Rock History

2011 – Last Night, Stage Collapse at Indiana State, killing Five people and injuring dozens more on This Tragic Day in Rock! Singer Sara Bareilles had just left the stage when a sudden gust of wind toppled the entire stage structure. One concert goer said the stage “snapped like a toothpick,” as audience members rushed to the heaps of metal to try to free those trapped. Some created makeshift stretchers out of parts of their seats to take away the injured.

2009 – The official Roadrunner Records web site has been updated with top-album picks for 2008 from a number of artists that are signed to the label, including members of MACHINE HEAD, MEGADETH, DEVILDRIVER, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and TRIVIUM. A few of the selections follow below. The entire list can be found at this location.

Shawn Drover (MEGADETH)

01. CYNIC – Traced in Air
02. TESTAMENT – The Information Damnation
03. MESHUGGAH – Obzen
04. CHILDREN OF BODOM – Blooddrunk
05. OPETH – Watershed
06. EVERGREY – Torn
07. BLOTTED SCIENCE – The Machinations of Dementia
08. AIRBOURNE – Runnin’ Wild
09. INTO ETERNITY – The Incurable Tragedy
10. BRAIN DRILL – Apocalyptic Feasting

Frédéric Leclercq (DRAGONFORCE)

01. GUNS N’ ROSES – Chinese Democracy
02. DISTURBED – Indestructible
03. SLIPKNOT – All Hope Is Gone
04. CYNIC – Traced in Air
05. CRADLE OF FILTH – Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder
06. ULTRA VOMIT – Objectif Thunes
07. SEBASTIEN TELLIER – Sexuality
08. ALICE COOPER – Along Came a Spider
09. MOTLEY CRUE – Saints of Los Angeles
10. METALLICA – Death Magnetic

Matt Heafy (TRIVIUM)

01. COLDPLAY – Viva La Vida
02. COLDPLAY – Prospekt’s March
03. MAXIMUM THE HORMONE – Tsume Tsume Tsume
04. LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – Mozart’s Requiem
05. GOJIRA – The Way Of All Flesh
06. AMON AMARTH – Twilight of the Thunder God
07. SLIPKNOT – All Hope Is Gone
08. OPETH – Watershed
09. METALLICA – Death Magnetic
10. TRIVIUM – Shogun

Robb Flynn (MACHINE HEAD)

01. ALL SHALL PERISH – Awaken The Dreamers
02. METALLICA – Death Magnetic
03. TRIVIUM – Shogun
04. WINDS OF PLAGUE – Decimate The Weak
05. LIL WAYNE – The Carter III
06. LA COKA NOSTRA – A Brand You Can Trust
07. SLIPKNOT – All Hope Is Gone
08. WHITECHAPEL – This Is Exile
09. MESHUGGAH – Bleed
10. BLEEDING THROUGH – Sister Charlatan

Joel Stroetzel (KILLSWITCH ENGAGE)

01. KINGS OF LEON – Only by the Night
02. RYAN ADAMS AND THE CARDINALS – Cardinology
03. RADIOHEAD – In Rainbows
04. TOMMY EMMANUEL – Center Stage
05. ALL THAT REMAINS – Overcome
06. NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
07. Augustana – Can’t Love (Can’t Hurt
08. IN FLAMES – A Sense of Purpose
09. NADA SURF – Lucky
10. RAY LAMONTAGNE – Gossip in the Grain

Paolo Gregoletto (TRIVIUM)

01. METALLICA – Death Magnetic
02. MACHINE HEAD – The Blackening Special Edition
03. COLDPLAY – Viva La Vida
04. GOJIRA – The Way of All Flesh
05. SLIPKNOT – All Hope Is Gone
06. AMON AMARTH – Twilight of the Thunder God
07. PROTEST THE HERO – Fortress
08. AC/DC – Black Ice
09. OPETH – Watershed
10. TRIVIUM – Shogun

