Neil Young Previews Cheeky 'Rock Starbucks' Video

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Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

by Daniel Kreps

Neil Young and Promise of the Real, a band featuring Willie Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah, will release their protest LP The Monsanto Years on June 16th, and today Young premiered a first look and listen for the album’s “Rock Starbucks” music video at Democracy Now. Young, once a frequent Starbucks customer, boycotted the coffee company after they aligned with the GMO giant Monsanto in a lawsuit against Vermont.

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“I want a cup of coffee, but I don’t want a GMO/I love to start my day off without helping Monsanto,” Young sings on the rollicking track, with the rocker and Promise of the Real hurling empty coffee cups at the camera. “Monsanto, let our farmers grow what they want to grow.” Young first debuted “Rock Starbucks,” along with 10 other tracks likely bound for The Monsanto Years, at a secret show at San Luis Obispo, California’s SLO Brewing Co. on April 16th.

Earlier this month, Young stood by his boycott even following reports that Starbucks was not involved in the Monsanto lawsuit against Vermont. “Still no lattes for me folks. I am not going to support a company that actively tries to defeat the will of the people by fighting their right to know what is in the food they eat,” Young wrote on his official site. “In communications with Starbucks the company was unresponsive to the direct question on whether Starbuck’s coffee product contained GMOs.”

“I don’t really have anything against the human beings working at Monsanto,” Young said during a recent appearance at the IFC Center in New York. “But Monsanto is the poster child for the problems we’re having with the corporate government.”

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“Nobody likes Monsanto,” Lukas Nelson told Rolling Stone. “Nobody wants GMOs in their food, or at least they want to know if they’re in there so they can say, ‘No’ if they want. I’m really proud to be on this side of history with Neil.”

This summer, Young and Promise of the Real will embark on their Rebel Content summer trek, where the rocker will visit Vermont, a state he’s never played before. The Burlington Free Press speculates that Young’s concert is a reward for standing up to Monsanto with their laws demanding accurate food labeling.

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