Rush drummer Neil Peart’s 1991 chat with journalist Marc Allan is featured in the latest installment of Osiris Media‘s The Tapes Archive podcast. The previously unreleased interview took place while Peart was in Hamilton, Ontario preparing for Rush’s tour in support of Roll The Bones.
Neil, who tragically succumbed to cancer last month, started by talking about his hesitancy to tour. “It’s one of those true dilemmas,” Peart explained. “Better to do it or not to do it, you know? And last time my decision was very pragmatic in a sense that I felt, well, if the band is going to be vital we’ve gotta be playing live, so if I’m gonna be in the band, I’ve gotta be playing live, where this time it is more of a sense of excitement about it all.”
The pair then discuss the drummer’s attitude towards Rush’s success, and how Peart had become comfortable with a random universe. “It’s frightening to try to form yourself a modus vivendi in the middle of seeming chaos,” the Rush lyricist said. “So I think you have to just juggle with those things and say, ‘Well, I’ll improve my odds the best I can,’ and also live to the point that if every day has to be my last one, ‘I could be satisfied with that.’ You spent your life up till now as well as you could, so there’s really no regrets except that you don’t get any more.”
Allan continued to ask Peart about his lyrics and the reaction to his words. Marc then brings up hot-at-the-time artist Vanilla Ice and Neil’s reaction to the hip-hop artist’s success. “I mean, to me, Vanilla Ice isn’t so offensive because he’s not pretending to be anything else,” Neil stated. “It’s the ones that are just as formulaic but pretend to be rebels and pretend to be rock and roll outlaws with leather jackets and everything.” Peart went on to take aim at the “light metal syndrome” and specifically calls out Bon Jovi. The conversation ends with the drummer talking about Rush bassist Geddy Lee rapping on Roll The Bones, his desire to tour Eastern Europe and love of art. Listen to Peart’s chat with Marc Allan below:
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