"You can't take it personally," said one collector who skipped work to be there. But "I think he's a complete jerk... We're the ones who are keeping him employed. We're the ones buying records and seeing their shows."

"[Neil Young] is unquestionably one of the most influential Canadian musicians of all time, and responsible for putting Winnipeg on the rock 'n' roll map," Mayor Sam Katz said when Young was scheduled to come to the Junos.

"You give people like that so much power, what are they going to do with it? You can pretty much predict what they're going to do," he said. "I think that's the concern everyone has about this administration: They're corporate owned and operated."