Neal Joseph Schon, 27 February 1954, San Mateo, California, USA. Best known as the guitarist and founding member of US arena rock band Journey Schon has also been a part of several other musical outfits and issued recordings under his own name.
When local bay area keyboard player Gregg Rolie began taking Schon to jam sessions led by Carlos Santana, the 15-year-old quickly decided to put his school days behind him to pursue his rock 'n' roll dreams. Playing on several of Santana's classic releases, Schon and Rolie left the multi-member band in 1973 to pursue music with a more progressive and hard rock edge, leading to the formation of Journey.
After some line-up tweaking and several lukewarm releases, Journey hit pay-dirt in 1978 when singer Steve Perry joined the band, resulting in a series of US hit albums. Despite Schon's busy schedule with Journey, he had time to commit to side-projects, including one-offs such as Schon And Hammer and HSAS. When Journey split in 1987, Schon played with two short-lived mainstream rock radio outfits, almost identical to Journey, Bad English and Hardline.
Schon also launched a solo career around the same time, releasing a series of albums over the following decade. Journey reunited in 1996 with Trial By Fire, but when Perry injured his leg on the eve of a supporting tour, the reunion was put in limbo. Tired of waiting, Schon and the rest of Journey carried on with new singer Steve Augeri for 2000's Arrival, and first tour in a decade and a half.
Still one of the greatest rock bands of all time.
