Neil Young, Steve Jobs: Rocker Was Working on New iPod With Apple Founder

Neil Young is determined to "get the sound back to the people." After endorsing Occupy Audio last month, the iconic singer-songwriter now says he and Steve Jobs were working on a next generation iPod prior to the Apple founder's death.

Speaking at the D: Dive Into Media technology conference -- and reported by The Guardian -- Young said: "Steve Jobs [was] a pioneer of digital music, and his legacy is tremendous. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you've got to believe that if he'd lived long enough, he would have done what I'm trying to do."

The Canadian rock veteran said the pair were looking to create a new device that would be able to download material "while you're sleeping" which would be designed for "high-resolution audio."

"It's not that digital is bad or inferior, it's that they way it's being used isn't doing justice to the art," Young said. "The convenience of the digital age has forced people to choose between quality and convenience, but they shouldn't have to make that choice."

As for his own future plans, Young confirmed he "handed in" a new album to Reprise Records, describing it as "a concept record that everybody loved because they hadn't heard anything like it in a long time."

And if that wasn't enough, Young recently posted the 37-minute 'Horse Back' jam on his official site. The session reportedly features Young and his longtime backing group Crazy Horse, and was engineered and mixed early last month, but it's unclear when the recording took place. At any rate, it's a sweet little teaser until the album drops.

Watch Neil Young's 'Walk With Me' Video