Neil Young, Dave Matthews and a Boat Repo

“Neil said, ‘I’m coming up there.’ He’s going to come… They’re like, ‘No, we don’t need you.’ ‘No, I’m coming up there. I’m going to help you guys.”

Anyone who’s been in the repossession business long enough has heard plenty of people brag that they’d done repo’s in the past. But you won’t find many involving Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and a platinum record selling artist. After reading Dave Matthews, of the Dave Matthews Band’s account of his one boat repo, you’ll probably never look at Neil Young the same way.

Dave Matthews recently appeared in a podcast interview by Ezra Koenig on Apple Music 1 where he shared a story from his early days before making it big.

“A buddy of mine was repossessing a boat of Neil’s that some guy had. My buddy builds boats. And a buddy of his called him and said, ‘Look, we got to repossess this boat.”

“This guy bought this boat from Neil Young, down in the Bay Area. He hasn’t paid for it.’ But I guess maritime law says if someone’s on a boat you can’t take the boat. You got to wait till they get off the boat and then you can take the boat. But if they’re on the boat, it’s like some kind of maritime squatter’s rights.“

“So he called my buddy. So they figured out the guy who was on the boat had a dog, and he was parked in Seattle somewhere, docked or whatever you call it. And the guy had called my friend and said, ‘Okay, I know when he leaves the…’ They’d been staking him out. This is so cool. The guy was going to repossess the boat.”

“So he’s been watching the dude and the dude every morning would have to take his dog… But the dude knew that someone was coming to get the boat. So the guy had his suspicions. So they had to figure out a consistent time that the guy wasn’t on the boat.”

“So they’d call my friend and say, ‘Come down. When he walks his dog we’re going to take this boat.’ And so my buddy can drive any boat. So the guy gets out, takes his dog and he’s walking down there. In my mind, I maybe I’m making it up, the guy’s paranoid. He’s looking around like someone’s trying to get him.“

“And then he gets far enough away from the dock. So then these guys go, they’re trying to look casual, walking down the dock and then they hop on the boat at which time the guy notices them. But then they got to figure out how to start the boat.”

“They got to get the (beep) out of there. And then they start going, the guy’s running down the pier with his dog and he’s trying to get back on the boat and they’re shoving him. He’s trying to grab and they’re shoving him off and everything.”

“But the funny part of the story is when they told Neil they’re going to get the boat, it was that morning. Sorry, I kind of jumped over it ’cause I got excited.”

“Neil said, ‘I’m coming up there.’ He’s going to come… They’re like, ‘No, we don’t need you.’ ‘No, I’m coming up there. I’m going to help you guys.’ And he’s like, ‘We don’t need you, Neil. You just stay at the ranch and we’ll bring your boat back.”

“But I just love the idea that Neil’s like, ‘Yeah, I want to get a couple blows in on that guy.’ He’s an angry hockey-playing Canadian that sings pretty songs.”

“But I guess cooler heads prevailed and Neil stayed down at the ranch and those guys got his boat back.”

While most agency owners refuse to do private party repossession, who wouldn’t have wanted to do one for Neil Young? On a scale of one to ten on the repo-tale-meter, I’d give this story a six. Had Neil Young actually flown up to Seattle and gotten involved, it would have climbed to at least an eight. – Kevin

Source: Goldmine.com