Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff’s 2010 biography of Young, Neil Young: Long May You Run, describes “The Loner” as “a bit of self-mythologizing on Young’s part, perhaps, as it concerns a menacing (but emotionally vulnerable) figure who is ‘the unforeseen danger, the keeper of the keys to the locks.”

There is also a prevalent theory that the subject of the song is Young’s former Buffalo Springfield band-mate, Stephen Stills. This rumor was referenced by British music publication Melody Maker who entitled their 1972 write-up of a Stills interview as “Stephen Stills: The Loner” and made direct reference to Young’s lyrics.