Background and career
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter and musician. Young's deeply personal lyrics and signature high tenor singing voice define his long career. Young's often distorted electric guitar playing, especially with his backing band Crazy Horse, earned him the nickname "Godfather of Grunge" and led to his 1995 album Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam. He also plays piano and harmonica on many albums, which frequently combine folk, rock, country, and other musical genres.
A son of journalist and author Scott Young, Young began his music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s and moved to Los Angeles in 1966 to form the rock group Buffalo Springfield. He began his solo career with Crazy Horse in 1969. Young's solo discography includes critically acclaimed albums such as Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), After the Gold Rush (1970), Harvest (1972), On the Beach (1974), and Rust Never Sleeps (1979). Young was also a part-time member of the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with whom he recorded the chart-topping 1970 album Déjà Vu. More recently, he has been backed by Promise of the Real.
Young directed (or co-directed) films using the pseudonym "Bernard Shakey", including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Human Highway (1982), Greendale (2003), CSNY/Déjà Vu (2008), and Harvest Time (2022). He also contributed to the soundtracks of the films Philadelphia (1993) and Dead Man (1995).
Young has received multiple Grammy and Juno Awards. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted him twice: in 1995 as a solo artist and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. He is on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest musical artists, and 21 of his albums and singles have been certified gold or platinum in the U.S. He was awarded the Order of Manitoba in 2006 and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2010. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked him No. 30 on its list of the "250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
