On January 7th, 2020, Neil Ellwood Peart passed away from brain cancer, after over three years of battling the disease in secret. He was considered a “long-term survivor” by then. According to Rolling Stone, Getty Lee said “Three and a half years later, he was still having a smoke on the porch. So he said a big ‘F*** you’ to the Big C as long as he could.”

“He was nothing if not stoic, that man. … He was pissed off, obviously. But he had to accept so much horrible sh*t. He got very good at accepting sh*tty news. And he was OK with it. He was going to do his best to stick around as long as he could, for the sake of his family. And he did unbelievably well. … He accepted his fate, certainly more gracefully than I would.”

Since joining the band in 1974, the Canadian musician, songwriter, and author, was best known as the drummer from Rush, however not everyone knows that he was also the primary lyricist.

“There is a quote from E.M. Forster. He used to say, ‘How do I know what I think until I see what I say?’ For me, that’s when I write.”

-Neil Peart

Throughout his life he won countless awards, was of course inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and was more recently inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame. He influenced countless artists, for example Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer, Chad Smith. Back in September, on what would’ve been Peart’s 69th birthday, Smith took a moment “to reflect on his artistic genius and the legacy he left behind”.

You can watch one of Neil Peart’s iconic solos below.