Get To Know Neil Peart(from his books)

[CMWriter]

Presto123, for the record I was just poking a little fun at you that last post of mine.

People have a tendency to take things out of context. It's just human nature.

 

One thing I found interesting from reading Roadshow is how frustrated he seems to get (at times) with other motorcyclists. I find it funny how easily he confesses to speeding, but rarely, rarely pulls the "celebrity card", as it were.

 

Also love his insights into all the places he goes to. He's obviously a bit of a history buff.

[Hatchetaxe&saw]

Once, he wrestled an angry grizzly to the ground and killed it with two sharpened(used) drum sticks, he skinned the bear, wore the skin and led a sloth of grizzlies for 3 years. He was known as "RaRR-RaRRR-Arf", or "He who killed Reg".

[librarian]

QUOTE (Hatchetaxe&saw @ Oct 12 2011, 02:59 PM)

Once, he wrestled an angry grizzly to the ground and killed it with two sharpened(used) drum sticks, he skinned the bear, wore the skin and led a sloth of grizzlies for 3 years. He was known as "RaRR-RaRRR-Arf", or "He who killed Reg".

oh my!

[rushgoober]

QUOTE (Rush Cocky @ Oct 12 2011, 10:48 AM)

QUOTE (presto123 @ Oct 12 2011, 01:45 PM) Thanks. He obviously didn't read my reply. How can someone take my thread so wrong? Neil is my biggest inspiration in life and the reason I've been playing drums for 27 years. I didn't even realize when I posted those original facts that they could be taken out of context in a negative way. Wow is all I can say. I think there has been so much Neil bashing on this board that people are hypersensitive to it but this is not one of those threads. The internets can be a strange, strange place sometimes......   FWIW, I liked the thread. Agreed, and I do too. Some people don't like to hear anything negative about Neil.   Personally, I couldn't care less about him as a person. I care about his music and lyrics. I tried reading some of his blogs, but got bored if it wasn't about his music or lyrics. No interest in the books.

[On TheRoad To Adventure]

Neil says Geddy is the most thoughtful gift-giver he knows. He once gave Neil a first-edition copy of a book he really likes.

 

I interpret this to mean that Neil really appreciates his friends. He sounds like a loyal friend too. So, please don't use this thread to bash him. He doesn't deserve that.

[Tommy Sawyer]

QUOTE (On TheRoad To Adventure @ Oct 12 2011, 05:18 PM)

I interpret this to mean that Neil really appreciates his friends. He sounds like a loyal friend too. So, please don't use this thread to bash him. He doesn't deserve that.

 

FWIW, I like this thread, too.

 

 

 

.....but my goodness, that was a messy first page.

[LeaveMyThingAlone]

QUOTE (Hatchetaxe&saw @ Oct 12 2011, 02:59 PM)

Once, he wrestled an angry grizzly to the ground and killed it with two sharpened(used) drum sticks, he skinned the bear, wore the skin and led a sloth of grizzlies for 3 years. He was known as "RaRR-RaRRR-Arf", or "He who killed Reg".

Wow, interesting stuff there...

 

A great example of why this thread is a great idea. I would never have known that otherwise!

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

QUOTE (Hatchetaxe&saw @ Oct 12 2011, 03:59 PM)

Once, he wrestled an angry grizzly to the ground and killed it with two sharpened(used) drum sticks, he skinned the bear, wore the skin and led a sloth of grizzlies for 3 years. He was known as "RaRR-RaRRR-Arf", or "He who killed Reg".

Source, please?

[Ancient Ways]

Neil might be your daddy.

[presto123]

Neil's first 100 mile bicycle ride came the day after my first time seeing Rush here in Indy at Market Square Arena so that would make his ride July 4,1984.

[Hatchetaxe&saw]

QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Oct 12 2011, 11:15 PM)

QUOTE (Hatchetaxe&saw @ Oct 12 2011, 03:59 PM) Once, he wrestled an angry grizzly to the ground and killed it with two sharpened(used) drum sticks, he skinned the bear, wore the skin and led a sloth of grizzlies for 3 years. He was known as "RaRR-RaRRR-Arf", or "He who killed Reg". Source, please? It was written by the dead bears only son, Fozzie........"I Sh*t In The Woods: A Bear's Tale", or "How I Ate Grizzly Adams, the Sanctimonius Gobshite".

[HowItIs]

While Presto 123 didn't deserve to be called out - and he and I have dealt with that - a few posters in this thread do. I would remind them that they really, REALLY don't know WTF they are talking about.

[GeddyRulz]

There are two or three chapters in "Traveling Music" which are very autobiographical and are loaded with personal information about Neil.

 

One of the chapters is similar to his newspaper article "A Port Boy's Story" (full article here), only the details are more fleshed-out in the "Traveling Music" chapter than they are in the article.

 

Another chapter in "Traveling Music" provides details about his time living in London as a young man. We'd heard about that time of his life before, but before "Traveling Music" we didn't know the details.

 

 

I'm no great lover of Neil's books, which I mostly find to be pretty boring. But for those looking for information about HIM, not roads, plants, rock formations, the histories of small towns, etc., I recommend "Traveling Music."

