After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Young's guitar work, deeply personal lyrics [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] and signature high tenor singing voice [ 7 ] [ 8 ] define his long career.
He also plays piano and harmonica on many albums, which frequently combine folk , rock , country and other musical genres. His often distorted electric guitar playing, especially with Crazy Horse, earned him the nickname " Godfather of Grunge " [ 9 ] and led to his album Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam. More recently, he has been backed by Promise of the Real. He also contributed to the soundtracks of the films Philadelphia and Dead Man Young has received multiple Grammy and Juno Awards.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted him twice: in as a solo artist and in as a member of Buffalo Springfield. Neil Young [ 14 ] was born on November 12, , in Toronto. Shortly after Young's birth in , the family moved to rural Omemee, Ontario , which Young later described fondly as a "sleepy little place.
In , upon returning to Canada, Young moved from Omemee to Pickering and then lived for a year in Winnipeg where he would later return before relocating to Toronto β While in Toronto, he briefly attended Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute as a first-year student in When he was 12, his father, who had had several extramarital affairs, left his mother. She asked for a divorce, which was granted in He idolized Elvis Presley and later referred to him in a number of his songs. 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. Over three years, the band 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," referring to his later producer David Briggs.
