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Speaker 1: You know, I guess we sometimes think of those iconic

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Speaker 1: rock stars of the sixties and seventies as living lives

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Speaker 1: that were totally cool and without any bumps in the road,

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Speaker 1: unless they created their own bumps, of course. But just

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Speaker 1: like us, a lot of them had really hard stuff

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Speaker 1: to deal with in their private lives, and some of

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Speaker 1: them found a heroic way to move forward. I'm Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: Case in point. Neil Young, that's next on the backstory.

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Speaker 1: We're back with the backstory, all right. If you've got kids,

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Speaker 1: or you want them, or maybe even having been a kid,

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Speaker 1: you know how vested most parents are in making sure

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Speaker 1: their children are as healthy, happy and successful as possible. Okay,

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Speaker 1: let's stop and think about not regular folks, but celebrities,

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Speaker 1: specifically rock stars. How focused are they on their kids? Well,

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Speaker 1: I've been listening to this guy lately and thinking about

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Speaker 1: his life. Neil Young floated onto the scene in the

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Speaker 1: late sixties on into the seventies and onward. They were

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Speaker 1: super chaotic years in his career. He formed Buffalo Springfield

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Speaker 1: and was part of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. He

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Speaker 1: released iconic solo albums and later he did a nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety five album with Pearl Jam called Mirror Ball, he

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Speaker 1: was called the godfather of grunge at that point. Neil

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Speaker 1: Young was all about feedback, drenched guitars, harmonicas, and a sweet,

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Speaker 1: sort of liquidy voice cracked with a little bit of emotion.

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Speaker 1: But along the way he built a reputation as a tough,

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Speaker 1: very independent guy. He never cared to be trendy, and

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Speaker 1: he had absolutely no desire to explain himself to anybody.

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Speaker 1: I like that. So what does this have to do

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Speaker 1: with parenthood? Well, behind the myth of unpredictable rock icon,

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Speaker 1: there's something steadier, more tender, and arguably way more powerful.

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Speaker 1: Neil became a father in nineteen seve two. He and

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Speaker 1: his partner Carrie had a son, Zeke, who was born

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Speaker 1: with cerebral palsy, a tough break when you're just twenty

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Speaker 1: seven years old. CP is a neurological condition that affects

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Speaker 1: muscle control, movement, and a lot of time speech. The

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Speaker 1: upset did a number on Neil's relationship with Carrie, and

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Speaker 1: they broke up soon afterward, but he didn't end there.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy four, Neil met Peggy, a waitress that

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Speaker 1: he met near his ranch in northern California. They married

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight and they had two children. The

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Speaker 1: first was his son Ben, who was also born with

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Speaker 1: cerebral palsy and a much more severe case than Zeke.

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Speaker 1: Then his daughter Amber was born several years later with epilepsy.

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Speaker 1: So here he was a young rock star and also

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Speaker 1: a father, raising three children, including two sons with cerebral palsy,

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Speaker 1: in a world that just wasn't built for them. Think

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Speaker 1: about how you process that turn of events in your life.

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Speaker 1: I mean, for some folks it would be the whole

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Speaker 1: anger mixed with sadness, why me attitude. For others, it

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Speaker 1: would be about making the best of the tough cards

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Speaker 1: that had been dealt. But for Neil it was different.

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Speaker 1: It actually brought him focus. Dealing with cerebral palsy meant

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Speaker 1: intensive therapy, adaptive equipment, and constant hands on care. Ben

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Speaker 1: was nonverbal and needed a lot of physical assistance. Neil

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Speaker 1: and his wife Peggy had no interest in handing that

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Speaker 1: responsibility over to hired help and then disappearing out on tour.

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Speaker 1: They literally reorganized their entire world around their son. They

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Speaker 1: modified their California ranch, they worked with therapists, They explored

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Speaker 1: brand new assistive communication tech long before it was widely available.

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Speaker 1: Neil built a huge Linel train set up at home

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Speaker 1: so he and his son could share in the joy

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Speaker 1: and sound of it. It taught Ben and how to

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Speaker 1: communicate using computers. The beauty of it was Neil became

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Speaker 1: super invested in understanding how his son experienced sound and

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Speaker 1: language and music. The thing that made him famous suddenly

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Speaker 1: became something more intimate. It became a bridge. So raising

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Speaker 1: one child with complex physical needs changes everything. Raising two

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Speaker 1: asks you to find more resilience than most people ever

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Speaker 1: have to find in themselves. Right. While Ben's older brother,

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Speaker 1: Zeke's condition is less severe than Ben's, he still needs

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Speaker 1: a lot of support. Neil has stayed really close to

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Speaker 1: him and involved in his life. Fatherhood hasn't been theoretical

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Speaker 1: for Neil Young. He's given it daily physical and emotional labor.