[metaldad]

I have read all his books and i am Not a" Neil Basher" at all. Let me just say i think it is pretty funny how in some of his books he talks about "Fat Americans" Then he Became one . Just sayin

[shail]

more importantly neil will never know you

[Broncos730]

QUOTE (Hatchetaxe&saw @ Oct 13 2011, 04:10 AM)

QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Oct 12 2011, 11:15 PM) QUOTE (Hatchetaxe&saw @ Oct 12 2011, 03:59 PM) Once, he wrestled an angry grizzly to the ground and killed it with two sharpened(used) drum sticks, he skinned the bear, wore the skin and led a sloth of grizzlies for 3 years. He was known as "RaRR-RaRRR-Arf", or "He who killed Reg". Source, please? It was written by the dead bears only son, Fozzie........"I Sh*t In The Woods: A Bear's Tale", or "How I Ate Grizzly Adams, the Sanctimonius Gobshite". I believe Neil actually killed the grizzly with a hatchet, an axe, and a saw.

[wilb1972]

QUOTE

QUOTE (Hatchetaxe&saw @ Oct 13 2011, 04:10 AM) QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Oct 12 2011, 11:15 PM) QUOTE (Hatchetaxe&saw @ Oct 12 2011, 03:59 PM) Once, he wrestled an angry grizzly to the ground and killed it with two sharpened(used) drum sticks, he skinned the bear, wore the skin and led a sloth of grizzlies for 3 years. He was known as "RaRR-RaRRR-Arf", or "He who killed Reg".  Source, please?  It was written by the dead bears only son, Fozzie........"I Sh*t In The Woods: A Bear's Tale", or "How I Ate Grizzly Adams, the Sanctimonius Gobshite".  I believe Neil actually killed the grizzly with a hatchet, an axe, and a saw.

 

All things being equal, I find this quite noble of Pratt, er I mean RaRR-RaRRR-Arf ... or Ra-Ra as I like to call him.

[Hatchetaxe&saw]

[rushgoober]

Neil cleans his ears with q-tips between 30-40 times a day. He's pretty OCD about it.

 

Neil's favorite movies are Steel Magnolias, Bridges of Madison County and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

 

Neil was born with 6 toes on his left foot, and one of them was removed.

 

Neil is a drummer.

 

For one whole year in his mid-20's, Neil ate nothing but mutton and potato chips.

 

 

 

FYI, I might have made up all of those statements except for one.

[barney_rebel]

http://www.kuzbass.ru/~psb/neil.jpg

[Hatchetaxe&saw]

QUOTE (rushgoober @ Oct 14 2011, 12:09 PM)

For one whole year in his mid-20's, Neil ate nothing but mutton and potato chips.

Hence his well documented aversion to wool and why it took years of counselling for him to finally pluck up the courage to play in Ireland. (We are overrrun with sheep and spuds.)

[Hatchetaxe&saw]

QUOTE (barney_rebel @ Oct 14 2011, 12:11 PM)

http://www.kuzbass.ru/~psb/neil.jpg

Ah yes, the mutton and potato chip years. They really took their toll on his appearance.

[wilb1972]

QUOTE

He LOVES being called Ra-Ra, and being tickled behind the left ear. He drops off into a peaceful slumber and stops him from drumming somnambulism.

 

 

[gestet2112]

QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ Oct 13 2011, 09:49 AM)

There are two or three chapters in "Traveling Music" which are very autobiographical and are loaded with personal information about Neil. One of the chapters is similar to his newspaper article "A Port Boy's Story" (full article here), only the details are more fleshed-out in the "Traveling Music" chapter than they are in the article. Another chapter in "Traveling Music" provides details about his time living in London as a young man. We'd heard about that time of his life before, but before "Traveling Music" we didn't know the details. I'm no great lover of Neil's books, which I mostly find to be pretty boring. But for those looking for information about HIM, not roads, plants, rock formations, the histories of small towns, etc., I recommend "Traveling Music."

Thanks for the "A Port Boy's Story" link. I'm from St.Catharines & vaguely remember reading this article when it was printed in the local newspaper in 1994. After re-reading it again it struck me how prophetic Neil was in his writing in view of what has become of celebrity culture in the media to homegrown terrorism since 1994! "And in a world which is supposed to be so desperate for heroes, maybe it's time we stopped looking so far away. Surely we have learned by now not to hitch our wagons to a "star," not to bow to celebrity. We find no superhumans among actors, athletes, artists, or the aristocracy, as the media are so constantly revealing that our so-called heroes, from Prince Charles to Michael Jackson, are in reality, as old Fred Nietzsche put it, "human - all too human."

 

AND MAYBE the role models that we really need are to be found all around us, right in our own neighborhoods. Not some remote model of perfection which exists only as a fantasy, but everyday people who actually show us, by example, a way to behave that we can see is good, and sometimes even people who can show us what it is to be excellent.

 

And if we ever get the idea that people from faraway places are all thugs, villains, or lunatics, we can stop to realize that we have those all around us too - right here at home. But I have found, in all the neighborhoods of the world, that the heroes still outnumber the villains."

 

[Earthshine]

QUOTE (CMWriter @ Oct 12 2011, 12:37 AM)

...Actually read the books so you can see all of these events in context so they actually make sense.