NK: It's become something of a cliche to say that Rust Never Sleeps, the raucous follow-up to Comes A Time, was very influenced by the UK punk-rock scene at the time... NY: No, I wasn't really influenced by that scene. Most of the songs on that album had been written well before the Sex Pistols were ever heard of. The Thrasher was pretty much me writing about me experiences with Crosby, Stills & Nash in the mid-'70s. Do you know Lynyrd Skynyrd almost ended up recording Powderfinger before my version came out? We sent them an early demo of it because they wanted to do one of my songs. Neil Young Mojo/Nick Kent December 1995

I wrote ‘Thrasher’ in a car on my way to Albuquerque from Taos New Mexico. I was being driven by Carpio, a native American who I was introduced to by Dennis Hopper filming Human Highway Neil Young NYA - Letters To The Editor May 20, 2019

BF: "Thrasher" described the point where old friends become dead weight and have to be left behind. I figured it was about Crosby, Stills and Nash. NY: Yeah. Parts of it were. Just dead weight. Well, at that point I felt like it was kind of dead weight for me. Not for them. For me. I could go somewhere and they couldn't go there. I wasn't going to pull them along, they were doing fine without me. It might have come off a little more harsh than I meant it, but once I write I can't say, "Oh, I'm going to hurt someone's feelings." Poetically and on feeling it made good sense to me and it came right out. I think I'd be doing a disservice to change it based on what I think a reaction would be. I try not to do that. Neil Young Interview with Bill Flanagan 1985

This song, you know, I did it, I haven't done it that much in my life because at a very vulnerable moment I read something about it. Just like the worst fucking review I've ever read. So for all your reviewers, if you feel like your words don't mean anything, you're probably right, but in that case, in that case they were damaging. So, anyway, we.. I think I got this, I think this it’s the one here. I hope so. Neil Young Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, California, USA April 1, 2014

Thrasher is one of my favorite songs. When I first put it out, a reviewer really trashed it and it got to me. I didn't sing it for a long time. But I got over it. Neil Young NYA - Now Showing in the Hearse Theater November 23, 2020

After leaving Taos with Carpio, a Native American friend I had met during the filming of Human Highway, sitting in the front seat of his car, I wrote this song, Thrasher. Driving through the magnificent beauty of New Mexico, the words just kept coming to me. I saw the eagles circling, the deep canyons, the road ahead, reflecting on my journey through recent years, and thankful to be where I was. Neil Young NYA - Hearse Daily March 7, 2022