RIP Neil Peart
We lost one of the greatest rock drummers of all time. His licks are the most air- drummed fills ever!
When I began playing drums at 14, I thought I had a handle on it. Once I heard him I wanted to toss the sticks away and pick up the kazoo and stick with that! LOL
Greg 
Calico696 Not only one of the best drummers to walk the earth but an unbelievable lyricist.
My first concert was Rush 1984 Radio City Music Hall.
Steve 
Cleo I remember when I was a teenager and first started listening to Rush and listening to this guy play the drums was unreal. Glad I got to see them in concert once.
Metsman I was introduced to Rush by a friend on my floor in college who was also a DJ that knew I was into all kinds of music, especially Prog Rock and Jazz Fusion. He played the 1977 lp "A farewell to Kings" and I was hooked by their technicality and the way they sounded like more than just 3 guys. I first saw them at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh and the show did not disappoint.
It was great that Alex and Geddy shielded him from interviews, etc. after the death of both his wife and daughter. The brotherhood and bond they shared was always something special. It's very sad that the "The Professor on the drum kit" has left this mortal coil.
Phil D. My favorite band for the last 40 + years, I was truly shocked by the news.
What a crappy way to start 2020.....
RIP Neil, and best wishes to your family and loved ones.
Gman Yeah heard Pat St John announce the sad news on Sirius radio about an hour ago! RIP...
Lenny Rock RIP. Another 40+ year fan. Probably started listening around 1975. He played in a band that was arguably the most talented progressive rock trio. His lyrics were at a different level than most other bands. He will be missed...
iJay I gasped out loud when I saw that news.
Besides being one of the greatest drummers, he wrote some really good books.
So young- so sad...
Blackcat 
auntiel 
mike l 
Roywhite Rush has been one of my faves since the 70s.
2112 is amazing and a headphone classic. Saw Rush on their Moving Pictures tour while on leave in Philly. My brother and I and some lucky fans near us enjoyed the concert with some fine fine hawaiian.
Then the Grace Under Pressure tour at the Meadowlands. I bought that excellent album the next day.
Neil is indeed the best.
CBGB Not surprising Calico. Neil was a very private person. He lost his first family due to tragedy. Remember his Limelight lyrics " I can’t pretend a stranger is a long-awaited friend". He was diagnosed 3.5 years ago with brain cancer but the public never knew. He was an extraordinary genuine person.
When they would have Meet and Greets, Neil didn’t participate. Yes, a very private person.
John Sutton Blackcat
In earlier years, yes, Neil did attend the meet and greets, but because of the tight bond Geddy and Alex had with him as Brothers of the Band, they did knew that he had mainly participated in earlier years due to what he felt was his duty in his bond with them. In appreciation of that and their bond, as well as the pain he was already in having lost his daughter to an auto accident and his wife to cancer, all in a relatively short period of time, they shielded him thereafter and kept him out of the "Limelight" of the meet and greets and public interviews so that he didn't have to face both the uncomfortableness and difficult questions about his loved ones deaths. That is truly a close family bond and I always respected them all the more for that.
He did write a number of books too which are definitely worth reading. I haven't yet read them all though, but he's quite a thoughtful individual that got a rep as a super conservative at first, due to some of Ayn Rand's books being an earlier inspiration and influencing his lyric writing at the time. Of course, as he put it, the books were what he needed as a person at that time of his life, it didn't mean that he idolized the author, nor their philosophy.
I was a fan since the first record I heard, as I mentioned earlier. After I drove down to Pittsburgh from Slippery Rock to see them at the Civic Arena, I went to a number of their concerts afterwards. You could just close your eyes and hear the nuances that his percussion added to the music at just the right times to make the instrumentation extraordinary. I don't think Rutsey ever became quite the drummer that Neil was and it was his drumming and lyric writing ability that helped make their success in my opinion. I saw them also at the Meadowlands and at MSG and the Nassau Coliseum with my girlfriend in the early 80's who saw as many of their concerts as possible after that, even after she was married and had children, she would drag her boys out to see "the greatest band alive", as she considered them.
Triumph, who with the Planetsmashers are my other two favorite Canadian bands made a posting of facebook after the announcement, both in support of the band and lauding Neil. They've been seen by many as Rush clones, but even though, yes, they are a talented and technical Canadian power trio, the song similarity mostly ends. An audience for one isn't always the same you'd find listening to the other. In any case the respect Triumph had for the band that essentially eclipsed them throughout their career was palpable.
The thing about Neil too, was that as good as he was, he always wanted to improve his skills and still studied with other teachers later in life as he heard other drummers that impressed him. He was also a fan of both Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa and Jazz drumming in general, including releasing drumming tributes to Buddy Rich. It was bad enough we recently lost Ginger Baker, but now with the death of Neil Peart, wow, you have to wonder if there will be a third before the cycle ends, as the saying goes.
And though we never got a chance to bring our son to a Rush show, I’m glad we took him to see Cinema Strangiato last August at the Rockaway AMC.
Ha.
I lost most of my hearing in right ear to Rush concert at the Paladium in 1979.
Best concert ever , 2nd row seats!
His drumming is the best I ever experienced.
I don't think anyone can ever match that again.
In a depression all the great rock stars are disappearing so soon....
Ric Ocasek, now Neil. Bowie 4 years ago. etc.
AJMS 
Rush was the band of my high school days (along with Queen). Theirs was the music that made up the sound track of most of my life, and "Spirit of the Radio" is *still* my "new beginnings" song. My first Rush show was in 1983 in Syracuse; my last was this past tour in Newark.
The best part was that I got to turn my teenage daughter on to them and she got to see them three times.
I'm not a musician, but I like to write, so Neil's lyrics - and also his books - were the hook that kept me coming back.
JJB 
Now he can "walk the caves of ice, dine on honey dew and drink the milk of Paradise"
By-Tor JJB
That's somewhat funny to me. I understand because "Spirit of Radio" is what comes on every morning to wake me up;-) It's in my CD alarm clock!
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