Today SiriusXM announced a Team Coco Radio original special featuring Conan O’Brien in an hour-long conversation with Neil Young.
Premiering this morning at 8:00am ET exclusively on SiriusXM channel 106, with replays throughout the week, Conan talks with the music icon about his legendary career, his musical influences, and some of his most famous performances.
Throughout the special, Conan and Young discuss the songs that have inspired him the most, as the musician reflects on how each one helped shape his career and define his style. The hour gives listeners a unique look inside the mind of a truly legendary artist, hosted by one of his biggest admirers. This is the first original special to air on Team Coco Radio, a 24/7 SiriusXM channel executive produced by Conan, which launched in November.
During one part of the program, Conan and Young revisit a favorite song of Young’s, Johnny Cash’s “Ballad of a Teenage Queen,” leading to an in-depth conversation about what Young is looking for in a song and why he appreciates original recordings.
“I feel like it would be a blessing and a curse to have your ear, because I don’t pick that stuff apart, necessarily, but you hear it and if it’s in stereo or it’s been remixed, you’re like, ‘I’m out,’” Conan said.
“Well, I’m different. I’m going, when they did that, what else did they do? Things are different. They made more room for the bass, more room to spread things around,” Young responded. “For me, it’s the feeling of the mix. The feeling of the song…. And then as things get modified and changed, you get farther away from that. So that’s all I’m missing. It’s not so much the mix or one thing or the other, it’s the essence of the song that comes from the original.”
In another part of their conversation, Conan recalled watching Young “melt” Studio 8H with his infamous, intense performance of “Rockin’ in the Free World” on a 1989 episode of Saturday Night Live, calling it a “transcendent” moment that “punched through the television.”
“You can’t tell when that’s going to happen, but it was very focused. The band was very good,” Young responded. “And everyone was establishing themselves and a relationship with each other. It was four guys who’d never played together.”
Conan also remembered what a “big deal” it was for Young to be a guest on the early days of his NBC talk show, describing how much it meant to him, and the two laughed about another early TV appearance Buffalo Springfield made on an episode of the ‘60s TV show, Mannix.
In addition to its debut this morning, Conan’s Neil Young special will replay tonight at 9pm ET, as well as multiple replays throughout the week. Fans can also find the program on the SXM App.
Team Coco Radio (channel 106) is available to subscribers nationwide in their car and on the SXM App. The SXM App is available to subscribers on mobile devices and a wide variety of connected platforms in the home including smart speakers, smart TVs and streaming media players. Streaming access is included with all of SiriusXM’s audio trials and most popular plans.
