Chrome Hearts is no longer suing Neil Young

Last September, the Los Angeles-based fashion brand Chrome Hearts LLC filed a trademark-infringement lawsuit against Neil Young and his backing band, the chrome hearts. Yes, a brand that regularly sells $300 T-shirts and jewelry pieces marked up well over $10,000 (you should see what these pieces go for on the resale market) was trying to take a rock and roll group to court. Chrome Hearts has been in business since 1988 and owned the rights to the name since 1991. If you’ve been keeping tabs on Young, you may remember that he first took the stage with Micah Nelson, Corey McCormick, Anthony Logerfo, and Spooner Oldham in 2024, before the group debuted its first album together last year. 

In its September complaint, Chrome Hearts argued that vendors had “mistakenly assumed” that the band and the brand were connected. The lawsuit also cited promotional materials that allegedly “violate[d] Chrome Hearts’ valuable intellectual property rights,” as reported by Billboard. Fans, meanwhile, have pointed out that the Stills-Young Band’s “Long May You Run” referenced “chrome heart” 15 years before Chrome Hearts obtained ownership of the name. 

It’s undetermined if that historical significance played any role in the lawsuit, and there has been no confirmation as to whether the case ended in a settlement or was dropped outright. It seems, though, though, that the chrome hearts are unmoved by Chrome Hearts’ request that Young stop using the name. Last month, he shared on his Archives site that the band had finished recording a new album, Second Song, at Shangri-La in Malibu. It is due out later this year, but at the end of May, the chrome hearts’ first live album, As Time Explodes, will hit the shelves.

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