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Speaker 1: Two sons with mobility challenges, two sons requiring patients, two

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Speaker 1: sons reshaping how apparent understands strength. So what happened to

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Speaker 1: Neil's career during all this? While in the early eighties,

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Speaker 1: he put out the album trans Filled with electronic sounds

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Speaker 1: and altered vocals. Critics were confused, fans didn't know what

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Speaker 1: to think. Some thought he'd lost his mind. But here's

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Speaker 1: the context. Neil was experimenting with electronic voice processing, partly

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Speaker 1: inspired by the communication technologies used by people with speech issues,

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Speaker 1: including his son Ben. He was trying to understand how

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Speaker 1: voice could be reshaped, how communication devices altered sound, how

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Speaker 1: technology could become expression. He says, if you listen to

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Speaker 1: trans you'll hear references to people trying to live a

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Speaker 1: life by pressing buttons, talking with people who can't speak.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't a gimmick. It was a dad trying to

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Speaker 1: meet his son in the space between silence and sound.

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Speaker 1: What once seemed like an odd career move became something

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Speaker 1: deeply personal. In nineteen eighty six, Neil and Peggy co

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Speaker 1: founded the Bridge School near San Francisco for kids with

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Speaker 1: severe speech and physical issues. They teach them using assistive technology.

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Speaker 1: The school treats nonverbal children not as limited, but as

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Speaker 1: capable as long as they have the right tools. And

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Speaker 1: out of that came the legendary Bridge School benefit concerts,

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Speaker 1: yearly fundraisers that ran between nineteen eighty six and twenty

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Speaker 1: sixteen with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam Ram, Metallicat,

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Speaker 1: David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Elton John, and so many others

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Speaker 1: performing acoustic sets for kids who are sensitive to loud noise.

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Speaker 1: Year after year, there were massive names, minimal production, maximum purpose.

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Speaker 1: It was one of the most respected benefit concerts in music.

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Speaker 1: Year after year. The concerts ended a few years after

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Speaker 1: Neil and his wife broke up, but the school goes on.

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Speaker 1: What's amazing about Neil Young's story isn't dramatic speeches or

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Speaker 1: sentimental inter He's just rock steady. He doesn't romanticize raising

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Speaker 1: kids with disabilities or fact like a hero. In interviews,

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Speaker 1: he talks about the patients required, the adaptations, and the

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Speaker 1: learning curve. He says raising Ben and staying present for

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Speaker 1: Zeke made him slow down, something very few rock stars

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Speaker 1: ever do. He chose consistency and structure over chaos, and

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Speaker 1: that shaped his priorities. Home life mattered, and at the

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Speaker 1: same time, accessibility and sound technology became lifelong fascinations for him.

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Speaker 1: He spent years thinking about how sound reaches different people differently.

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Speaker 1: Neil Young's life proves that being a dead can reshape

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Speaker 1: even the most fiercely independent artist. He didn't abandon his music.

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Speaker 1: He integrated his personal life into it. He was a

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Speaker 1: musician experimenting with sound to understand his son, a parent,

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Speaker 1: building infrastructure so children who can't speak to additionally, still

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Speaker 1: have a voice. Neil says his kids have given him

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Speaker 1: strength that just by being themselves, they are a gift

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Speaker 1: to him. For a guy famous for chasing freedom, his

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Speaker 1: most defining act may have been commitment raising Ben, supporting Zeke,

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Speaker 1: building bridges and doing it not for applause, but for love.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of beautiful. I hope you like the Backstory

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Speaker 1: with Patty Steele. Please leave a review. I would love

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Speaker 1: it if you would subscribe or follow for free to

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Speaker 1: get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel free to DM

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Speaker 1: me if you have a story you'd like me to cover.

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Speaker 1: On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap product

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Speaker 1: Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We

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Speaker 1: have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to

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Speaker 1: reach out to me with comments and even story suggestions

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Speaker 1: on Instagram at real Patty Steele and on Facebook at

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Speaker 1: Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the backstory with Patty Steele,

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Speaker 1: the pieces of history you didn't know you needed to

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Speaker 1: know