MY NEIL PEART STORIES.

The Rush drummer has died, brain cancer, which all my musician friends keep dying from these days. The first time I heard him, my idiot brother, had taken the first two DOORS albums, and traded them for a Black Sabbath album (Masters of Reality) and Rush’s “Moving Pictures.” I was around 10-years-old, and...it took me a few years to buy The Doors albums back, but only a month to appreciate…

I’m lucky that Rush has never been one of my favorite bands. Otherwise, it would’ve killed me that I never got to get their autographs. Now, don’t get me wrong. And all you Canadians that can’t get enough of them…I’m not saying I dislike them. I own three of their albums. I’ve seen them in concert twice and have a Rush T-shirt (although I only bought it because it was…

I saw the Ron Howard movie Rush, which deals with a racing rivalry in 1976. Good movie (review in a few days), but there’s an autograph scene I thought I’d mention. Obviously, there were lots of autographing scenes in the movie, as these were the two best drivers during that time. One was interesting, though. A driver is asked for his autograph. He signs. The fan then…

The first radio station I worked at in the late 80s/early 90s, was great for a lot of reasons. One of them was the amount of autographed albums and CDs I was able to add to my collection.

Now, there would be a few times I didn’t score the autograph. When I was walking with the afternoon DJ to interview RUSH backstage at the Sports Arena, their female tour manager said…