PROJECT BACK STORY

by Ross Hogarth

In the Spring of 2023, I was approached by my close friend Niko Bolas, who has been Neil Young’s longtime producer/engineer. He and his partner, Dave Resnik, were making a charity record to bring awareness and money back to Neil Young's Bridge School for autistic kids. Neil had approved the use of his songs for this purpose. Niko and Dave invited me to be a part of it. They asked me to come up with a vision for any song and find an artist worthy of that vision. I was totally into doing anything for charity for the Bridge School since it makes a huge difference in the lives of autistic kids. Stephen had recently put out a record called “Old Soul,” with the title song being autobiographical. I was inspired by his song and envisioned him singing Neil’s classic “Old Man” and the meaning of the lyric “Old Man, take a look at my life, I’m a lot like you were” took on a whole new meaning with Stephen Marley, the son of Bob Marley, singing that lyric to a reggae groove. In bringing it to Stephen, he immediately got the vision and was inspired to cover this song in a new and different way. Stephen and the team are also very committed to making a difference in the world and were totally on board with the Bridge School charity being the purpose. We arranged it to start with his acoustic feel with his djembe and a simple groove, drop into the deep one drop reggae groove, and morph at the end into a dub styling. I brought back the pedal steel as an homage to Neil’s original, played by my pal John McFee of the Doobie Brothers. I also brought in my pal Tim Pierce to play some Curtis Mayfield-style soul rhythm guitar and wah wah. We felt this hybrid of musical colors represented the diversity we wanted to portray. The basic track and vocals were recorded in Stephen’s Lion’s Den studio in Miami, and overdubs here my studio in LA, with the mix done back and forth between Miami and LA. 

I am extremely proud of this track on quite a few levels. I feel that the speakers never lie when it comes to music. We close our eyes, and if it makes us feel something, we have won at the game of getting emotion out of a pair of speakers. I feel this version of “Old Man” operates on some deeper level, and for that, I am grateful to have helped Stephen realize a vision in this new version of an old, tried and true classic.