Neil Peart -- The Latest News

Neil Peart has posted a June update to his website entitled "Backstage Byways."

There's a lot of great stories in this one, including his daughter Olivia's first Rush concert in New Orleans!

It was also Olivia's first Rush concert, and she loved it. I had thought she might last a song or two, but she danced and air-drummed right to the end. Manager Ray arranged a "box" for them, high up over everything, and Olivia couldn't get over all the people.

"There must be two-thousand-and-eighteen people," she said.

Ray laughed and told her, "Actually there are about eleven thousand!"

Olivia looked puzzled, "Are they all here to see my dad and Uncle Alex and Uncle Geddy?"

When Ray assured her they were, she said, "That's too silly."

Then she wondered, "Do they know he's my dad?"

Ray laughed and said, "They probably do."

There are also a lot of photos, including this one of Neil and his two drum kits for the R40 Live tour:

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, R40, written by NEP

Neil has posted a new update to his website for June 2013: "Shunpikers in the Shadowlands."

There's so much to like about this long update. Among the subjects Neil discusses:

• His friend Brutus, with whom he traveled on this leg and is recovering from "stupid" cancer. I was happy to read that Brutus is feeling better and that this "crucial test" of touring with Neil went well.
• A new story that Neil wrote during this leg for Motorcycle News called "Drummer With a Singletrack Mind"
• A review of the definition of "shunpiking"
• A visit to Amsterdam
• A visit Rothenburg
• Surviving the Cuban Missile Crisis
• A long discussion about the Rush song, "Heresy"
• A visit to Neuschwanstein
• Trying to keep up on the Autobahn
• Flooding in Southern Germany
• Fine dining in Dresden

• "Bone-jarring" roads in Poland
• A discussion of the Rush song "Red Sector A"
• Waiting in ferry lines and "The Yellow Vest" man

• Driving standards of Europe vs. North America
• Visiting southern Sweden and playing for 35,000 people
• Chatting with his daughter Olivia on an iPad (in the ferry line)
• Visiting Finland

And, as they say, much more.

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil Peart has posted a new story to his website. You can read it here:

Neil Peart.net: Witness to the Fall

In this update, Neil writes about seeing his first drum teacher, Don George, whom he hadn't seen in 45 years!

In recent years Don and I had been in touch by mail and email, and he sent me videos of his current teaching ideas and methods. I was pleased to see that he was obviously still a gifted and dedicated teacher. For his part, when talking about this long-ago student, Don was once quoted, "Neil didn't have another teacher for thirty years, so I must have done something right."

And he did -- Don gave me a strong enough direction toward what I needed to know that I could follow it through those decades. Most of all, he gave me the encouragement that I could be a drummer, if I worked at it. Essentially, Don kept me climbing that mountain for three decades, until I needed Freddie Gruber and Peter Erskine to guide me to higher elevations.

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil Peart has written a new essay on his website about his life over the past few months. It's definitely worth reading:

Where Words Fail, Music Speaks

In this inspiring update of "5,923 words and twelve photographs," Neil writes about:

• Accepting the Ronnie James Dio Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Revolver Magazine Golden Gods Awards
• Writing a better acceptance "letter" for the Ronnie James Dio Memorial award, which he sent to Revolver
• Attending the three-day event for the Governor-General's Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Performing Arts
• Walking around Ottawa with his daughter
• Meeting Pete Townshend
• Recording drums for Vertical Horizon's upcoming album
• Seeing the Jack DeJohnette Trio perform, which includes one of my favorite passages because it reminded me of how I've felt after watching gifted Jazz drummers:

"Jack's playing was supremely delicate and subtle, yet interspersed with deceptively complex rhythms and cymbal shadings, and a constant, yet seemingly-effortless pulse. Driving home after with my friend Chris Stankee (also Jack's representative from the Sabian cymbal company), we talked about the rhythmic lilt that lingered, echoing in our minds' ears. It was a Latin kind of syncopation, but the astonishing thing was that it was a rhythmic statement they had never actually played, but only implied in the inner clockwork of their music."

• A story about birds I'd never heard: "In the late nineteenth century, a British drug manufacturer named Eugene Schieffelin got it into his belfry that all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's plays should be introduced to the United States."

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has written a new story for his website with an update called "At the Gate of the Year." Lots of great stories and reflections in this one.

Now, at the pivot of another year (my sixtieth, I am proud to crow--how foolish to regret the passing years, if you consider the alternative), I am drawn to a kind of "reckoning," a time to pause and reflect. The title phrase has long resonated for me that way: "the gate of the year."

NeilPeart.net: At the Gate of the Year

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Update - 7/16/11 - Note that this story has two "pages." There are some great pictures of the Gorge show, as well as Neil's impressions on page 2.

