Miles Schon
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Son of Neal Schon, guitar for Journey milesschon.com
Miles Schon might be what you call
As a kid, he was more interested in sports than in music; guitar was something he did on the side.
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a chip off the old block, at least as far as guitar playing goes. But it wasn’t always that way. As a kid, he was more interested in sports than in music; guitar was something he did on the side. The tables turned during his sophomore year of high school, however, when he threw his knee out playing football. The instrument he initially took up to emulate his father became a source of solace. Once Miles began to show serious interest in the guitar, around age 17 or 18, Neal, now regarded as one of the greatest lead guitarists of all time, cautioned him that the music business had changed, and not for the better. “He said, ‘It’s a tough industry, and I got lucky. You could be 10 times the guitar player I was when I was your age, and still it’s just not the same anymore.’ ” But Schon, who also plays bass, ukulele and keyboard, couldn’t forsake the joys of writing and performing music. His style, grounded in the work of blues guitar masters like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters, calls to mind the promise his father once showed as a gifted young musician. Now 24, Schon teaches guitar in Marin and is a frequent live performer, previously collaborating with Salvador Santana and Lara Johnston and now involved in an ongoing project with keyboardist Will Champlin, son of Chicago member Bill Champlin.
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