-wife and the mother of his two children in a touching post on his official website Neil Young Archives.
‘Thanks Pegi, for being such a wonderful mother to our children,’ he wrote on Saturday. ‘You live inside of them and the many you have touched.’
Young also shared lyrics to his tune Such a Woman, one of the many songs that were inspired by Pegi during their 36 years of marriage, from his 1992 album Harvest Moon.
Neil Young has paid tribute to his former wife Pegi (pictured here together in 2014), who died on New Year’s Day after a year-long battle with cancer. She was 66 years old
Young also shared lyrics to his tune Such a Woman, one of the many songs that was inspired by Pegi during their 36 years of marriage, on his official website (pictured)
‘You are such a woman to me / and I love you / Our love will live / Until the end of time,’ read one verse that Young shared.
‘No one else can kill me like you do / No one else can fill me like you do / And no, no one else can feel our pain / Love is a healer / and I love you.’
Young and Pegi first met while she was working as a waitress near his Northern California ranch in 1974.
The story of how they first met later appeared in the song Unknown Legend, which also appeared on Harvest Moon.
‘She used to work in a diner / Never saw a woman look finer / I used to order just to watch her float across the floor,’ the first verse reads.
‘She was an unknown legend in her time / Now she’s dressing two kids / Looking for a magic kiss / She gets the faraway look in her eyes.’
Pegi passed away on New Year’s Day surrounded by friends and family in her native California
The Youngs, who shared children Ben and Amber together, had been one of rock’s most enduring couples. They are pictured here in 2011
Young’s 1992 country-rock ballad Harvest Moon is also a tribute to Pegi.
‘Because I’m still in love with you / I want to see you dance again / Because I’m still in love with you/ On this harvest moon,’ the chorus reads.
The Youngs, who shared children Ben and Amber together, had been one of rock’s most enduring couples.
But they divorced in 2014, a break-up that Pegi candidly addressed in her 2016 album Raw.
Their split also led to a rift between Young and his former bandmate David Crosby.
After Young began dating actress Daryl Hannah, Crosby called her a ‘purely poisonous predator’.
Young and Pegi (pictured here in 1983) first met while she was working as a waitress near his Northern California ranch in 1974
Crosby later apologized but Young, who married the Kill Bill star last year, was enraged and has not played with Crosby since.
Pegi made a number of solo albums, including Bracing for Impact and Foul Deeds.
On her self-titled debut, which came out in 2007, Young played guitar, harmonica and sitar.
‘Neil was always encouraging me to do it,’ she told The Associated Press in 2007. ‘But I didn’t want to lean on him and he didn’t want me to have to lean on him.’
Pegi also helped found the Bridge School, an educational program for children with severe speech and physical impairments.
But the Youngs divorced in 2014. Young began dating actress Daryl Hannah (pictured together) who he tied the knot with in 2018
Pegi first conceived of the California-based school in 1986 while she and Young struggled to educate their son Ben, who was born with cerebral palsy.
Over the next three decades, Pegi and Young helped stage all-star concert benefits, with guest performers including Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, and Tom Petty, to help fund the school.
The Bridge School Benefit Concert ran annually from 1986 until 2016.
‘I look at it with a great deal of satisfaction,’ Pegi told speakersincode.com in 2016.
‘It’s kind of amazing that the school has not only sustained itself for all these years by way of the concert, of course, but how it’s grown and evolved.’
‘We started with the four parent-placed kids, very humbled beginnings, and it has just grown to have a global impact.’