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Neil has updated his website with stories from the final leg of the "Time Machine" tour. You can read it here:

The Frying Pan and the Freezer

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has updated his website with stories from the European leg of the "Time Machine" tour. You can read it here:

Singletrack Minds in the Sceptered Isle

Excerpt (about the photo):

In a previous story, "The Power of Magical Thinking," I concluded with a photograph of the audience I had taken from the stage in Santiago, Chile -- the first time in my life I had ever done that, and a memorable occasion to capture that way.

I decided to do the same in London, as another memorable occasion, for all of the reasons outlined above. On my way back up the steps and across the stage to the drums for the encore, I had Lorne hand me my camera, and while Alex and Geddy were tossing out T-shirts to the crowd, I snapped this photograph.

Like the photo of the Santiago audience, this one tells many stories. First of all, it's of me and my bandmates headlining in front of 13,517 people in London, England -- exactly forty years since I arrived there as an ambitious teenager.

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has an updated blog post called Eastern Resurrection. Lots of great stories in this one, including:

• How Neil prepares his daughter for when he's leaving on a tour
• How Neil feels about being called a "Faith Buster"
• How Neil's childhood Easter Bunny didn't "rise from the dead"

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Updated: 7:19 p.m. with more details

Neil has an updated blog post called Talking Drums in Death Valley, where he discusses a new instructional drumming video Taking Center Stage: A Lifetime of Live Performance and his new book, Far and Away: A Prize Every Time.

Speaking of his new book, there's a limited edition of Far and Away available exclusively at the Rush Backstage Club. Here are the details:

This limited edition version of "Far and Away" has its own charcoal grey cloth slipcase adorned with a copper stamping of Neil's drumhead logo. Inside the book there will be a special edition bookplate that is hand-numbered and signed by Neil himself! This limited edition hardcover is exclusive to the Rush Backstage Club meaning, the only place you can get it is here!

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates

This is a short update about the fundraising that NeilPeart.net undertook for the Red Cross of Chile.

NEP News, Weather and Sports

Over 2,000 people made donations, many of them more than the "suggested minimum," and within a little over a month, almost $5,000 had been raised.

Our Eponymous Founder volunteered to match that amount--and we are all very proud to present this check to Cruz Roja Chilena.

Great job, everyone, for helping out!

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates

Neil has posted a November, 2010, update to his website: "The Power of Magical Thinking."

There's also a chance to donate to Chile's "La Cruz Roja" (Red Cross), whose resources have been strained by the earthquake in February of this year -- as well as the rescue of the 33 miners at Camp Hope.

Let's all help out if we can.

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has posted a September, 2010, update to his website called "Cruel Summer."

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has posted an August, 2010, update to his website called "Theme and Variations."

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has posted a May 2010 update to his website called "Time Machines."

Labels: Clockwork Angels, neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has posted a February 2010 update to his website called "Fire on Ice."

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has posted an update to his website called "Autumn Serenade - November 2009."

Labels: drums, neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has posted an update to his website called "A Little Yellow Cabin on Yellowstone Lake - August 2009."

In this update, Neil writes about his last solo trip before "the Blessed Event--the birth of our baby in August. After that, I wouldn't be going anywhere for a while."

Neil has so much to say in this update, there are actually two parts. One of the most interesting for me was the section where he breaks down the history behind the lyrics for "Manhattan Project."

There are other interesting reflections on what's good about America, opinions on Ralph Nader and Jane Fonda, and new country song lyrics.

Labels: neilpeart.net, NEP motorcycling, News updates, written by NEP

Neil has posted an update to his website called "Under the Marine Layer - June 2009." About two-thirds into the update, Neil drops a big surprise:

At the same time, under that same marine layer, my wife Carrie was seven months pregnant. [Pause for sharp intake of breath and shiver of apprehension.] Our baby was growing and kicking, protected and insulated in its own oceanic fluid, its own marine layer. The anxious (not to say terrified) father kind of wished the baby could stay there, safe from harm, and not have to embark upon a life of menace and potential tragedy. He had lost before, and probably couldn't stand to lose again. People kept saying it was going to be all right, and he tried to keep telling himself that. Even in the June Gloom.

When I first read that passage, I had to go back and read it again. Did Neil really just write that he was going to be a father?

Congratulations to Carrie and Neil!

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, written by NEP

Neil Peart has posted a new Latest News to his website. This time, he writes about a quest in the Laurentian Mountains to find "The Eye of Satan."

The Quest for the Phantom Tower - March 2009

Labels: neilpeart.net, News updates, web article, written by NEP