When I saw the news of his death, it hit me quite hard. He was a titan in the music industry and a personal hero of mine. I was still a drummer when I discovered Rush and like every other drummer who had heard them, I too wanted to be Neil. I started with the 2112 album and began to learn all I could while at the same time, preaching the virtues of Rush to as many of my friends who would listen. In recent years, many of my friends have credited me as their first exposure to the band and are grateful for my insistence that they were the best band in the known universe.
When the news of his death hit social media, I had more than a dozen people leave posts or messages offering their condolences to me personally because they knew how much the band and the man meant to me.
The simple truth is that his death was personal to me. I had come to know, love and respect him through his music and his example. It was like losing a friend on many levels. Even though he was the most private member of the band, I still felt like I knew him a little better than the average fan because his lyrics were pieces of himself that he gave me and millions of fans like me. Neil's heart, mind and soul are in his lyrics if one only look closely enough. His Libertarianism is found in the song "Something for Nothing". His atheism is inside the song "Roll the Bones" and his love of adventure is nestled in the song 'Available Light", a song with a deeper personal meaning for me.
He spoke to me so many times through lyrics that I often felt he had glimpsed into my life and found those things I had hidden away from the world out of a sense of smbarrassment or a desire to leave them secreted for my own sanity.
The title for this blog in particular is taken from "Roll the Bones" and I think sums up how he most likely dealt with his illness, "Why are we here, because we're here. Why does it happen, because it happens." There was no rhyme or reason for what happened to him through the course of his life. After losing both his daughter and his first wife in less than a year, his life was utterly shattered and he went on a journey of healing on a motorcycle trip that spanned all of North America and some 55,000 miles as he learned to find his place in the world once more.
He came back to music and to drumming only after he could make some sort of sense of the tragedy he had endured. The final few albums from Rush were darker and more focused lyrically as Neil found a new voice lurking inside of himself. This new voice spoke of triumph over adversity and of climbing up from the darkness to emerge into the light as a changed person, ready to once again tackle life anew.
After learning of his death, I started putting together a playlist of what I thought were Neil's best monets as both a drummer and a lyricist but when the list swelled to more than 40 songs, I realized I couldn't quantify what was best or try to order it in any way, so profound was his impact on me. I chose instead to simply put the entire Rush song list on shuffle and try to process my grief at his loss.
He was a giant in a land of miniatures by comparison and no list of his 'best' would ever be possible. It was all best in my mind.
Farewell to a distant mentor, a living example of what a musician should be and the greatest drummer rock has ever known.
The 'Limelight' is not nearly so bright nor appealing today and the world of music has lost a champion for the belief that music as art should never be a commodity to be bought and sold like so much chattel.
Neil Peart 1952-2020 RIP
