Neil Young

Canadian Musician
Neil Young is a legendary Canadian-American singer-songwriter who has had a long, acclaimed career spanning various musical genres. He is known for his distinctive guitar work, personal lyrics, and high-pitched singing voice, and has been an influential figure in the rock and folk-rock scenes over the decades.

About Neil Young

Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining the folk-rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the beginning of his solo career, often with backing by the band Crazy Horse, he has released 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). He was also a part-time member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with whom he recorded the chart-topping 1970 album Deja Vu.

Young’s guitar work, deeply personal lyrics and signature high tenor singing voice 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” and led to his 1995 album Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam. 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/Deja Vu (2008), and Harvest Time (2022). He also contributed to the soundtracks of the films Philadelphia (1993) and Dead Man (1995).

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. In 2023, Rolling Stone named Young No. 30 on their list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time. Young is also on Rolling Stone’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. Young was awarded the Order of Manitoba in 2006 and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2009.

Get to know Neil Young better

Frequently asked questions about Neil Young

Neil Young was born on November 12, 1945.

Neil Young was a member of the folk-rock group Buffalo Springfield and was also a part-time member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Some of Neil Young’s most critically acclaimed albums include Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), After the Gold Rush (1970), Harvest (1972), On the Beach (1974), and Rust Never Sleeps (1979).

Neil Young is known for his distinctive guitar work, deeply personal lyrics, and high tenor singing voice, which often combine elements of folk, rock, country, and other genres.

In addition to his music, Neil Young has directed or co-directed several films using the pseudonym ,Bernard Shakey,, and has also contributed to the soundtracks of films such as Philadelphia and Dead Man.

Neil Young has received multiple Grammy and Juno Awards, and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, both as a solo artist and as a member of Buffalo Springfield. He has also been recognized with the Order of Manitoba and the Order of Canada.

Neil Young’s guitar playing and distorted electric guitar style have earned him the nickname ,Godfather of Grunge, and have influenced a wide range of other artists, including Pearl Jam, with whom he collaborated on the 1995 album Mirror Ball.

Quotes by Neil Young

As I get older, I get smaller. I see other parts of the world I didn’t see before. Other points of view. I see outside myself more.

Neil Young

As you go through life, you’ve got to see the valleys as well as the peaks.

Neil Young

Back then people closed their eyes and listened to music. Today there’s a lot of images that go with the music. A lot of music is crap and it’s all commercial and the images are all trying to sell the record.

Neil Young

Better to burn out than rust out.

Neil Young

Commitments are one of the worst things to have in the music business. They’re very annoying.

Neil Young

Earth is a flower and it’s pollinating.

Neil Young

I can get away with saying a lot of ideas that are young and naive. I’m liberated.

Neil Young

I didn’t really know what I was doing when I started. I just started writing songs. After two songs I just continued to explore it.

Neil Young

I don’t like the American media – particularly Fox.

Neil Young

I don’t like to be labeled, to be anything. I’ve made the mistake before myself of labeling my music, but it’s counter-productive.

Neil Young

I don’t like war. I particularly don’t like the celebration of war, which I think the administration is a little bit guilty of.

Neil Young

I don’t look at a knife the way I used to. I’m more aware of what it is. I think twice. This is a key finger. It’s in every chord.

Neil Young

I don’t think I’m a thorn in the industry, I’m just another part of it.

Neil Young

I don’t think there is one president that’s come down the line that hasn’t done something good somewhere.

Neil Young

I feel like I could be likened to an old hound circling on a rug for the last five years.

Neil Young

I go in and sing the song and arrange it and mix it and that’s it. It’s no different than playing in clubs.

Neil Young

I have so many opinions about everything it just comes out during my music. It’s a battle for me. I try not to be preachy. That’s a real danger.

Neil Young

I just do what I do. I like to make music.

Neil Young

I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time.

Neil Young

I live for playing live. All my records are live, since After the Gold Rush, with the exception of Trans and the vocals on Landing on Water.

Neil Young

I think I’m going to be making country records for as long as I can see into the future. It’s much more down-home and real.

Neil Young

I totally have no other talent and I would be totally out of work if I did anything else.

Neil Young

I was a Reagan backer. It was a shock for some people that I could agree with anything that man would say.

Neil Young

I was just 20 years old when I wrote Broken Arrow.

Neil Young

I’m not into organized religion. I’m into believing in a higher source of creation, realizing we’re all just part of nature.

Neil Young

I’m not into this judgmental, religious-right kind of thing.

Neil Young

It’s a blue album, but it’s not a blues album. I’m not pretending all of a sudden now I’m blues.

Neil Young

It’s better to burn out than it is to rust.

Neil Young

It’s better to burn out, than to fade away.

Neil Young

It’s cool to go places where working people are happy.

Neil Young

My music isn’t anything but me. It has jazz in it, and rock’n’roll, and it has an urgency to it.

Neil Young

Of course you have to support the troops. They’re just kids. They’re doing for their country what’s expected of them.

Neil Young

One new feature or fresh take can change everything.

Neil Young

Some people put down all presidents. If you say anything good about any of them, they think you’re supporting everything they do.

Neil Young

Studios are passe for me. I’d rather play in a garage, in a truck, or a rehearsal hall, a club, or a basement.

Neil Young

The ’60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together.

Neil Young

The cutthroat avenues of rock ‘n’ roll, I am fed up with. I don’t want anything to do with it.

Neil Young

The rockets and the satellites, spaceships that we’re creating now, we’re pollinating the universe.

Neil Young

The thing about my music is, there really is no point.

Neil Young

There’s an edge to real rock ‘n’ roll. It’s all that matters.

Neil Young

This thing called Patriot Act, through which we abdicated a lot of our civil rights to defend the country against terrorism, it’s a four-year story.

Neil Young

To protect our freedoms, it seems we’re going to have to relinquish some of our freedoms for a short period of time.

Neil Young

When people start asking you to do the same thing over and over again, that’s when you know you’re way too close to something that you don’t want to be near.

Neil Young

When the punk thing came along and I heard my friends saying, I hate these people with the pins in their ears. I said, Thank God, something got their attention.

Neil Young

With a lot of songs on this record, one verse doesn’t relate to the next verse. I don’t think that one day really relates to the next day in life.

Neil Young

With Crazy Horse, it’s all one big, growing, smoldering sound, and I’m part of it. It’s like gliding, or some sort of natural surfing.

Neil Young