Inductee Profile
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At a glance
Born: November 12, 1945Where: Toronto, ON Big Break:
Young first became well-known as a guitarist and occasional vocalist for the band Buffalo Springfield
Interesting Note:Neil Young was part owner of Lionel, LLC, a company that makes toy trains and model railroad accessories. In 2008 Lionel emerged from bankruptcy and his shares of the company were wiped out. At this time his status with Lionel is unknown, according to Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese he is still a consultant for Lionel. He was instrumental in the design of the Lionel Legacy control system for model trains and it is believed he will continue to develop the system. Young has been named as co-inventor on seven U.S. Patents related to model trains.
Jason Bond, an East Carolina University biologist, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider in 2007 and named it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi after Young, his favorite singer.
Young's most recent album appearance was on the album Potato Hole, released on April 21, 2009 by Memphis organ player Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. & the MG's fame. Young plays guitar on nine of the album's ten instrumental tracks, alongside Drive-By Truckers, who already had three guitar players, giving some songs on the album a total of five guitar tracks. Jones contributed guitars on a couple of tracks.
Young continues to tour extensively. In 2009, he headlined the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England, at Hard Rock Calling in London (where he was joined onstage by Paul McCartney for a rendition of "A Day in the Life") and, after years of unsuccessful booking attempts, the Isle of Wight Festival in addition to performances at the Big Day Out festival in New Zealand and Australia and the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona.
On January 22, 2010, Young performed "Long May You Run" on the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. On the same night, he and Dave Matthews performed the Hank Williams song "Alone and Forsaken", for the Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief charity telethon, in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Young performed "Long May You Run" at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Olympic winter games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
In May 2010, it was revealed Young has begun working on a new studio album that will be produced by Daniel Lanois. This was announced by David Crosby, who said that the album "will be a very heartfelt record. I expect it will be a very special record." On May 18, 2010, Young embarked upon a North American solo tour to promote his upcoming album, Le Noise, playing a mix of older songs and new material. Although billed as a solo acoustic tour, Young has also played some songs on electric guitars, including Old Black.
* 2011 Grammy Awards Best Rock Song "Angry World" -- Neil Young, songwriter
* Canadian Music Hall of Fame, 1982
* Rock and Roll Hall of Fame He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. First in 1995 for his solo work, with an induction speech given by Eddie Vedder, and again in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield.
As one of the original founders of Farm Aid, he remains an active member of the board of directors. For one weekend each October, in Mountain View, California, he and his wife host the Bridge School Concerts, which have been drawing international talent and sell-out crowds for nearly two decades with some of the biggest names in rock having performed at the event including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Who, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Waits, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Sir Paul McCartney and Dave Matthews. The concerts are a benefit for the Bridge School, which develops and uses advanced technologies to aid in the instruction of children with disabilities. Young's involvement stems at least partially from the fact that both of his sons have cerebral palsy and his daughter, like Young himself, has epilepsy.
Young was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 for his song "Philadelphia" from the film Philadelphia. Bruce Springsteen won the award for his song "Streets of Philadelphia" from the same film. In his acceptance speech, Springsteen said that "the award really deserved to be shared by the other nominee's song." That same night, Tom Hanks accepted the Oscar for Best Actor and gave credit for his inspiration to the song "Philadelphia".
Young has twice received honorary doctorates. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1992, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University in 2006. The latter honour was shared with his wife Pegi for their creation of the Bridge School. In 2006, Young was given Manitoba's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Manitoba. In 2009, he was then given Canada's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Canada.
Rolling Stone magazine in 2000, ranked Young thirty-fourth in its list of the 500 greatest artists of all time, and in 2003, included five of his albums in its list of 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2000, Young was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2006, Paste magazine compiled a "Greatest Living Songwriters" list; Young was ranked second behind Bob Dylan. (While Young and Dylan have occasionally played together in concert, they have never collaborated on a song together, or played on each others' records). He ranked thirty-ninth on VH1's 100 Greatest Artist of Hard Rock that same year. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame explained that while Young has "avoided sticking to one style for very long, the unifying factors throughout Young’s peripatetic musical journey have been his unmistakable voice, his raw and expressive guitar playing, and his consummate songwriting skill."
