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The drummer that taught Neil Peart about “freedom”
Every musician has one hero that makes them pick up an instrument and join a band. The late Rush drummer Neil Peart has been that person for many, and when he was younger, the artist he idolised was The Who drummer Keith Moon, a man who taught him all about “freedom”.
In Peart’s mind, if he worked hard enough at mastering the art of drumming, one day, he could become the next Keith Moon. The Canadian soon learnt that practice alone wouldn’t make him become the reincarnation of his hero. However, just because he couldn’t play like Moon didn’t mean he could establish his own style.
The way that Moon expressed himself at the drumkit taught Peart many valuable lessons that allowed him to be confident enough to do the same. Although his personality was less manic, and his playing was more precise than The Who’s sticksman, his technique was true to him, which is all that mattered.
“It is certainly true that Keith Moon was one of the first drummers to get me really excited about rock drumming,” Peart told Modern Drummer in 1980. “His irreverent and maniacal personality, as expressed through his drumming, affected me greatly.”
In the same interview, Peart also thanked Moon for providing him with “a new idea of the freedom and that there was no need to be a fundamentalist. I really liked his approach to putting crash cymbals in the middle of a roll. Then I got into a more disciplined style later on as I gained a little more understanding on the technical side.”
Peart knew that his ultra-technical style was at the other end of the drumming spectrum compared to the freewheeling brilliance of Moon. Still, that didn’t mean the Englishman didn’t inspire him greatly. “To me, he was the kind of drummer who did great things by accident rather than design. But the energy, expressiveness and innovation that he represented at the time was very important and great.”
He added: “It is ironic that I wanted to be in a band that played Who songs and, when I finally got into one, I discovered that I didn’t like playing drums like Keith Moon.”
When Peart tried to play like Moon, it was unauthentic, and nobody knew that more than the man himself. Once he turned his back on trying to pretend to be like the beating heart of The Who, Peart became comfortable in his own skin behind the drumkit. A decision which pivotally helped him become a drumming superstar.