Max Cavalera (SOULFLY; CAVALERA CONSPIRACY; SEPULTURA)

01. BAD BRAINS – Build a Nation
02. DISFEAR – Live the Storm
03. GOJIRA – The Way of All Flesh
04. GOGOL BORDELLO – Gypsy Punks
05. TURBO TRIO – Turbo Trio
06. INCITE – Divided We Fail
07. AGNOSTIC FRONT – Warriors
08. AMON AMARTH – Twilight of the Thunder God
09. AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED – Insect Warfare
10. HIRAX – The New Age of Terror

Justin Foley (KILLSWITCH ENGAGE)

01. CYNIC – Traced in Air
02. MESHUGGAH – Obzen
03. CULT OF LUNA – Eternal Kingdom
04. SIGUR ROS – Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
05. GOJIRA – The Way Of All Flesh
06. MOGWAI – The Hawk Is Howling
07. NINE INCH NAILS – The Slip
08. UNDEROATH – Lost In The Sound Of Separation

Michael Spretizer (DEVILDRIVER)

01. THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE – Walking With Strangers
02. AMON AMARTH – Twilight of the Thunder God
03. MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE – If
04. ALL THAT REMAINS – Overcome
05. GOJIRA – The Way of All Flesh
06. IN FLAMES – A Sense of Purpose
07. CHILDREN OF BODOM – Blood Drunk
08. OPETH – Watershed
09. RAUNCHY – Wasteland Discotheque
10. TESTAMENT – The Formation of Damnation

Jonathan Miller (DEVILDRIVER)

01. IN THIS MOMENT – Dream
02. GUNS N’ ROSES – Chinese Democracy
03. SLIPKNOT – All Hope Is Gone
04. SHINY TOY GUNS – Seasons of Poison
05. ENYA – …And Winter Came
06. ALL THAT REMAINS – Overcome
07. METALLICA – Death Magnetic
08. ALL SHALL PERISH – Awaken The Dreamers
09. MUDVAYNE – The New Game
10. TRIVIUM – Shogun

2004 – UK prog rockers Muse play the biggest show of their careers when they headline the Sunday night at Glastonbury Festival. The gig is marred by tragedy when drummer Dominic Howard’s father dies backstage shortly afterwards.

2003 – Linda Suffoletto, hospitalized following the Rhode Island nightclub fire set off by rock band Great White’s pyrotechnics, dies, bringing the death toll to 97. Sixty people remain hospitalized.

2003 – A lawyer for Great White’s tour manager says the band had permission from a Rhode Island nightclub to use pyrotechnics at their fatal Feb. 20 show. Ninety-six people died after the club caught fire. The Boston Herald reports the band’s record sales are up following the tragedy.

1998 – Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Calif.), the one-time singer/songwriter who gained fame as half of vocal duo Sonny and Cher, dies from head injuries after hitting a tree while skiing. He is 62.

On January 5, 1998, Bono died of injuries after striking a tree while skiing on the Nevada side of the Heavenly Ski Resort near South Lake Tahoe, California.

Bono’s death came just days after Michael Kennedy, a son of Robert F. Kennedy, died in a similar skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado. Bono’s widow, Mary, was elected to fill the remainder of the Congressional term. Over 10 years after his death, she continues to champion many of Sonny’s causes, including the ongoing fight to save the Salton Sea.

After Sonny’s death, Mary told an interviewer from TV Guide that Sonny was addicted to and seriously abusing prescription drugs, mainly Vicodin and Valium. Even though Mary claimed that Sonny’s drug use caused the accident, the autopsy showed no narcotics and only a very small amount of Valium, not enough to cause impairment according to the Washoe County Coroner’s report.

After being asked by Mary Bono, Sonny’s ex-wife, Cher, gave a eulogy at Bono’s funeral. His final resting place is Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California. The epitaph on Bono’s headstone reads: “And The Beat Goes On.”

