Cyril Neville is one of the founding fathers of funk, a vocalist, percussionist, cultural icon, and activist who richly deserves his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Born in 1948 in New Orleans, the youngest of The Neville Brothers was raised in a musical household, with his brothers Aaron, Art, and Charles all making waves on the local musical scene. Their uncle George Landry was Big Chief of the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indian tribe, and young Cyril cut his teeth singing and playing percussion with the group. At 19, he joined his brother’s band, Art Neville and the Neville Sounds, and released his first single a year later.
Art’s band soon merged into the seminal group, The Meters, with Cyril, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter, Jr., and drummer Zigaboo Modeliste. Their early releases – the singles “Sissy Strut,” “Look-A-Py-Py,” and “Sophisticated Sissy,” as well as the albums Cabbage Alley and Fire on the Bayou – have become classics, and their funky grooves built a foundation for a large swath of today’s American popular music. Their reputation was cemented when The Rolling Stones offered them an opening spot on their 1975 world tour.
Art and Cyril left The Meters in 1977, and with Aaron and Charles formed The Neville Brothers. For 35 years the group rocked audiences from Tipitina’s in New Orleans to Taipei with their imminently danceable funk rock. Their recordings, such as the Grammy-winning Yellow Moon and equally successful follow-up Brother’s Keeper, have entered the canon of classic American music. The Neville Brothers have received four nominations to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
One of his latest projects includes touring with his son’s band, Omari Neville and The Fuel, but he can also be heard with his band Swamp Funk and with fellow Meter George Porter, Jr., Trombone Shorty, and nephew Ivan Neville’s band, Dumpstafunk.
Neville has had a number of other musical projects over the years, including The Endangered Species Band and The Uptown All-Stars. After Hurricane Katrina, bluesman Tab Benoit formed the supergroup Voice of the Wetlands to advocate for coastal protections, with Cyril Neville front and center stage, and he also toured with the funk powerhouse Galactic. In 2011 Cyril Neville formed his own supergroup, Royal Southern Brotherhood, with Devon Allman, Mike Zito, Charlie Wooten, and Yonrico Scott.
Neville has recorded with a Who’s Who of the rock world including Bob Dylan, Jimmy Buffett, Dr. John, Willie Nelson, Branford Marsalis, and Carlos Santana. He is a prolific writer, co-authoring songs with Bono, Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty, and Taj Mahal, among others. He has made a number of television appearances, including an early episode of Saturday Night Live, and, more recently, NCIS: New Orleans and HBO’s Treme. For many years he also operated his own Endangered Species record label.
Cyril Neville has collected many accolades over the course of his 50-year career, including a Grammy award for the song, “Healing Chant” from the 1989 album, Yellow Moon. In 2017, The Neville Brothers received the Austin City Limits Lifetime Achievement Award, and a year later, The Meters were honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
