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Neil
Peart was born on September 12, 1952 in Hamilton, Ontario. He
started playing the drums at the age of 13 years old. As a child, he
was inspired by the works of Keith Moon, Carl Palmer, and Bill Bruford.
Neil joined Rush in June of 1974, replacing their original drummer, John
Rutsey. Thus, the Rush we know today was born. Neil had spent
time with other bands, but none had ever reached popularity. Peart
plays percussion and writes the lyrics for Rush. His aggressive
drumming can be related to that of Keith Moon's. At first, the songs
Neil wrote were more like long epic poems that would last anywhere from
five to twenty minutes long. Some of the longer songs he wrote were
2112 (which is somewhere around 20 minutes long) and Xanadu (which is
around 12 minutes long). After the release of Permanent Waves,
however, he started writing shorter, less intense songs. Neil enjoys
the arts. He especially enjoys literature. He enjoys
literature so much, many of the songs he writes are based on books,
novels, and mythological events and people. For example, the songs
2112 and Anthem are based on Ayn Rand's book, Anthem. Some songs are
also based on people, events, and places. The song Earthshine is
based on a Leonardo Divinchi theory and Tai Shan is a mountain in
China. Neil Peart has also written books himself. A few of the
books are The African Drum (1988), the Masked Rider (1996), Ghost Rider,
and Traveling Music. He has also made an instructional video on how
to play drums called A Work in Progress. Neil's first wife,
Jacqueline Taylor, died due to cancer in 1998, and his only child, Selena,
died just a year before in August of 1997 due to a car crash. His
current wife, Carrie Nuttall, is a photographer, and they live in Los
Angeles, California. Neil Pert has been named The Greatest Rock
Drummer of all time. He has won countless awards. Some of the
awards he won are: Most Promising New Drummer (1980), Best Rock Drummer
(1980, 1981, 1982, 1984), Best Percussion Instrumentalist (1982, 1984,
1984, 1986), Best Multi Percussionist (1983), Percussion Hall of Fame
(1983), and Best All Around Drummer (1986), just to name a
few.
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