In 1966, an aspiring singer-songwriter drove a battered funeral car 2000 miles from his native Canada to Los Angeles to seek his fortune in the music business. After Neil Young left the Californian folk-rock band The Buffalo Springfield in 1968, he slowly established himself as one of the most influential and idiosyncratic North American singer-songwriters of his generation. Young's body of work ranks second only to Bob Dylan in terms of depth. Since the beginning of his solo career in the late '60s, he has never stopped writing, recording and performing, exploring new musical territory from rockabilly and the blues to electronica. Despite his enormous back catalogue and influence, Young has continued to move forward into his fifth decade as a performing artist. His restless spirit has ensured that he is one of the few rock veterans as vital in his middle years as he was in his youth. Featuring new and previously unpublished interviews with close friends and musicians, Simmons's wonderful biography provides startling new insights into Young's music, shedding fresh light on his family life, behind-the-scenes relationships and health problems. It also uncovers new facts about his friendship with Charles Manson, and closely examines his schizophrenic '80s output and musical return to form as the Godfather of Grunge in the '90s.