Neil Peart Has Passed Away

[HemiBeers]

Of course I'm sad because he was a childhood hero of mine, but what really makes me sad is that he'd just retired to spend more time with his family... and then that time was robbed from him. It's going to be hard for his wife and his young daughter. I guess they had time to say goodbye, but what a painful thing.

 

Rest in peace, Neil.

 

It really is a tragedy. I think his parents are still alive too :(

 

That is seriously horrible if true.

 

That such a great mind and life is rewarded with such tragedy.

 

Sickening stupid world.

 

Both parents have outlived him, something no parent should ever have to endure.

 

One might have thought Fate would perhaps spare the man any more grief, as he'd had more than his share. Or at least spare him having to tell his ten year old daughter that he was going to die.

 

An early death is one thing, but glioblastoma is particularly cruel.

 

Not to get overly clinical, but it looked like he outlasted the average survival rate. Hopefully he was functioning well enough to enjoy time with family and friends.

 

Sorry if the shocks or makes anyone sad. I get into research when trying to make sense of something like this.

"What is the life expectancy of a person with glioblastoma?

 

 

 

 

Survival rates and life expectancy

The median survival time with glioblastoma is 15 to 16 months in people who get surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment. Median means half of all patients with this tumor survive to this length of time. Everyone with glioblastoma is different.May 15, 2017"

 

[BigBob]

Neil's lyrics affected my life for the better. I remember when I was 24 years old living in my parents house with no real direction in life. Then I really listened the words of Freewill. And for once I felt like I could take control of life. Instead of waiting for opportunities or what ever to come my way, I took control of life. A real turning point in my life. It was also so refreshing to see some one who was a celebrity who shared the same beliefs I had with religion. I'm just so depressed right now, cause he was such a huge part of my life.

[capoetc]

A very sad day indeed.

 

I am just completing reading the posts here in this thread, having first spent the past couple hours texting and commiserating with friends. My feelings of sadness are for his wife Carrie and, especially, for 10 year old Olivia ... I hope Neil was able to pack a lifetime of memories into the past four years with his daughter.

 

So, now I sit here in solitude with my thoughts and memories, savoring a glass of The Macallan (18).

 

My first thought when I heard the news was a lyric from Dreamline:

 

When we are young

Wandering the face of the earth

Wondering what our dreams might be worth

Learning that we're only immortal

For a limited time

 

R.I.P. Neil Peart ..... and we thank you .... for everything.

[BigBob]

The irony is Neil would be VERY uncomfortable with our grief HAHAHAAA. Good ol Neil.

 

I can’t help imagining the following scenario:

 

Scene: Heaven, The Afterlife, Elysian Fields, Valhalla

 

Jesus: Oh My ME!!! Look over there, look who just walked in through the gates, it’s NEIL FREAKING PEART!!!

Buddha (fanning self): I can’t believe it!

Zeus: Think he’ll sign an autograph?

Odin: For us, sure! Of course! Of all his fans, no one can say we aren’t the biggest!

 

(Group of deities heads in Neil’s direction. Neil spies them and cringes).

 

Neil, muttering as he tries to evade the Fangods: Oh cripes, not THIS shit again! Where’s the Praetorian Guard? Oh f**k, that’s right, they’re not dead yet. Bastards.

Jesus et al: Neil, Neil, you’re the greatest drummer ever!

Neil: Go away

Allah: Come on, please sign my book!

Neil: No. Leave me alone. I’m not famous anymore. Now go away!

Buddha: Play Tom Sawyer!!

 

Apologies if this offends. I need a little gallows humor to cope.

 

Brilliant

[Blue J]

I’ll share a brief memory...I have posted a number of times before in this forum about how an older brother of mine turned me on to Rush, when I was only about six or seven years old- Fly By Night, 2112, and A Farewell to Kings (and for whatever reason, I didn’t hear any of Caress of Steel or Hemispheres until sometime later)...and Permanent Waves was the ‘new’ Rush album back then, so I’d heard it as well. I was hopelessly hooked, in the best way. Just a budding rock and roller, in first grade.

 

Neil Peart was my brother’s inspiration to learn to play the drums (which, by extension, was my inspiration to start playing the drums too, when I was about twelve)...and my brother was SO good...