Breaking news in April 2008:

Sonny Bono was clubbed to death by hired hitmen, according to a stunning new tabloid expose. An investigator who has been researching Bono’s 1998 fatal skiing accident for the past decade claims top officials linked to an international drug and weapons ring feared the singer-turned-politician was about to expose their criminal acts – and so they had him killed on the slopes.

Cher’s ex-husband Bono’s death was listed as a “skiing accident” with family and friends satisfied he died after colliding with a tree on the piste in Nevada in January 1998.

But former FBI agent Ted Gunderson tells America’s Globe that there’s more to the tragedy than meets the eye, after studying the autopsy reports and other evidence.

He says, “It’s nonsense for anyone to now try to suggest that Bono died after crashing into a tree. There’s zero evidence in this autopsy report… to show such an accident happened. Instead, there’s powerful proof he (Bono) was assassinated. This was an evil plot that was carried out to almost perfection by ruthless assassins.”

Gunderson tells the Globe that Bono, an experienced skiier, was ambushed on the slopes by hired hitmen, who beat him to death and then staged a tree collision.

The retired FBI agent is now calling for the authorities to exhume Bono’s remains and open a homicide investigation.

Gunderson’s efforts have been backed by top forensics experts, who fear Nevada authorities were too quick to mark the tragedy as a skiing accident, and investigator Bob Fletcher, who has confessed he sent evidence of a 10-year study that linked top U.S. government officials to arms and weapons dealers to Bono less than a month before his death.

Fletcher says, “He was going to make it his number one priority… There’s no doubt in my mind Sonny was murdered by someone who needed him silenced.”

1981 – A Bob Dylan show in Avignon, France, ends in tragedy when a fan is killed after falling on a tangle of electrical cables, knocking the power out. In the midst of the blackout, another concertgoer falls off a wall she was standing on and later dies.

1977 – Tragedy on tour with Alice Cooper. The rat meant to be dinner for his boa constrictor bites the reptile, killing it. Cooper weeps that it’s like “like being hit on by your Wheaties” and vows to replace the snake.

That is one Vicious Rat!

1971 – Donald McPherson of the Main Ingredient dies of leukemia. Age 29. The group’s biggest hit is the million-selling No. 3 song “Everybody Plays the Fool.”  by Aaron Neville.

Much too young!

The group was formed in Harlem, NY in 1964 as a trio called the Poets, composed of lead singer Donald McPherson, Luther Simmons, Jr., and Panama-born Tony Silvester. They made their first recordings for Leiber & Stoller’s Red Bird label, but soon changed their name to the Insiders and signed with RCA. After a couple of singles, they changed their name once again in 1966, this time permanently to the Main Ingredient.

Nothing much happened until the Main Ingredient hooked up with producer Bert DeCoteaux, who had an excellent sense of the lush, orchestrated direction soul music would take in the early ’70s. Under his direction, the Main Ingredient reached the R&B Top 30 for the first time in 1970 with “You’ve Been My Inspiration.” Things grew steadily from there; a cover of the Impressions’ “I’m So Proud” broke the Top 20, and “Spinning Around (I Must Be Falling in Love)” went Top Ten. They scored again with the McPherson-penned black power anthem “Black Seeds Keep on Growing,” but tragedy struck in 1971: McPherson, who had suddenly taken ill with leukemia, died unexpectedly. Stunned, Silvester and Simmons regrouped with new lead singer Cuba Gooding, Sr., who’d served as a backing vocalist on some of their previous recordings and had filled in on tour during McPherson’s brief illness.

