Since I left Canada about five years ago or so and moved down south I found out a lot of things that I didn't know when I left. Some of them are good and some of them are bad you know. I got to see to see a lot of great musicians before they happened. Before they became famous. When they were just gigging. Five and six sets a night. Things like that. I got to see a lot of great musicians who nobody got to see for one reason or another. But strangely enough the real good ones that you never got to see was because of heroin. And that started happening over and over. And then it happened to some that everybody knew about. So I just wrote a little song. Neil Young Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 19, 1971, Early Show

I'd like to sing a song now about something that I think is really important that everybody knows about - about heroin and what can happen to people who use heroin. But most people don't think about it much because they just don't want to think about it - and I can dig that. But most people walk around thinking, well, I just don't anybody who knows anything about that. But I knew some people who knew something about it - some really good artists. The ones that I know aren't dead yet, but the music they would've made for you people is definitely is not there. So I just got affected when Hendrix and Joplin - and all of that happened - and some other people I knew. So I wrote this. Neil Young Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Connecticut, USA January 22, 1971

I am not a preacher but drugs killed a lot of great men. Neil Young Decade liner notes 1977

JH: “The Needle and the Damage Done,” from Harvest, was one of the first anti-drug songs. NY: I wrote that about Danny Whitten. He’d gotten so wasted, so strung out, that he OD’d and almost died. JH: He finally did OD and die shortly after Harvest was released. Had he known the song was about him? NY: He must have. I never sat down with him and said, “Danny, listen to this.” I don’t believe that a song should be for one person. I just tried to make something that everyone could relate to. Neil Young Rolling Stone Interview with James Henke June 12, 1988