Neil Percival Young 

OC OM[4][5] (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter,

musician, and activist. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to
Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and others. Since the
beginning of his solo career with his backing band Crazy Horse, Young has released many critically
acclaimed and important albums, such as After the Gold Rush, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,
and Harvest.
Young has received several Grammy and Juno Awards. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted
him twice: in 1995 as a solo artist and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield.[6] In 2000, Rolling
Stone named Young #34 on their list of the 100 greatest musical artists. According to Acclaimed
Music, he is the 7th most celebrated artist in popular music history.[7] His guitar work, deeply personal
lyrics[8][9][10] and signature high tenor singing voice[11][12] define his long career. He also plays piano and
harmonica on many albums, which frequently combine folk, rock, country and other musical styles.
His often distorted electric guitar playing, especially with Crazy Horse, earned him the nickname
"Godfather of Grunge"[13] and led to his 1995 album Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam. More recently he has
been backed by Promise of the Real.[14] 21 of his albums and singles have been certified Gold and
Platinum in U.S by RIAA certification.[15]
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),
and CSNY/Déjà Vu (2008). He also contributed to the soundtracks of the films Philadelphia (1993)
and Dead Man (1995).
Young has lived in California since the 1960s but retains Canadian citizenship.[16] He was awarded
the Order of Manitoba in 2006[5] and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2009.[4] He
became a United States citizen, taking dual citizenship, in 2020.[17][18][19]
Neil Young[20] was born on November 12, 1945, in Toronto, Canada.[21][22] His father, Scott Alexander
Young (1918–2005), was a journalist and sportswriter who also wrote fiction.[23] His mother, Edna
Blow Ragland "Rassy" Young (1918–1990) was a member of the Daughters of the American
Revolution.[24] Although Canadian, his mother had American and French ancestry.[25] Young's parents
married in 1940 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and moved to Toronto shortly there after where their first
son, Robert "Bob" Young, was born in 1942.
Shortly after Young's birth in 1945, the family moved to rural Omemee, Ontario, which Young later
described fondly as a "sleepy little place".[26] Young suffered from polio in 1952 during the last major
outbreak of the disease in Ontario[27] After his recovery, the Young family vacationed in Florida.
During that period, Young briefly attended Faulkner Elementary School in New Smyrna Beach,
Florida. In 1952, upon returning to Canada, Young moved from Omemee to Pickering (1956), lived
for a year in Winnipeg (where he would later return to), before relocating to Toronto (1957–1960).
While in Toronto, Young briefly attended Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute as a freshman in 1959.
[28]
 It is rumored that he was expelled for riding a motorcycle down the hall of the school.[29]
Young became interested in popular music he heard on the radio.[30] When Young was twelve, his
father, who had had several extramarital affairs, left his mother. His mother asked for a divorce,
which was granted in 1960.[31] Young went to live with his mother, who had moved back to Winnipeg,
while his brother Bob stayed with his father in Toronto.[32]
During the mid-1950s, Young listened to rock 'n roll, rockabilly, doo-wop, R&B, country, and western
pop. He idolized Elvis Presley and later referred to him in a number of his songs.[33] Other early
musical influences included Link Wray,[34] Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, The Ventures, Cliff
Richard and the Shadows,[35] Chuck Berry, Hank Marvin, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The
Chantels, The Monotones, Ronnie Self, the Fleetwoods, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy
Orbison and Gogi Grant.[36] Young first began to play music himself on a plastic ukulele, before, as he
would later relate, going on to "a better ukulele to a banjo ukulele to a baritone ukulele – everything
but a guitar."[37]
Young and his mother settled into the working-class area of Fort Rouge, Winnipeg, where the shy,
dry-humored youth enrolled at Earl Grey Junior High School. It was there that he formed his first
band, the Jades, and met Ken Koblun. While attending Kelvin High School in Winnipeg, he played in
several instrumental rock bands, eventually dropping out of school in favor of a musical career.
[38]
 Young's first stable band was The Squires, with Ken Koblun, Jeff Wuckert and Bill Edmondson on
drums, who had a local hit called "The Sultan". Over a three-year period the bands played hundreds
of shows at community centers, dance halls, clubs and schools in Winnipeg and other parts of
Manitoba. The band also played in Fort William (now part of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario), where
they recorded a series of demos produced by a local producer, Ray Dee, whom Young called "the
original Briggs".[39] While playing at The Flamingo, Young met Stephen Stills, whose band The
Company was playing the same venue, and they became friends.[40] The Squires primarily performed
in Winnipeg and rural Manitoba in towns such as Selkirk, Neepawa, Brandon and Giroux
(near Steinbach), with a few shows in northern Ontario.[41]
After leaving the Squires, Young worked folk clubs in Winnipeg, where he first met Joni Mitchell.
[42]
 Mitchell recalls Young as having been highly influenced by Bob Dylan at the time.[43] Here he wrote
some of his earliest and most enduring folk songs such as "Sugar Mountain", about lost youth.
Mitchell wrote "The Circle Game" in response.[44] The Winnipeg band The Guess Who (with Randy
Bachman as lead guitarist) had a Canadian Top 40 hit with Young's "Flying on the Ground is
Wrong", which was Young's first major success as a songwriter.[45]
In 1965, Young toured Canada as a solo artist. In 1966, while in Toronto, he joined the Rick James-
fronted Mynah Birds. The band managed to secure a record deal with the Motown label, but as their
first album was being recorded, James was arrested for being AWOL from the Navy Reserve.[46] After
the Mynah Birds disbanded, Young and the bass player Bruce Palmer decided to pawn the group's
musical equipment and buy a Pontiac hearse, which they use