In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Rush’s lead singer and bassist Geddy Lee talked about his late bandmate Neil Peart and paid him respect by recalling what a unique musician he was.
The Canadian musician Geddy Lee has been known for being the lead singer, bassist, and keyboardist of Rush. Replacing the bassist and vocalist of the band, Jeff Jones, Geddy Lee achieved a rare success with the band by handling a triple duty.
The members of Rush completed their final tour, ‘R40 Tour,’ back in 2015, which marked the 40th anniversary of their late drummer Neil Peart joining the band. However, earlier in 2020, Peart died from an aggressive form of brain cancer.
In his latest interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Geddy Lee shared his opinions on his late bandmate Neil Peart’s music by mentioning what a unique musician he was. Lee stated that Peart was a ‘monster drummer of the highest magnitude.’ He also mentioned that the iconic drummer set the bar really high for himself and did everything he could to reach that high level throughout his music career.
Here is what Geddy Lee stated about Neil Peart:
“I’ve never met a musician like him. He was a monster drummer of the highest magnitude. I’ve met some great musicians but I had the pleasure to watch him every night onstage and watch him improvise, as he got older, through his solos.
When he became determined to add improvisation as part of his drum solo every night, that’s a bold, brave step for him and the level of complexity that he functioned at. I don’t know many other musicians that can function at that level. So for me, I was always trying to live up to his watermark, so to speak, because he pushed me. He would say the same thing about me, but of course, I always thought, ‘No, no, I’m following you.'”
Lee continued:
“Peart set the bar really high for himself, and as his body started to let him down he worried that he would betray that. He was really big on that. He used to say all the time that he never wanted to let down the kid in him.”
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