A boy who survived polio and became the “Godfather of Grunge”

Neil Young was born in Toronto in 1945, the son of the journalist and author Scott Young. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Omemee, Ontario, which he later described fondly as a sleepy little place. In the late summer of 1951 he contracted polio, during the last major outbreak in Ontario, and was left partially paralyzed on his left side. The family wintered in Florida in the hope that the mild weather would help his recovery.

The home he returned to did not stay whole. When he was twelve his father left, and his parents divorced in 1960. His mother took him back to Winnipeg while his brother Bob stayed with their father in Toronto. Along the way Young was listening to rock 'n' roll, rockabilly, doo-wop, R&B and country, idolized Elvis Presley, and later referred to him in several songs. A rumor says he was expelled from a Toronto school for riding a motorcycle down the hall.

His career began in Winnipeg in the 1960s, and in 1966 he moved to Los Angeles and formed the group Buffalo Springfield. He started his solo career with Crazy Horse in 1969, and the albums stack up: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, Harvest in 1972, On the Beach and Rust Never Sleeps. He was also a part-time member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, whose 1970 album Déjà Vu topped the charts. Songs such as “Old Man” and “Harvest Moon” belong to the same catalogue.

The noise is what earned him the nickname “Godfather of Grunge” and led to Mirror Ball, a 1995 album with Pearl Jam. He has also directed films under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted him twice, in 1995 as a solo artist and in 1997 with Buffalo Springfield. In 2023 Rolling Stone ranked him number 30 among the 250 greatest guitarists of all time.