 

The memory I wanted to share is of him playing YYZ on his own Slingerland kit (just like the one that Neil was playing at the time)...he had it down, I remember watching him play it, and to my ears, he was spot on, absolutely perfect! (But I was only about ten years old at the time). ;)

 

I will always be grateful to my brother for turning me on to a band that truly changed me. He was killed in 1986...and my bond with Rush was many degrees deeper because of that.

 

Hold Your Fire was the first album that I bought on my own, the first album they released that was not a hand me down from my brother...because he was gone by then. And the very first lyrics you hear on that album are, of course, “tough times demand tough talk, tough times demand tough hearts...” (How did Neil know??). I was floored.

 

I’ll also always be grateful to Neil, Ged, and Alex for everything they gave of themselves- for the benefit of all of us.

[Mara]

Peart must’ve written something about his ordeal.

 

He probably did, but I doubt it will ever see publication. And I think that's as it should be; even if it were made available to fans, I am not sure I would want to read it. It would feel like an invasion of privacy.

[GeminiRising79]

Thanks for your amazing music and memories, Neil. Always loved you... Edited January 11, 2020 by GeminiRising79

[Show Don't Tell]

Currently watching the Colorado Avalanche game, and they were just playing TSoR in between whistles. And then the organist did what sounded like a quick rendition right after. Cool to hear. Edited January 11, 2020 by Show Don't Tell

[thesweetscience]

https://www.alternativenation.net/rush-drummer-neil-peart-last-photo-death-leaks/

 

He was looking pretty good in that photo. If you didn't know he was sick, that picture wouldn't tell you.

Yep. He didn't look sick at all.

[RushX1]

Peart must’ve written something about his ordeal.

 

I was thinking the same. His website neailpeart.net, which has been taken offline, is still available via Internet Archive (last snapshot July 2019). It appears that all the updates and his last blog post on the site ceased around May 2016 which lines up with the quote, "The cause was brain cancer, which Peart had been quietly battling for three-and-a-half years." My guess, and of course it's purely a guess, is that once he was diagnosed sometime around May 2016, he quietly abandoned whatever he deemed as trivial pursuits. I imagine the blog would be one of those, but writing as a whole? Who knows. I would love to hear that he wrote some type of epilogue to his career and/or thoughts.

[lerxt1990]

I'm looking at the name of this thread and I still cannot, cannot believe it.

[Rhyta]

Currently watching the Colorado Avalanche game, and they were just playing TSoR in between whistles. And then the organist did what sounded like a quick rendition right after. Cool to hear.

I'll bet even money every arena with a game tonight will play some Rush music. I always smile when I hear Tom Sawyer or Subdivisons during a game. Neil's got a drum kit in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

http://andrewolson.c.../hockey_kit.htm

Edited January 11, 2020 by Rhyta

[theredtamasrule]

Started listening to 2112 at 21:12. Silly I know. But it’s till a awesome listen even after all this time. And every Professor fill is even more profound now.

[theredtamasrule]

Well obviously I missed the 21:12 toast!!

[theredtamasrule]

Glasses up BITCHES

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

Started listening to 2112 at 21:12. Silly I know.

 

Not silly at all The Priests praise Neil's name on this night.

[Wandering Hermit]

Well obviously I missed the 21:12 toast!!

Well obviously I missed the 21:12 toast!!

 

Not in my time zone! :)

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

Glasses up BITCHES

 

[Papa Emeritus]

Peart must’ve written something about his ordeal.

Peart must’ve written something about his ordeal.

 

Interesting. One would think so.

 

I was thinking the same. Whether a letter or a book, wonder if he wrote something with the plan to release it posthumously.

[ST3V]

One of the most influential people in music history.

 

 

Goddam. What a man.

[CrimsonE]

The irony is Neil would be VERY uncomfortable with our grief HAHAHAAA. Good ol Neil.

 

I can’t help imagining the following scenario:

 

Scene: Heaven, The Afterlife, Elysian Fields, Valhalla

 

Jesus: Oh My ME!!! Look over there, look who just walked in through the gates, it’s NEIL FREAKING PEART!!!

Buddha (fanning self): I can’t believe it!