In 2001, Young was awarded the Spirit of Liberty award from the civil liberties group People for the American Way. Young was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year on January 29, 2010, two nights prior to the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. In addition was also nominated for two Grammy Awards; Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance ("Fork In The Road") and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. Young won the latter Grammy Award. In 2010, Young was ranked #26 in Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.
NEIL YOUNG
2000 INDUCTEE
View all inductees from 2000 »Neil Young has been extolled as a gentle balladeer, a champion of country rock, and the godfather of grunge. Remarkably, he's all three. Among the past half-century's singer-songwriters, only Young's life-long friend and fellow Walk of Fame honouree Joni Mitchell can rival his chameleon-like ability continually to re-invent and re-visit himself.
Born in Toronto on November 12, 1945, the son of celebrated sports writer Scott Young, Neil moved to Winnipeg as a child, after his parents divorced. After performing with various high-school bands and folk groups - already hinting at the stylistic diversity to come - Young returned to Toronto in 1966 and, together with Rick James and Bruce Palmer, spent a brief few months recording unsuccessfully for Motown Records as the Mynah Birds. Then Young loaded up his black Buick hearse and he and Palmer headed for Los Angeles.
Linking up with mutual friends Richard Furay and Stephen Stills, he established Buffalo Springfield, which emerged as one of the most important and influential folk-country bands of the late 1960s. Plagued by internal friction - Young himself quit twice in less than two years - the quartet split in May 1968 after recording three albums.
Young's solo debut LP appeared in 1969. Around the same time, he began jamming with a band called the Rockets, soon re-named Crazy Horse, which provided backing for Young's second '69 album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. It included three of his most famous compositions - Cinnamon Girl, Down By The River, and Cowgirl In The Sand.
Early in 1970, Young decided to split his time between Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills and Nash. His third solo album, After The Gold Rush - again backed by Crazy Horse, along with 17-year-old guitarist Nils Lofgren - appeared almost simultaneously with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Dj vu, confirming Young's rising star status. Two years later, with the release of the chart-topping Harvest, he was, at 26, elevated to international superstardom.
Though the balance of the '70s proved turbulent both personally and professionally for Young, his 1978 Rust Never Sleeps tour with Crazy Horse and the subsequent album put him back on top and loudly proclaimed his decision to move in new, harder directions.
Further experimentation followed throughout the 1980s, marked by the release of the rockabilly collection Everybody's Rockin', then by the country-tinged Old Ways, then by the new-wave-oriented Landing On Water, and the blues-driven This Note's For You. Young capped the decade with his boldest move to date, earning credibility with a new, younger audience by touring with Sonic Youth in support of his boisterous Ragged Glory album.
The 1990s brought more reflection and diversification, marked by the release of the faintly nostalgic Harvest Moon, the haunting, Oscar-nominated title track from Philadelphia, and his dynamic union with Pearl Jam for 1995's Mirror Ball. As the new millennium dawns, so does another Young incarnation with the release of Silver And Gold, his most acclaimed and popular album in years - a powerful culmination of two decades' worth of musical daring.
Quiet, reflective, and intensely private, Young is the rare rock icon who prefers life out of the spotlight. Few, for example, are aware that he founded and supports San Francisco's Bridge School for handicapped children with communication problems. Rolling Stone accurately calls him "a dedicated primitivist (who is) constantly proving that simplicity is not always simple." Young's philosophy is, indeed, deceptively simple. "Listen to your own voice. Don't listen to someone else's," he says. "To me, the way to live is to always move forward - to keep searching for whatever it is that interests you."
RELATED NEWS
Neil Young will release a brand-new album, titled A Treasure, on June 14th, on Reprise Records. It will be available in stores on CD and Blu-ray, as well as on iTunes and through all participating digital retailers. The limited-edition vinyl pressing will precede the CD street date, hitting shelves on June 7th, and will be available on 180-gram double-disc vinyl pressed at Pallas, and mastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering by Chris Bellman.
Neil Young in plaid. How Canadian is that? The rocker will be honoured at the Junos on Sunday. Here's hoping he plays the classic song that references Northern Ontario.
He is one of the most gifted and celebrated singer-songwriters in rock and roll history.The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) are pleased to announce Neil Young as the
recipient of the 2011 Allan Waters Humanitarian Award, named after CHUM Ltd. founder Allan Waters.
The Allan Waters Humanitarian Award recognizes an outstanding Canadian artist whose humanitarian contributions