The Gooding era began auspiciously enough with the million-selling smash “Everybody Plays the Fool,” which hit number two R&B and number three pop to become the group’s biggest hit ever. The accompanying album, aptly titled Bitter Sweet, became their first to hit the Top Ten on the R&B charts; its follow-up, 1973′s Afrodisiac, featured several songs written or co-written by Stevie Wonder, although it didn’t produce any huge successes on the singles charts. They peaked at number eight on the R&B chart in 1974 with “Just Don’t Want to Be Lonely,” which sold over a million copies and also reached number ten on the pop chart, and the disco-flavored “Happiness Is Just Around the Bend,” which did not. In 1975, the group recorded several songs co-written by Leon Ware, including the R&B Top Ten “Rolling Down a Mountainside.” By this point, however, Silvester was harboring other ambitions; he released a solo album called Magic Touch that year, and left the group to form a production team with Bert DeCoteaux.

Later Years

Silvester was replaced by Carl Tompkins, but the chemistry wasn’t the same, and Gooding departed for a solo career on Motown in 1977, which produced two albums; Simmons, meanwhile, left music to work as a stockbroker. Gooding, Silvester, and Simmons reunited as the Main Ingredient in 1979, and cut two more albums, 1980′s Ready for Love and 1981′s I Only Have Eyes for You (the latter featured a minor hit in “Evening of Love”). The trio reunited for a second time in 1986, but their Zakia single “Do Me Right” flopped, and Simmons returned to his day job. He was replaced by Jerome Jackson on the 1989 Polydor album I Just Wanna Love You. In the wake of Aaron Neville’s Top Ten revival of “Everybody Plays the Fool,” Gooding resumed his solo career and issued his third album in 1993. Silvester and Simmons re-formed the Main Ingredient in 1999 with new lead singer Carlton Blount; this lineup recorded Pure Magic in 2001. Gooding’s son is, of course, Cuba Gooding, Jr., the actor best known for his Oscar-winning performance in Jerry Maguire.

Silvester died on November 27, 2006, at the age of 65.

Discography

Albums

* 1971: Black Seeds (RCA) – US #176, R&B #35
* 1971: Tasteful Soul (RCA) – US #146, R&B #26
* 1972: Bitter Sweet (RCA) – US #79, R&B #10
* 1973: Afrodisiac (RCA) – US #132, R&B #16
* 1974: Euphrates River (RCA) – US #52, R&B #8
* 1974: Greatest Hits (RCA) – R&B #32
* 1975: Rolling Down a Mountainside (RCA) – US #90, R&B #3
* 1976: Shame on the World (RCA) – US #158, R&B #27
* 1976: Super Hits (RCA) – R&B #46
* 1977: Music Maximus (RCA) – US #177
* 1980: Ready for Love (RCA) – R&B #69
* 1981: I Only Have Eyes For You (RCA)
* 1989: I Just Wanna Love You (Polydor) – R&B #59
* 2001: Pure Magic (Magnatar)
* 2005: Everybody Plays the Fool: The Best of the Main Ingredient (RCA/Legacy)

Singles

* 1970: “I’m Better Off Without You” – US #91
* 1970: “You’ve Been My Inspiration” – US #64, R&B #25
* 1971: “Black Seeds Keep On Growing” – US #97, R&B #15
* 1971: “I’m So Proud” – US #49, R&B #13
* 1971: “Spinning Around (I Must Be Falling In Love)” – US #52, R&B #7
* 1972: “Everybody Plays the Fool” – US #3, R&B #2
* 1973: “Girl Blue” – R&B #51
* 1973: “You Can Call Me Rover” – R&B #34
* 1973: “You’ve Got To Take It (If You Want It)” – US #46, R&B #18
* 1974: “California My Way” – US #75, R&B #48
* 1974: “Happiness Is Just Around The Bend” – US #35, R&B #7
* 1974: “Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely” – US #10, R&B #8
* 1975: “Rolling Down a Mountainside” – US #92, R&B #7
* 1975: “The Good Old Days” – R&B #45
* 1976: “Instant Love” – R&B #96
* 1976: “Shame On The World” – R&B #20
* 1986: “Do Me Right” – R&B #75
* 1989: “I Just Wanna Love” – R&B #15
* 1990: “Nothing’s Too Good For My Baby” – R&B #29

1969 – Tragedy strikes David Crosby, as the CSN member’s girlfriend Christine Gail Hinton dies in a car crash north of San Francisco. The same day, Crosby, Stills & Nash goes gold.

