Frank Sampedro

Frank "Poncho" Sampedro (born February 25, 1949) is an American guitarist and member of the rock band Crazy Horse, known mainly for his longtime collaboration with singer-songwriter Neil Young. Sampedro has also played and recorded with Young in many other configurations aside from Crazy Horse, and has co-writing credit on several Young songs, most notably the 1989 anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World.” Out of all Young’s musical collaborators (aside from the late Ben Keith), Sampedro has proved perhaps the most adept at working with the mercurial artist. “Most people turn a corner, Neil ricochets,” says Sampedro.

Born in a mining camp in Welch, West Virginia and raised in Detroit, Sampedro started playing guitar at age 11. “I saw this kid from my neighborhood walking down the street holding a guitar. I said, “Where’d you get that?” He said, “I’m taking lessons…if you take lessons with me, we get a cheaper price…We only have to pay a buck-sixty-five and they give you the guitars.” “I’m in!” That’s how it all started and it’s never stopped since.” He played in local Detroit bands like DC and The Coachmen and The Chessmen ("We were bad, man. More like a gang than a band," recalled Sampedro) until he left home at sixteen for California.

Sampedro joined Neil Young and Crazy Horse in 1975 to record Zuma. He was introduced to the band by Billy Talbot in November 1974, exactly two years after the death of original Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten. "Poncho was a resource to be reckoned with. He made it possible to play with the Horse," said Young later.

With the addition of Sampedro on rhythm guitar, Crazy Horse developed a new, bashing, hard-rock sound (as opposed to the more free-form approach of the Whitten era) that served as a seminal influence in the development of grunge and noise rock while also enabling Neil Young to focus more on his lead playing.

Sampedro brought a rawer edge to the Horse, and not just musically. "Rock n' roll--I thought that meant Loot the Village and Rape the Women," said Sampedro. On a wild 1976 tour of Europe and Japan, Poncho (along with another member of the Horse) took LSD before stepping onstage in Tokyo, at the Budokan. "I'd hit the strings of my guitar --they were like eighty different colors--and they bounced off the floors and hit the ceiling. Describing this period with Sampedro, Young confessed “we did a lot of illegal things.”

The Sampedro version of the Horse would contribute to Young’s next two albums and be the backing band for his acclaimed 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps, as well as the subsequent movie of the tour. That same year Crazy Horse put out their own album 'Crazy Moon' (which featured six songs written or co-written by Sampedro). The Horse was also present for Young’s 'Re-ac-tor' (1981) and 'Trans' (1982) and Life (1987).

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