‘Prog rocker’ drove the beat for Rush behind an enormous 30-piece drum kit

Neil Peart, who has died from brain cancer aged 67, was long considered one of the greatest drummers in rock history, who powered the Canadian band Rush for more than four decades behind an enormous drum kit.

Since 1974, when he joined the band, Peart was the rocking heartbeat of Rush, one of the most enduring and beloved groups in a genre that came to be known as prog – for progressive – rock.

Beginning as a blues-influenced rock band in 1968, Rush evolved through the years, borrowing elements of heavy metal and punk to create a distinctive style that won millions of devotees, if not always critical acclaim.

Despite being snubbed by critics and major awards, and having few Top-40 hits, the group developed an intensely loyal fan base. It wasn’t just for their longevity or pyrotechnic live shows. They maintained a certain creative purity that is rare in rock’n’roll and never succumbed to the life of excess that derailed so many others.

The band was never expanded beyond the basic trio of Alex Lifeson on guitar, Geddy Lee on bass and vocals, and Peart on drums. All three were regarded as virtuosos.

‘‘Even as a kid, I never wanted to be famous,’’ Peart once told the Toronto Star. ‘‘I wanted to be good.’’

In 2016, Rolling Stone magazine cited Peart’s ‘‘stunning unity of brains and brawn’’ in naming him the fourth-best rock drummer in history, after John Bonham, Keith Moon – Peart’s idol – and Ginger Baker, who died in October. Every Rush concert featured an extended solo or two by Peart on his goldplated drum set of more than 30 pieces, including chimes, gongs, electronic gadgets and a dozen cymbals. ‘‘Each of them is a tool as part of a sound palette to be applied to do the job necessary,’’ he said in a Canadian television interview.

‘‘Neil is the most air-drummed-to drummer of all time,’’ Stewart Copeland, former drummer for the Police, told Rolling Stone. ‘‘Neil pushes that band, which has a lot of musicality, a lot of ideas crammed into every eight bars – but he keeps the throb, which is the important thing.’’

During Peart’s years with Rush, the band released more than 20 albums, 14 of which were certified platinum. More than 40 million Rush records have been sold worldwide, and only the Beatles and Rolling Stones had more consecutive gold or platinum albums.

Perhaps the group’s best-known album was Moving Pictures, released in 1981, which reached No 3 on the Billboard album chart and has sold nearly 5 million copies.

‘‘When punk and New Wave came,’’ Peart told Rolling Stone, ‘‘we were young enough to gently incorporate it into our music, rather than getting reactionary about it . . . And by

‘‘Neil is the most airdrummed-to drummer of all time ... he keeps the throb, which is the important thing.’’ Stewart Copeland, of the Police

Moving Pictures, we nailed it.’’

Peart took a cerebral approach to both his drumming and songwriting. As a songwriter, he was inspired by science fiction, classical mythology and his wide literary interests. The title of Rush’s 1984 album, Grace Under Pressure, was taken from Ernest Hemingway. Some of the lyrics Peart wrote in the 1970s reflected the libertarian ideas of Ayn Rand, whose novels he eagerly read at the time. He later disavowed those beliefs.

Neil Ellwood Peart was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and grew up in what is now St Catharines, near Niagara Falls. He began playing drums at 13, and auditioned for Rush in 1974. ‘‘We thought he was a hick from the country,’’ Lee told The Guardian. ‘‘And then he sat down behind this kit and pummelled the drums, and us. I’d never heard a drummer like that, someone with that power and dexterity. As far as I was concerned, he was hired from the minute he started playing.’’

In 1997, Peart’s 19-year-old daughter, Selena, was killed in a car accident in Toronto. A year later, his common-law wife of 23 years, Jackie Taylor, died of cancer.

Peart then embarked on a 14-month motorcycle journey that took him from Canada to Central America. He wrote about his travels and sense of loss in Ghost Rider (2002), one of several books he published.

In 2000, he married Carrie Nuttall, who survives him, along with their daughter, Olivia. Other survivors include his parents, two sisters, and a brother.

After reuniting with his bandmates, Peart settled in Los Angeles and became a United States citizen. In the years before the band stopped touring in 2015, he travelled between cities by motorcycle.

In 2013, after years of being ignored, Rush were finally admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

When he sat down at the drums, Peart said, he always tried to recapture the spirit he felt when he was starting out in music. ‘‘I set out to never betray the values [I had as a 16-yearold],’’ he told Rolling Stone, ‘‘to never sell out, to never bow to the man. A compromise is what I can never accept.’’ – Washington Post