1952 – Rush drummer Neal Peart is born this day in rock Awesome history!

Neil Peart (pronounced /?p??rt/) OC, (born Neil Ellwood Peart, September 12, 1952, Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian musician and author. He is best-known as the drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush.

Peart grew up in Port Dalhousie, Ontario, Canada (now part of St. Catharines) working the occasional odd job. However, his true ambition was to become a professional musician. During adolescence, he floated from regional band to regional band and dropped out of high school to pursue a career as a full-time drummer. After a discouraging stint in England to concentrate on his music, Peart returned home, where he joined local Toronto band Rush in the summer of 1974.

Early in his career, Peart’s performance style was deeply rooted in hard rock. He drew most of his inspiration from drummers such as Keith Moon and John Bonham, players who were at the forefront of the British hard rock scene.

In addition to being a musician, Peart is also a prolific writer, having published several memoirs about his travels. Peart is also Rush’s primary lyricist. In writing lyrics for Rush, Peart addressed universal themes and diverse subject matter including science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy, as well as secular, humanitarian and libertarian themes. In contrast, his books have been focused on his personal experiences.

Life and career

Neil Peart was born on his family’s farm in Hagersville,

His first exposure to musical training came in the form of piano lessons, which he later said in his instructional video A Work in Progress did not have much impact on him. He had a penchant for drumming on various objects around the house with a pair of chopsticks, so for his 13th birthday, his parents bought him a pair of drum sticks, a practice pad and some lessons, with the promise that if he stuck with it for a year, they would buy him a kit.

His parents bought him a drum kit for his 14th birthday and he began taking lessons from Don George at the Peninsula Conservatory of Music.

Peart got a job in Lakeside Park, a fairground on the shores of Lake Ontario, which later inspired a song of the same name on the Rush album Caress of Steel.

Career prior to joining Rush

At eighteen years of age, after struggling to achieve success as a drummer in Canada, Peart traveled to London hoping to further his career as a professional musician.

While in London he came across the writings of novelist and objectivist Ayn Rand. Rand’s writings became a significant philosophical influence on Peart, as he found many of her treatises to individualism and Objectivism inspiring. References to Rand’s philosophy can be found in his lyrics, most notably “Anthem” from 1975′s Fly By Night and “2112″ from the 1976 Rush album, 2112.

After eighteen months of dead-end musical gigs, and disillusioned by his lack of progress in the music business, Peart placed his aspiration of becoming a professional musician on hold and returned to Canada. Upon returning to St. Catharines, he worked for his father selling tractor parts at Dalziel Equipment.

Joining Rush

After returning to Canada, Peart was recruited to play drums for the St. Catharines band Hush, who played on the South Ontario bar circuit.

Peart officially joined the band on July 29, 1974, two weeks before the group’s first US tour. Peart procured a silver Slingerland kit which he played at his first gig with the band, opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann in front of over 11,000 people at the Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 14, 1974.

Early career with Rush

Peart soon settled into his new position, also becoming the band’s primary lyricist. Before joining Rush, he had written few songs, but, with the other members largely uninterested in writing lyrics, Peart’s previously underutilized writing became as noticed as his musicianship. The band was still finding its feet as a recording act, and Peart, along with the rest of the band, now had to learn to live from a suitcase.

His first recording with the band, 1975′s Fly by Night, was fairly successful, winning the Juno Award for most promising new act,

Peart returned to England for Rush’s Northern European Tour and the band stayed in the United Kingdom to record the next album, 1977′s A Farewell to Kings in Rockfield Studios in Wales. They returned to Rockfield to record the follow up, Hemispheres in 1978, which they wrote entirely in the studio. The recording of five studio albums in four years, coupled with as many as 300 gigs a year, convinced the band to take a different approach thereafter. Peart has described his time in the band up to this point as “a dark tunnel.”

