In a new letter posted to his website, Neil Young has debunked a conspiracy theory that Pfizer had ownership over his music publishing. “Pfizer has not invested in Hipgnosis Private Fund,” wrote Young. “But a past Pfizer CEO is a senior adviser for Blackstone.” (As a reminder, Blackstone is an asset manager, and Hipgnosis Song Management currently owns 50% of Young’s song catalog. In October 2021, Blackstone and Hipgnosis launched a partnership to invest in songs, recorded music, music IP and royalties.)

In a letter titled “Folks, clearing up some things,” Young also noted that his initial letter asking Spotify to remove his catalog was prompted by 270 medical professionals, not all of whom were doctors. Young wrote:

The letter that prompted me to act on Spotify was written by 270 hundred medical professionals, not doctors. I erroneously said they were doctors after having read disinformation on the internet. About a third of them were doctors. But many of the rest were nurses and hospital assistants. I respect and honor all those people and the work they continue to do as I write this.

I read their whole letter.

I still support them. My mistake was calling them all doctors. I read and usually believe the Guardian and the Guardian made a rare mistake:

The Guardian: “Menace to public health: 270 doctors criticize Spotify over Joe Rogan’s podcast” and Rolling Stone: “A Menace To Public Health: Doctors Demand Spotify Puts an End to Covid Lies On Joe Rogan Experience”

So I was misinformed too!
Glad it wasn’t a life and death decision for me.

I still stand beside the medical professionals and others who signed that great letter. I stand with them, at their side.

Also fyi-

To clarify more bad misinformation online that is used to make points against me in some of the letters included here:

The publishing share Hipgnosis has in my copyrights is in the Hipgnosis Songs Fund that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange.

The Blackstone investment went into a separate Hipgnosis Private Fund and none of that money was used for the Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Pfizer has not invested in Hipgnosis but a past Pfizer CEO is a senior advisor for Blackstone…

So much for big Pharma!
So much for PHARM aid!
Clever but wrong.
Be well,
Love earth,
NY

Young also shared an August 2020 press release on Blackstone’s website announcing the former Pfizer CEO Jeffrey B. Kindler’s appointment as a Senior Advisor to Blackstone.

This latest development comes just days after Young urged Spotify’s employees to quit their jobs and content creators to remove their work from the streaming platform, writing, “Join me as I move my money away from the damage causers or you will unintentionally be one of them.”