Born February 27, 1954The son of a woodwinds player, Neal himself played the oboe for many years beginning in high school. Schon first picked up the guitar at the age of 10. He joined Santana as a teenager at the tender age of 15. Schon had been asked by Eric Clapton to join Derek and the Dominos, but decided instead to join the Santana band. On the seminal album Santana III, Neal provides an energetic and wah-laced counterpoint to Santana’s melodic, but more restrained style. Schon and Santana trade solos throughout on tunes including "Everything’s Coming Our Way", "Jungle Strut", "Toussaint L’Overture", and "Taboo". Many of these now-classic solos are incorrectly attributed to Carlos, including Schon’s impressive lead on "Everybody’s Everything". At that time, Schon played in Azteca, before moving on to form Journey, a group he continues to lead.

But his vitae also includes a pair of albums with keyboard whiz Jan Hammer, short-term collaborations with Sammy Hagar and Paul Rodgers, stints with Bad English (which also featured Journey’s Jonathan Cain and Deen Castronovo and Jonathan Cain’s former Babys bandmates John Waite and Ricky Phillips) and Hardline (which also featured Deen Castronovo), and some instrumental acoustic albums for the Higher Octave label that show an entirely different side of his artistic personality. Even as Journey’s latest lineup plays to a still-faithful body of fans, Schon is immersed in side projects such as Piranha Blues (1999) and "Black Soup Cracker" a funk outfit that features former Prince associates Rosie Gaines and Michael Bland.The late-1970s arrival of Eddie Van Halen quickly eclipsed Schon’s bravado, giving rise to a new era of the technically facile rock guitar virtuoso. Nonetheless, Schon has secured a place as a respected and influential blues rock guitarist.

Neal Schon can be heard on Michael Bolton’s The Hunger on three tracks; the Schon sound is most recognizable on "(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay". Schon’s style can best be characterized as aggressively soulful, taking obvious inspiration from 1960s-era soul singers such as Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight, and blending them with blindingly fast bluesy runs similar to Johnny Winter and Alvin Lee.

Schon currently endorses Gibson guitars, and has a signature Les Paul model, but also uses Paul Reed Smith guitars. In the late 1980s, Schon also manufactured and played his own line of guitars.

Lately, Neal Schon had been playing with the band Soul Sirkus,which has recently broken up.