From this point on, Peart’s career was near exclusively with Rush:

Family tragedy & continuing on

Soon after the culmination of Rush’s Test For Echo Tour on July 4, 1997, Peart’s daughter and only child, 19-year-old Selena Taylor, was killed in a single-car accident on Highway 401 near the town of Brighton, Ontario on August 10. His common-law wife of 22 years, Jacqueline Taylor, succumbed to cancer only 10 months later on June 20, 1998. Peart, however, maintains that her death was the result of a “broken heart” and called it “a slow suicide by apathy. She just didn’t care.”

In his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, Peart writes of how he had told his bandmates at Selena’s funeral, “consider me retired.” Peart took a hiatus to mourn and reflect, during which time he traveled extensively throughout North America on his BMW motorcycle, covering 88,000 km (55,000 miles). After his journey ended, Peart decided to return to the band. Peart wrote Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road as a chronicle of his geographical and emotional journey.

While Peart was visiting long-time Rush photographer Andrew MacNaughtan in Los Angeles, MacNaughtan introduced Peart to his future wife, photographer Carrie Nuttall. They married on September 9, 2000.

In early 2001, Peart announced to his bandmates that he was ready to return to recording and performing. The product of the band’s return was the 2002 album Vapor Trails. At the start of the ensuing tour in support of the album, it was decided amongst the band members that Peart would not take part in the daily grind of press interviews and “Meet and Greet” sessions upon their arrival in a new city that typically monopolise a touring band’s daily schedule. While Peart has always shied away from these types of in-person encounters, it was decided that having to needlessly expose him to an endless stream of questions about the tragic events of his life was quite unnecessary.

Since the release of Vapor Trails and reuniting with his fellow band mates, Peart has returned to work as a full-time musician. Rush has since released a cover EP, Feedback in June 2004 and their 18th studio album Snakes & Arrows in May 2007, which were supported by three additional tours in 2004, 2007, and 2008 respectively.

Musicianship

Style and influences
Peart (right) performing with Rush.

Peart is consistently ranked as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time by fans, fellow musicians, and magazines.

Peart had long played just matched grip, however, he decided to shift to traditional as part of his style reinvention in the mid-1990s under the tutelage of jazz coach Freddie Gruber. Shortly after the filming of his first instructional DVD A Work in Progress, Peart went back to using primarily matched, though he does switch back to traditional when playing songs from Test for Echo and during moments when he feels traditional grip is more appropriate, such as the rudimentary snare drum section of his drum solo, “The Floating Snare”. He discusses the details of these switches in the DVD Anatomy of a Drum Solo.

Equipment
Neil Peart and his 360 degree drumkit

With Rush, Peart has played Slingerland, Tama, Ludwig, and Drum Workshop (DW) drums, in that order. In concert, Peart uses an elaborate 360-degree drum kit, with a large acoustic set in front and electronic drums to the rear.
Neil Peart began incorporating Simmons Electronic Drums beginning with 1984′s Grace Under Pressure
Neil Peart began incorporating Simmons Electronic Drums beginning with 1984′s Grace Under Pressure

During the late 1970s, Peart augmented his acoustic setup with diverse percussion instruments including orchestra bells, tubular bells, wind chimes, crotales, timbales, timpani, gong, temple blocks, bell tree, triangle, and melodic cowbells. Peart has performed several songs primarily using the electronic portion of his drum kit. (e.g. “Red Sector A”, “Closer to the Heart” on A Show of Hands (video) and “Mystic Rhythms” on R30.) Peart’s drum solos also feature sections performed primarily on the electronic portion of his kit.

