Remembering Neil Peart, A Monster Drummer With A Poet's Heart

When Canadian prog-rock innovators Rush were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, it was both somewhat surprising and totally appropriate that drummer Neil Peart opened the trio's acceptance speech. The musician and author, who passed away at the age of 67 on January 7 after a private, three-and-a-half-year struggle with brain cancer, famously eschewed the spotlight and rarely gave interviews. However, the Ontario native was a quiet leader who shaped Rush's voice, writing the bulk of the band's lyrics and maintaining a steely, rock-solid presence behind the drumkit.

"There's a stereotype about rock music, that it's mundane or predictable. Neil's lyrics were neither. ... [He] had the ability to express complicated ideas in a rock song," Donna Halper, an associate professor of media studies at Lesley University, tells NPR Music. A media historian and former broadcaster, Halper is credited with getting Rush their U.S. record deal and breaking the band: In 1974, while working as music director and a DJ at the legendary Cleveland radio station WMMS, she spun an import copy of Rush's early single, "Working Man," which promptly took off.