Rush drummer Neil Peart passed away on January 7, 2020 after a battle with the brain cancer known as glioblastoma. One year to the day of Peart's death, Rolling Stone has published a discussion of his legacy with his bandmates Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee, as well as his family.
Lifeson and Lee said Peart had zero interest in making his illness a public spectacle. Instead, he wanted to spend time with loved ones and have fun.
"Neil asked us not to discuss it with anyone," said Lifeson. "He just wanted to be in control of it. The last thing in the world he would want is people sitting on his sidewalk or driveway singing 'Closer to the Heart' or something. That was a great fear of his. He didn’t want that attention at all. And it was definitely difficult to lie to people or to sidestep or deflect somehow. It was really difficult."
"He didn’t want to waste his remaining time talking about shit like that," added Lee. "He wanted to have fun with us. And he wanted to talk about real things right up to the very end."
Lifeson later added that Peart spent a great deal of time listening to everything he accomplished with Rush.
"My guess is that he was just reviewing some of the things that he accomplished, in terms of music, anyways," said Lifeson. "And I think he was a little surprised at how well it turned out. I think that happens, you kind of forget. It was interesting to see him smile and feel really good about that. And when he still could write to us, he wrote about how he was reviewing some of our older music and how it stood up for him."
Read the full interview here.