Shortly after making the choice to include electronic drums and triggers, Peart added what has become another trademark of his kit: his rotating drum riser. During live Rush shows, the automated rotating riser allows Peart to swap dynamically the prominent portions of the kit (“front”, traditional kit; and “back” electronic kit). A staple of Peart’s live drum solos has been the in-performance rotation-and-swap of the front and back kits as part of the solo itself. This special effect simultaneously provides a symbolic transition of drum styles within the solo, as well as providing a visual treat for the audience.

In the early 2000s, Peart began taking full advantage of the advances in electronic drum technology; primarily incorporating Roland V-Drums and continued use of samplers with his existing set of acoustic percussion. Peart’s digitally sampled library of both traditional and exotic sounds has grown over the years with his music.

In April 2006, Neil took delivery of his third DW set, configured similarly to the R30 set, in a Tobacco Sunburst finish over curly maple exterior ply, with chrome hardware. He refers to this set as the “West Coast kit”, as he uses it when he is in Los Angeles. Besides using it on recent recordings with Vertical Horizon, he played it while composing parts for Rush’s latest studio album, Snakes & Arrows. It features a custom 23″ bass drum, otherwise all sizes remain the same as the R30 kit.

On March 20, 2007 Peart revealed that Drum Workshop prepared a new set of red-painted DW maple shells with black hardware and gold “Snakes & Arrows” logos for Neil to play on the Snakes & Arrows Tour.

Solos

Peart is often regarded as one of the finest practitioners of the in-concert drum solo. These solos have been featured on every live album released by the band. On the early live albums (All the World’s a Stage & Exit…Stage Left), the drum solo was included as part of a song. On all subsequent live albums, the drum solo has been included on a separate track. His most recent instructional DVD, Anatomy of a Drum Solo, is an in-depth examination of how he constructs a solo. He uses his solo from the 2004 R30 30th anniversary tour as the basis for examination, along with other lectures and demonstrations on how to construct a drum solo that is musical instead of indulgent.

Lyrics

Peart is also the main lyricist for Rush. Literature has always heavily influenced his writings (“By-Tor and the Snow Dog”, “Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage”, “The Necromancer”, “Xanadu”), mythology (“The Fountain of Lamneth”, “Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres”) and philosophy (“Anthem”, “2112″, “Something for Nothing”); however, nearly as much would deal with real world or personal issues such as life on the road (“Fly by Night”, “Making Memories”), and lost innocence (“Lakeside Park”).

The song “2112″ focuses on the struggle of an individual against the collectivist forces of a totalitarian state. This became the band’s breakthrough release, but also brought unexpected criticism, mainly due to the credit of inspiration Peart gave to Ayn Rand in the liner notes. “There was a remarkable backlash, especially from the English press, this being the late seventies, when collectivism was still in style, especially among journalists,” Peart said. “They were calling us ‘Junior fascists’ and ‘Hitler lovers.’ It was a total shock to me”.

Weary of accusations of fascism or ideological fealty to Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, Peart has sought to remind listeners of his eclecticism and independence in interviews. He did not, however, try to argue in defense of Rand’s views:
“     For a start, the extent of my influence by the writings of Ayn Rand should not be overstated. I am no one’s disciple.     ”

The 1980 album Permanent Waves saw Peart cease to use fantasy literature or ancient mythology in his writing. 1981′s Moving Pictures showed that Peart was still interested in heroic, mythological figures, but would now place them firmly in a modern and reality based context. The song “Limelight” from the same album is an autobiographical account of Peart’s reservations regarding his own popularity and the pressures with fame. From Permanent Waves onward, most of Peart’s lyrics began to revolve around social, emotional, and humanitarian issues, usually from an objective standpoint and employing the use of metaphors and symbolic representation.

Opinions of Peart’s lyrics have always been divided. While fans have lauded them as thoughtful and intelligent, some critics have called them over-wrought and bombastic. For example, in 2007, he was voted #2 on Blender magazine’s list of “worst lyricists in rock”.

