Neil Ellwood Peart is a Canadian-American author and retired musician, best known as the drummer and primary lyricist for the rock band Rush.
Background
Peart was born in a Hamilton hospital to Glen and Betty Peart and lived his early years on his family's farm in Hagersville, on the outskirts of Hamilton. The first child of four, his brother Danny and sisters Judy and Nancy were born after the family moved to St. Catharines when Peart was two years old.
Education
Peart attended Gracefield School and later Lakeport Secondary School, and describes his childhood as happy and says he experienced a warm family life.
Career
Neil Peart debuted playing live at St. John’s Anglican Church Hall in Port Dalhousie, during a school Christmas pageant. In 1967, and with only 15 years old, Neil made his second public appearance by playing drums for a trio called The Eternal Triangle. They played three songs, with one of them being an original called “LSD Forever” which featured a drum solo at the end. Their performance was at the Lakeport High School variety show, and the drum solo was a complete success. It was through this show that Neil Peart got into his first actual rock band - Mumblin’ Sumpthin’. In the following years, Neil Peart would also play for the bands The Majority, J.R.Flood, and Seventh Wave.
In 1970, an 18 years old Neil Peart packed his things and moved to London, England in search of fame and fortune. Neil got to play in some bands, picking up occasional session work. However, in a few months he saw himself with no money and with his drumming career going absolutely nowhere. He was able to secure a job selling trinkets to tourists at a souvenir shop in Carnaby Street, London called The Great Frog, and in another shop at Piccadilly Circus, London.
It was during this time that Neil got acquainted with the writings of novelist Ayn Rand. Her study of individualism and objectivism really spoke to Neil, and inspired some of the lyrics he would write with Rush - “Anthem” from Fly by Night (1975) and “2112” from 2112 (1976), for instance. His drumming was also influenced by his stay in London. In one of the places he worked at, Neil and his coworkers took turns in choosing the music to play in the shop. One of his colleagues always liked to hear an instrumental record called Movements by an arranger/conductor named Johnny Harris, with British session musician Harold Fisher on drums. The drum parts in that album were intricately designed and elegant, something that really attracted Neil Peart.
Seeing his musical career was going nowhere in England, eighteen months after he started his European adventure, Neil Peart called it quits and returned to Canada. Upon returning to St. Catharines, Neil started working as parts manager for his father’s company, Dalziel Equipment.
After returning to Canada, Neil began drumming for a band named Hush, who played on the South Ontario bar scene. Shortly after, he got a phone call where he was invited to audition for Rush, since their drummer had just quit.
Neil Peart has been the drummer for Rush since 1974. His drumming is featured on nineteen of their twenty studio albums, on eight live albums and ten compilation albums. The band has sold more than forty million copies of their albums worldwide, having obtained twenty-four gold certifications and fourteen platinum certifications, three of which have gone multi-platinum – 2112 (1976), Moving Pictures (1981), Chronicles (1990).
Aside from his work with Rush on various albums and DVDs, Neil has developed some projects of his own. The first one came in 1995 when he was invited by Paul Siegel and Rob Wallis, founders of the Drummer’s Collective in New York City and of Hudson Music, to create an instructional video. The idea behind it was to document the way Neil Peart approaches drum part composition. The video was tentatively named A Work In Progress (1996).
In 2005, Neil Peart developed his second instructional product - Anatomy of a Drum Solo. The whole video walks you through Der Trommler (the drummer), a solo developed for the 2004 R30 Tour. Neil deconstructs the whole solo, and shows how and why he played each section of the solo like he did.
The following year saw the release of another DVD, a five-hour documentary called The Making of Burning for Buddy. The product documents the recording sessions that took place in the 1990s for each of the two Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich albums, which were produced by Peart himself.
Neil Peart has developed several products with the companies he endorses. In 2004, and in tandem with Sabin Cymbals, Neil developed the collection of cymbals known as Paragon, for the Sabian Vault series. In 2011, the Paragon family got even bigger with the release of the Paragon cymbals in brilliant finish.
