Neil Young at the September 9 press conference where he made the controversial statements (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Legendary rocker Neil Young has never been afraid to speak his mind. In his 1970 song "Southern Man," for example, he railed against slavery and racism in the American South — and earned the rebuke of Lynyrd Skynyrd, whose "Sweet Home Alabama" retorted "Well, I hope Neil Young will remember / A Southern man don't need him around anyhow."

Well Neil's done it again. At a press conference on Monday for the National Farmers Union in Washington, D.C., he took aim at Alberta's oil sands:

The fact is, Fort McMurray looks like Hiroshima. Fort McMurray is a wasteland. The Indians up there and the native peoples are dying. There's fumes everywhere. You can smell it when you get to town.

Predictably, the citizens of Fort McMurray did not take kindly to the assessment. Radio station Rock 97.9 led the charge, declaring September 10 "No Neil Day." Following an online poll of the station's listeners, the ban on Young's music has now been extended indefinitely, reports The Globe and Mail.

And yesterday, the station pulled a full Skynyrd, recording their own retort set to the tune of "Sweet Home Alabama":

Well I heard Neil Young talking about us.
I heard old Neil, he put us down.
He called good old Fort Mac a wasteland.
Old Neil Young get out of town!

Sweet home, Fort McMurray.
Beautiful beneath the trees.
Sweet home, Fort McMurray.
Neil Young ain't affecting me!