Books

Peart is the author of four non-fiction books, the latest released in September of 2006. His growth as an author predates the published work by several years (not including his work as Rush’s primary lyricist), through private letters and short travelogues sent out to a small circle of friends and family. Peart’s first book, titled The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa,  was written in 1996 about a month-long bicycling tour through Cameroon in November 1988. The book details Peart’s travels through towns and villages with four fellow riders. The original had a limited print run, but after the critical and commercial success of Neil’s second book, Masked Rider was re-issued and remains in print as of 2006.

After losing his wife and only daughter, Peart penned Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road.  Peart and the rest of the band were always able to keep his private life at a distance from his public image in Rush. However, Ghost Rider is a first-person narrative of Peart on the road, on motorcycle, in an effort to put his life back together as he embarked on an extensive journey across North America.

Deciding to take a road trip, this time by car, Peart reflects on his life, his career, his family and the thing that ties them all together: Music. This is covered in Peart’s third book Traveling Music: The Soundtrack Of My Life And Times.  It follows Peart still carrying emotional scars, but building a new life. As with his previous two books, it is a first person narrative.

Thirty years after Peart joined Rush, the band found itself on its 30th anniversary tour. Released in September 2006, Roadshow: Landscape With Drums, A Concert Tour By Motorcycle  details the tour both from behind Neil’s drumkit and on his BMW R1150GS and BMW R1200GS motorcycles.

DVDs

Apart from Rush’s video releases as a band, Peart has released two instructional DVDs

* A Work in Progress. Miami, Florida: Warner Bros. Publications. 2002. ISBN 0757990290 Originally released on VHS in 1996 and re-released on DVD in 2002.
* Anatomy of A Drum Solo S.l.: Hudson Music: Distributed by Hal Leonard. 2005. ISBN 1423407008

Awards and honours

Peart has received the following awards in the Modern Drummer magazine reader’s poll:

* Hall of Fame: 1983
* Best Rock Drummer: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 2006, 2008 (won vote count, but ineligible*)
* Best Multi-Percussionist: 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986
* Best Percussion Instrumentalist: 1982
* Most Promising New Drummer: 1980
* Best All Around: 1986
* 1986 Honor Roll: Rock Drummer, Multi-Percussion

(* – As a member of the Honor Roll in these categories, he is no longer eligible for votes in the above categories.)

* Best Instructional Video: 2006, for Anatomy of A Drum Solo
* Best Drum Recording of the 1980s, 2007, for “YYZ” from Exit…Stage Left

* Best Recorded Performance:
o 1980: Permanent Waves
o 1981: Moving Pictures
o 1982: Exit…Stage Left
o 1983: Signals
o 1985: Grace Under Pressure
o 1986: Power Windows
o 1988: Hold Your Fire
o 1989: A Show of Hands
o 1990: Presto
o 1992: Roll the Bones
o 1993: Counterparts
o 1997: Test for Echo
o 1999: Different Stages
o 2002: Vapor Trails
o 2004: R30
o 2007: Snakes & Arrows

Peart has received the following awards from DRUM! magazine for 2007:

* Drummer of the Year
* Best Progressive Rock Drummer
* Best Live Performer
* Best DVD (Anatomy Of A Drum Solo)
* Best Drumming Album (Snakes & Arrows)

Peart received the following awards from DRUM! magazine for 2008:

* Drummer of the Year
* Best Progressive Rock Drummer (Runner-Up)
* Best Mainstream Pop Drummer (Runner-Up)
* Best Live Drumming Performer

Along with his bandmates Lee and Lifeson, Peart was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio was the first rock band to be so honoured, as a group.

Movies

He portrayed himself in the 2007 film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres, and performed the “Drum Solo of Life” in order to resurrect the character Meatwad after having his head blown apart by Master Shake. He hung around with a nefarious character known as Walter Mellon.