Zeus: Think he’ll sign an autograph?

Odin: For us, sure! Of course! Of all his fans, no one can say we aren’t the biggest!

 

(Group of deities heads in Neil’s direction. Neil spies them and cringes).

 

Neil, muttering as he tries to evade the Fangods: Oh cripes, not THIS shit again! Where’s the Praetorian Guard? Oh f**k, that’s right, they’re not dead yet. Bastards.

Jesus et al: Neil, Neil, you’re the greatest drummer ever!

Neil: Go away

Allah: Come on, please sign my book!

Neil: No. Leave me alone. I’m not famous anymore. Now go away!

Buddha: Play Tom Sawyer!!

 

Apologies if this offends. I need a little gallows humor to cope.

 

Did anyone else read this with the voices of the Monty Python players in their heads?

[CrimsonE]

There were so many idols I was expecting to lose before Neil. I mean, Ringo's recently posted about snowmobiling, but he's Ringo. Never thought Neil would be the next to go, even with his health issues and Rush calling it quits. We've got some rough years ahead of us in the rock world, truly.

 

Who woulda thought Ozzy would outlive everybody?

 

 

However on a similar subject....this is why part of me is still worried about EVH....If Neil kept his illness under wraps like this...who's to say there's not a lot of details that Dave, and the VH family isn't keeping under wraps?

 

Never mind Ozzy--who would have thought Keith Richards is still going strong?

[BigMontanaSKY]

Peart must’ve written something about his ordeal.

 

I was thinking the same. His website neailpeart.net, which has been taken offline, is still available via Internet Archive (last snapshot July 2019). It appears that all the updates and his last blog post on the site ceased around May 2016 which lines up with the quote, "The cause was brain cancer, which Peart had been quietly battling for three-and-a-half years." My guess, and of course it's purely a guess, is that once he was diagnosed sometime around May 2016, he quietly abandoned whatever he deemed as trivial pursuits. I imagine the blog would be one of those, but writing as a whole? Who knows. I would love to hear that he wrote some type of epilogue to his career and/or thoughts.

 

The content of his last couple essays made me wonder about something like this (what took him.)

 

I feel like the real epilogue is "Clockwork Angels." If you look at that album from a science-minded view, it's about seizing life to live it in the moment and getting as much as you can out of it.

 

I do hope Carrie will share someday about anything else Neil wanted to share with the world. (I have seen what the end looks like with long term cancer. The family and friends might have been very secretive because it is such an awful time and a hard battle. In time she may share. I'm going to keep his family in my thoughts.)

[theredtamasrule]

Glasses up BITCHES

 

 

I raise a glass of Maker’s Cask Strength!! (Even though I can’t post a pic from my iPhone...).

[Rush Didact]

Even when I occasionally log into this site (and back when I logged in very frequently on Counterparts) it was generally to discuss other matters in the other forums/fora; religion, other bands, science, etc. Rarely would I visit the explicitly Rush-related pages anymore.

 

This morning while I was doing my daily habit of sitting and writing down whatever pops into my mind, I wrote:

 

"...once in the winter I went there instead of school and stood on the hill where there was some snow and water was iced into a very shallow pond and I threw rocks at it and I could hear Geddy sing about Brooding in the tower, watching oer the land..."

 

Then today around 2pm after I showered I put on my Moving Pictures tee shirt.

 

And then around 4PM I get a text from an ex-coworker with a few words that made my chest feel hollow and my head feel light.

 

Rush was introduced to me when I was 15, in 1982, by a school-mate named John Dar, who carted around a boom box and a 2112 tape. The first time he played it for me changed everything.

 

No rock lyricist was or is his equal. No lyricist wrote in such as way that I felt that he was writing to me and for me. I still feel that way. I was always half happy, half sad when I realized that there were other people out there that reacted as strongly to Neil's lyrics as I did. I though, "Hey, a kindred spirit!" But I also thought "Hey, this is my music, this is between him and me."

 

Yesterday I was reading Dirge Without Music by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Here it is:

 

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned

With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

 

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.

Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.

A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,

A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

 

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—

They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled

Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.

More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

 

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

Well said, WH. I understand, and I empathize all too completely. Thanks for the poignant choice of poem.