In the wee hours of the morning at Different Fur, Young and Devo collaborated musically for the only time on an ultra-twisted version of a new song called “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black).” “The first guy we ever jammed with was Neil Young,” said Mothersbaugh, a fact that is instantly apparent on listening to the cacophonous hash this bunch created—leading Briggs to dub the ensemble “Neil Young and his All-Insect Orchestra.” Sitting in a hijacked baby crib (“We had to get a crib from the woman next door,” said Johnson, “she took the baby out”) and dashing off lyrics in a shrill, tuneless yap, Booji Boy is the star of the performance. After abusing the song for over twelve very punishing minutes, Booji Boy sticks a knife into a toaster and Young gets squashed under the crib, still bashing away on guitar. “I didn’t want to sing about Johnny Rotten,” said Booji Boy’s alter ego, Mothersbaugh. “So I changed it to Johnny Spud. And I inserted a line—‘Rust never sleeps.’” The slogan—which adorned Booji Boy’s diaper that night—dated back to Devo’s graphic-arts days, when they were promoting an automobile-rust-proofing outfit. “We saw ‘Rust never sleeps’ as referring to corruption of innocence, de-evolution of the planet,” said Mothersbaugh. Neil Young would nick Booji Boy’s impromptu mumbling both to rework the new song and for the title of his next album. Young would interpret the line in his own way. “It caught my ear,” Young told Mary Turner in 1979. “I thought, ‘Wow, right off they wrote better lyrics than I did.’ I can relate to ‘Rust never sleeps.’ It relates to my career. The longer I keep going, the longer I have to fight this corrosion.” Young didn’t give rust a chance. Shortly after the Different Fur session, Joel Bernstein visited Young in his studio, where he played his guest the All-Insect Orchestra version of “Hey Hey, My My.” “It was hugely loud. Neil said, ‘I’m gonna play this for Crazy Horse, and they’re gonna learn this.’ That’s where the whole Rust trip came from.” Young disputed this memory, but Poncho agreed. “We went to play ‘Hey, Hey,’ and we weren’t hittin’ it that good. Neil showed us the film of him playin’ it with Devo. I didn’t think we could ever play it that good, but that inspired us to play harder. From then on, we played the shit outta that song.” Neil Young/Jimmy McDonough "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

I wrote “Hey Hey, My My” in my house. Cowrote it with Jeff Blackburn—the line “It’s better to burn out than it is to rust”—Blackburn had that line in a song, and I said, “What did you say?” I called him up after I’d written the song and said, “Hey, I used one of the lines from your song. Want credit? Neil Young "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough 2002

When we put that out, we put it out as a single. The radio stations called back saying there was something wrong with it. They said it's distorted. We have to have another - give us another one. We really like the song, but it's so distorted. We just told them, "That's it. That what it is. It's distorted. The message is distorted." Neil Young Don't Be Denied documentary, BBC October, 2008

Interviewer: You have been misunderstood on this - "better to burn out than to rust". And that people think it means burnout, like, party 'til you drop kind of burnout. NY: Well, maybe that's what ... that's not what I mean. I see the image of a shooting star - a falling star - it's going so fast. But it's the one in the sky you're watching, because it's the only one that's moving. Some of the other ones are twinkling and they're nice, but the one that going like that [moving across the sky], that's the one you're going to go for. And it may not burn out - or it may - it depends on how long of a trip it's on. Neil Young Neil Young: The Raw & Uncut Interview 1988

Yeah, they [Devo] were working on that [the Rust-Oleum ad campaign]. I think Mark [Mothersbaugh] had the idea in the first place. We were doing this version of "Out Of The Blue" together and were in the studio playing and Booji Boy was there and he was singing "Hey Hey, My My". He just had a lyric sheet and it said "It's better to burn out than rust." And he just said "Well, it's better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps'", and I thought, "Well alright, that makes a lotta sense to me." Neil Young Rockline Radio Interview November 23, 1981

