When I was young, my ambitions were very modest. I thought, ‘If only I could play at the battle of the bands at the Y, that would be the culmination of existence!’ And then the roller rink, and you work your way up branch by branch. Neil Peart Read Quote
I sang the hymns, and I read the Bible stories, but I was always perplexed, like, ‘Really? Jesus wants you for a sunbeam? For a what?’ Neil Peart Read Quote
To me, the highest expression of life is art with jokes. It’s very rarified, very difficult to accomplish if you want to be more than just funny and more than just jokes about human gaseousness. Neil Peart Read Quote
The reality is that my style of drumming is largely an athletic undertaking, and it does not pain me to realize that, like all athletes, there comes a time to… take yourself out of the game. Neil Peart Read Quote
Drumming completely eclipsed my life from age 13, when I started drum lessons. Everything disappeared. I’d done well in school up until that time. I was fairly adjusted socially up until that time. And I became completely monomania, obsessed all through my teens. Nothing else existed anymore. Neil Peart Read Quote
If I have to travel, I’m going to travel my way and travel in the real world. And I’m going to have conversations every day with people in rest stops and people in gas stations and people in hotels and diners. That nourishes me. Neil Peart Read Quote
It astonished me in the early Nineties to suddenly have musicians admit that they had been inspired and influenced by us. That meant a lot at that time. But of course, being human, the… disrespect isn’t even strong enough a word, is it? The opprobrium was painful. Being popular and hated is not satisfying. Neil Peart Read Quote
The real test of a musician is live performance. It’s one thing to spend a long time learning how to play well in the studio, but to do it in front of people is what keeps me coming back to touring. Neil Peart Read Quote
If it’s cross-country ski season, I’ll be out doing that, or snowshoeing up in Quebec. In my California home, I go to the local Y and I like doing yoga. It’s been hugely beneficial to me in injury avoidance. Neil Peart Read Quote
It’s interesting. I’ve known quite a few good athletes that can’t begin to play a beat on the drum set. Most team sport is about the smooth fluidity of hand-eye coordination and physical grace, where drumming is much more about splitting all those things up. Neil Peart Read Quote
