I filmen Heart of Gold, introducerar han låten så här: ”About that time when I wrote Heart of Gold, and I was touring, I had also — just, you know, being a rich hippie for the first time — I had purchased a ranch, and I still live there today. And there was a couple living on it that were the caretakers, an old gentleman named Louis Avila and his wife Clara. And there was this old blue Jeep there, and Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep. He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there’s this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, ”Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?” And I said, ”Well, just lucky, Louis, just real lucky.” And he said, ”Well, that’s the darnedest thing I ever heard.” And I wrote this song for him.

Idag är Neil Young själv en ”Old Man”. Under en konsert i Chicago 2018 sa han: ”It’s hard to do ’Old Man’ now. It’s like, ’Old man take a look at my life, I’m a lot like I am.”

Nu tar vi helg, tänder ljus, dricker rödvin, lyssnar på gamle Neil och saknar våra pappor.

”Look at how the time goes past.

But I’m all alone at last.

Rolling home to you.”