07.08.2004:Neil Young tour is powered by vegetable oil

FROM REUTEURS: -- Neil Young wants to talk about vegetable oil.

It would be reasonable to expect that the rock 'n' roll veteran has more pressing matters on his mind; he's just launched a month-long concert tour to complement the theatrical release of Greendale, his first film in 22 years.

But for anyone familiar with the project's storyline, which tackles such weighty subjects as religious warfare, corporate duplicity, the erosion of privacy, and the destruction of natural resources, it will come as no surprise that its creator is eager to discuss not merely the tour itself but the tour's means of transportation.

"I have 17 diesel vehicles, and they're all running on vegetable oil farmed by American farmers," said Young, one of the founders of the annual Farm Aid charity concerts.

Traveling cross-country in that biodiesel caravan with Young are his longtime backing band Crazy Horse and a troupe of friends and family, most of whom are reprising roles they created in the film. In Young's visionary slant on contemporary Americana, they play the residents of an invented California town.