Neil Young has not performed live since the pre-pandemic days of 2019, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be returning to the stage any time soon. In a recently posted response to a fan letter on his official website’s publication The NYA Times Contrarian, Young clarified that he will not appear at Farm Aid later this year. “I will not be at Farmaid this year. I am not ready for that yet,” he wrote. “I don’t think it is very safe in the pandemic. I miss it very much.”

Farm Aid — which Young helps organize alongside Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, and Margo Price — posted a save-the-date for the 2022 edition of the festival last month. The event is set to take place on September 24, and Young’s name was included in the list of performers. That was also the case with last year’s Farm Aid, which Young dropped out of a month after the lineup was announced, also citing COVID safety concerns.