Some friends of mine from Akron, Ohio used to be in an advertising company and they had a client that was a rust inhibitor. They came up with the slogan 'rust never sleeps'. I was talking to them and we were playing, they're musicians, and we were playing and we had this song and I sang Rust Never Sleeps or Hey Hey My My or Out Of The Blue or whatever you want to call it. We sang that and I said not to worry about the lyrics. If you can't remember the lyrics I wrote just make up your own lyrics. So the first thing he said was instead of 'it's is better to burn out than it is to rust' he said 'it's better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps'. And it caught my ear and I thought 'wow'. Right off they wrote better lyrics than I did. It makes more sense to me, I can relate to Rust Never Sleeps. It relates to my career. The longer I keep on going the longer I have to fight this corrosion. Now that's gotten to be the World Series for me or something. The competition is there. Whether I corrode and eventually not be able to move anymore and just repeat myself until further notice or whether I'll be able to expand and keep the corrosion down. So that's it. Another lyric that changed was... there's a lyric 'the king is gone but he's not forgotten. This is the story of Johnny Rotten'. And then they changed it to 'the king is gone but he's not a dud. This is story of Johnny Spud'. That's Devo. Neil Young "Los Angeles" interview, transcribed by Tom Therme Broken Arrow #58 1979

Uncut: You [Crazy Horse] were together a lot from 1975-1982. You survived glam, prog, disco..."Rust Never Sleeps" showed you had the power to learn from and withstand punk. NY: They were real songs on that album. Real songs about real things that I was feeling, not really responding to anything, any new wave or punk: it's just real songs, which just happened to be part of what was going on. Then playing "Out of the Blue" with Devo was...pretty educating there: this shock from this other place was so cool. It was just fun, and I took some of that back to Crazy Horse. Neil Young Uncut Magazine article May 2019

Spin: Is it better to burn out or rust? NY: Rust implies you’re not using anything, that you’re sitting there and letting the elements eat you. Burning up means you’re cruising through the elements so fucking fast that you’re actually burning, and your circuits, instead of corroding, are fucking disintegrating. You’re going so fast you’re actually fucking the elements, becoming one with the elements, turning to gas. That’s why it’s better to burn out. Neil Young Spin Magazine June 1988

I wrote that song right after the death of Elvis Presley, one of my childhood heroes, and sang it first for Bruce “BJ” (Baby John) Hines, part of the original Crazy Horse family. He was visiting the ranch for some reason, and I had just finished the song. It was written as an acoustic song. Rather reflective. During the filming of Human Highway when I played it with Devo, Booji Boy sang it in his crib, pounding on a synthesizer. I played it on Old Black. I remember seeing the video of that, and the peace signs and doves on Old Black’s strap played against the visual of Booji Boy, and the image created a feeling I can’t describe. It was the feeling of the hippie generation and the new punk generation juxtaposed. Devo’s influence and where they came from is something that I have never seen adequately described. They were true originals. It was just one of those moments. That was the defining original rock version. Booji Boy added some new lyrics and sang, “It’s better to burn out, ’cause rust never sleeps” or “than it is to rust.” I’m not sure which. One of the Devo members later told me that there was a sign on a shop in Akron, Ohio, where Devo originated, that read RUST NEVER SLEEPS. It was a maintenance and rust-prevention service. As is the case with many of my songs, some of it came from real-life things other people said or did. Neil Young Waging Heavy Peace Sept 2012

Devo was a great band. It was Mark Mothersbaugh, (Boogie Boy) who first sang “rust never sleeps”. He just threw it in during this performance. Where Devo was from in Akron, Ohio, there was a rust remover place and the sign outside said: ‘RUST NEVER SLEEPS’ That’s the way it was. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater January 22, 2021

The rock 'n' roll spirit is not survival. Of course the people who play rock 'n' roll should survive. But the essence of the rock 'n' roll spirit, to me, is that it's better to burn out really bright than it is to sort of decay off into infinity. Even though if you look at it in a mature way, you think, well yes...you should decay off into infinity, and keep going along. Rock 'n' roll doesn't look that far ahead. Rock 'n' roll is right now. What's happening right this second. Is it bright? Or is it dim because it's waiting for tomorrow – that's what people want to know. That's why I say that. Neil Young Musician interview with Cameron Crowe November 1982

JO: Have any of your acoustic compositions transformed into heavy rock songs? NY: “Out Of The Blue” was written on acoustic in my living room. JO: What inspired it? NY: I don't remember. Elvis died, and I was thinking about that, but it was almost a year later. That was one of the things, plus Johnny Rotten. Neil Young March 1992 Guitar Player/Jas Obrecht