Drum Warehouse (DW) is famous for not having signature drum sets or snares for any of their artists. In 2011, they opened an exception by introducing the limited edition Neil Peart Evolution - DW Snare Drum Collection. This collection features the four snare drums that have been part of Neil’s historic DW drum sets used while touring with Rush. Pro-Mark has been producing Neil Peart’s signature drumstick since 1991.
Neil Peart is not your normal rock superstar. Besides writing lyrics and playing drums for Rush, Neil has been developing his skills as a writer throughout the years. His first book was published in 1996 – The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa. The book details Peart’s month-long bicycling tour through Cameroon’s towns and villages, accompanied by four of his friends in November of 1988.
In 2002, Neil launched his second book penned Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. This book is a first-person narrative of Peart’s 55,000 mile journey by motorcycle across much of North America, down through Mexico to Belize, and back again, in an effort to put his life back together after a series of tragic events.
In 2004, Neil Peart released his third book – Traveling Music: The Soundtrack Of My Life And Times. In another first-person narrative, Neil describes his reflections and emotional associations and stories behind each album he plays in his car, through his road trip from Los Angeles, California to Big Bend National Park, Brewster County, Texas.
His next book – Roadshow: Landscape With Drums, A Concert Tour By Motorcycle (2006) details the 30h anniversary tour of Rush on both the stage, and on the road while driving his motorcycles in between shows. Neil Peart’s next book – Far and Away: A Prize Every Time” is due to be published in May of 2011.
When The Sports Network (TSN) acquired the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada, they decided to revamp the theme song for that very special television program. Neil Peart was invited to arrange the drum part for the new version of the theme song in 2009. He was able to inject some of his own traits and personal touch into the drum parts while remaining true to the original theme. You can watch behind the scenes footage of Neil working on this new version in the DVD Neil Peart: Fire on Ice, The Making of “The Hockey Theme” (2009).
Peart has only explicitly discussed his religious views in his book The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa, in which he writes "I'm a linear thinking agnostic, but not an atheist, folks."
Politics
For most of his career, Peart had never publicly identified with any political party or organization in Canada or the United States. Even so, his political and philosophical views have often been analyzed through his work with Rush and through other sources. In October 1993, shortly before that year's Canadian federal election, Peart appeared with then-Liberal Party leader Jean Chrétien in an interview broadcast in Canada on MuchMusic. In that interview, Peart stated he was an undecided voter who supported Quebec federalism.
Peart has often been categorized as an Objectivist and an admirer of Ayn Rand. This is largely based on his work with Rush in the 1970s, particularly the song "Anthem" and the album 2112; the latter specifically credited Rand's work. However, in his 1994 Rush Backstage Club Newsletter, while contending the "individual is paramount in matters of justice and liberty," Peart specifically distanced himself from a strictly Objectivist line. In a June 2012 Rolling Stone interview, when asked if Rand's words still speak to him, Peart replied, "Oh, no. That was forty years ago. But it was important to me at the time in a transition of finding myself and having faith that what I believed was worthwhile." Peart has also ascribed to a philosophy that he has called "Tryism," which means that anything that one tries to attain will be attained if one tries hard enough.
Although Peart is sometimes assumed to be a "conservative" or "Republican" rock star, he has criticized the Republican Party by stating that the philosophy of the party is "absolutely opposed to Christ's teachings." In 2005 he described himself as a "left-leaning libertarian," and is often cited as a libertarian celebrity. In July 2011, Peart reiterated those views, calling himself a "bleeding-heart libertarian".
In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Peart stated that he supports the Democratic Party.
Views
Quotations:
"The secret to life is, you get up in the morning, and you go to work."
Membership
Peart is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and worked with them on a radio PSA.
Connections
Jacqueline Taylor was his common-law wife. They had a daughter, Selena Taylor.
Peart was introduced to photographer Carrie Nuttall in Los Angeles by long-time Rush photographer Andrew MacNaughtan. They married on September 9, 2000.