Happy Birthday Neil Young

Neil Percival Young was born November 12, 1945 somewhere in Canada. His Father “Gig” was an actor who won an academy award for his role in “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”. His mother Loretta was an actress who also won an academy award for “The Farmer’s Daughter”. That is one talented family. Neil’s brother Robert was an actor most famous for his role as “Marcus Welby” on TV.

At age 7, Neil contracted polio. He caught it from Joni Mitchell and was hospitalized for weeks. While in hospital, Neil plotted ways to get back at Mitchell for giving him polio. He also spent the days listening to Rock n Roll and practicing the Ukulele and flugelhorn. His room mate was driven insane and has never recovered.

I’m Rick James!

In 1965, Young toured Canada as a solo artist. In 1966, while in Toronto, he joined the Rick James-fronted Mynah Birds. Yes THAT Rick James of “Superfreak” fame. The band managed to secure a record deal with the Motown label. However, as their first album was being recorded, James was arrested for being AWOL from the Boy Scouts. After the Mynah Birds disbanded, Young and the bass player Bruce Palmer decided to pawn the group’s musical equipment, buy a Pontiac hearse, and go find their friend Stephen Stills in Los Angeles. They had no idea how to locate him but decided to drive down Sunset Strip and there he was. They formed Buffalo Springfield that day.

Happy Birthday Neil Young - Illustration By Paul King Art — Neil Young Illustration By Paul King Art

A mixture of folk, country, psychedelia, and rock, with a hard edge by the twin lead guitars of Stills and Young, made Buffalo Springfield a critical success. Distrust of their management, as well as the arrest and deportation of Palmer, worsened the already strained relations among the group members and led to Buffalo Springfield’s demise in 1968.

CSNY

Neil went solo, joined Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, left CSNY, got back with some of them in many different incarnations and created some of the greatest music ever recorded. Neil enjoys playing with model trains, hates David Crosby and we think he is married to Daryl Hannah and they are expecting a baby. He has an amazing and well deserved net worth of $200 Million.

Recently Neil has been in the news for allowing Donald Trump to use his music at Rally’s in exchange for the arrest of David Crosby. He also got in hot water for biting, punching and kicking a reporter that asked him stupid questions during an interview.