June 9 is the 160th day of the year (161st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 205 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events[link]

• 411 BC – Coup in Athens succeeds, forming a short-lived oligarchy.
• 53 – Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia.
• 62 – Claudia Octavia is executed.
• 68 – Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer's Iliad, thus ending the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and starting the civil year known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
• 721 – Odo of Aquitaine defeats the Moors in the Battle of Toulouse.
• 1310 – Duccio's Maestà Altarpiece, a seminal artwork of the early Italian Renaissance, is unveiled and installed in the Siena Cathedral in Siena, Italy.
• 1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the Saint Lawrence River.
• 1650 – The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established. It is the first legal corporation in the Americas.
• 1667 – The Raid on the Medway by the Dutch fleet begins. It lasts for five days and results in a decisive victory by the Dutch over the English in the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
• 1732 – James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of the future U.S. state of Georgia.
• 1762 – British forces begin the Siege of Havana and capture the city during the Seven Years' War.
• 1772 – The British schooner Gaspée is burned off the coast of Rhode Island.
• 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battle of Arklow and Battle of Saintfield.
• 1815 – End of the Congress of Vienna: the new European political situation is set.
• 1856 – Five hundred Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa and head west for Salt Lake City carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson concludes his successful Shenandoah Valley Campaign with a victory in the Battle of Port Republic; his tactics during the campaign are now studied by militaries around the world.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Brandy Station, Virginia.
• 1873 – Alexandra Palace in London burns down after being open for only 16 days.
• 1885 – A peace treaty is signed to end the Sino-French War, with China eventually giving up Tonkin and Annam - most of present-day Vietnam - to France.
• 1900 – Birsa Munda, an important figure in the Indian independence movement, dies in British prison under mysterious circumstances.
• 1915 – William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States' handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.
• 1923 – Bulgaria's military takes over the government in a coup.
• 1924 – In the second attempt to climb Mount Everest, George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine disappear, possibly having first made it to the top.
• 1928 – Charles Kingsford Smith completes the first trans-Pacific flight in a Fokker Trimotor monoplane, the Southern Cross.
• 1930 – Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle is killed during rush hour at the Illinois Central train station by Leo Vincent Brothers, allegedly over a 100,000 USD gambling debt owed to Al Capone.
• 1934 – Donald Duck makes his debut in The Wise Little Hen.
• 1944 – World War II: 99 civilians are hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.
• 1944 – World War II: the Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.
• 1946 – King Bhumibol Adulyadej ascends to the throne of Thailand. He is currently the world's longest reigning monarch.
• 1948 – Foundation of the International Council on Archives under the auspices of the UNESCO.
• 1953 – Flint-Worcester tornado outbreak sequence: a tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado hits in Worcester, Massachusetts killing 94.
• 1954 – McCarthyism: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
• 1958 – Queen Elizabeth II officially opens London Gatwick Airport, (LGW) in Crawley, West Sussex, United Kingdom.
• 1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
• 1965 – Civilian Prime Minister of South Vietnam Phan Huy Quat resigned after being unable to work with a junta led by Nguyen Cao Ky.
• 1967 – Six-Day War: Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria
• 1968 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
• 1973 – Secretariat wins the Triple Crown.
• 1974 – Portugal and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations.
• 1978 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opens its priesthood to "all worthy men", ending a 148-year-old policy excluding black men.
• 1979 – The Ghost Train Fire at Luna Park Sydney (New South Wales, Australia) kills seven.
• 1985 – Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped in Lebanon (he will not be released until 1991).
• 1986 – The Rogers Commission releases its report on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
• 1999 – Kosovo War: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty.
• 2008 – In the town of Lake Delton, Wisconsin, Lake Delton drains as a result of heavy flooding breaking the dam holding the lake back.

Births[link]

• 1580 – Daniel Heinsius, Flemish scholar (d. 1655)
• 1588 – Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer (d. 1666)
• 1595 – King Wladislaus IV of Poland (d. 1648)
• 1640 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1705)
• 1661 – Tsar Feodor III of Russia (d. 1682)
• 1672 – Tsar Peter I of Russia (d. 1725)
• 1686 – Andrei Osterman, Russian statesman (d. 1747)
• 1768 – Samuel Slater, American industrialist (d. 1835)
• 1781 – George Stephenson, English mechanical engineer (d. 1848)
• 1810 – Otto Nicolai, German composer (d. 1849)
• 1812 – Johann Gottfried Galle, German astronomer (d. 1910)
• 1843 – Bertha von Suttner, Austrian novelist, Nobel laureate (d. 1914)
• 1845 – Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto (d. 1914)
• 1849 – Michael Peter Ancher, Danish painter (d. 1927)
• 1851 – Charles Joseph Bonaparte, American politician (d. 1921)
• 1861 – Pierre Duhem, French physicist (d. 1916)
• 1865 – Albéric Magnard, French composer (d. 1914)
• 1865 – Carl Nielsen, Danish composer (d. 1931)
• 1875 – Henry Hallett Dale, English pharmacologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1968)
• 1882 – Robert Kerr, Canadian sprinter (d. 1963)
• 1890 – Leslie Banks, British actor (d. 1952)
• 1891 – Cole Porter, American composer and lyricist (d. 1964)
• 1893 – Irish Meusel, American baseball player (d. 1963)
• 1898 – Luigi Fagioli, Italian racing driver (d. 1952)
• 1900 – Fred Waring, American bandleader (d. 1984)
• 1902 – Skip James, American Delta blues musician (d. 1969)
• 1906 – Robert Klark Graham, American eugenicist and entrepreneur (d. 1997)
• 1908 – Luis Kutner, American human rights activist (d. 1993)
• 1910 – Robert Cummings, American actor (d. 1990)
• 1911 – George Webb, British actor (d. 1998)
• 1912 – Ingolf Dahl, American composer (d. 1970)
• 1912 – Philip Simmons, American ornamental ironworker (d. 2009)
• 1915 – Les Paul, American guitarist and inventor (d. 2009)
• 1916 – Robert McNamara, U.S. Defense Secretary and President of the World Bank (d. 2009)
• 1916 – Jurij Brězan, Sorbian writer (d. 2006)
• 1918 – John Hospers, American philosopher and Libertarian politician (d. 2011)
• 1921 – Arthur Hertzberg, American scholar (d. 2006)
• 1922 – George Axelrod, American producer, playwright and director (d. 2003)
• 1922 – John Gillespie Magee, Jr., American poet and aviator (d. 1941)
• 1922 – Fernand Seguin, Canadian biochemist (d. 1988)
• 1924 – Ed Farhat ("The Sheik"), American professional wrestler (d. 2003)
• 1925 – Keith Laumer, American author (d. 1993)
• 1929 – Johnny Ace, American rhythm and blues singer (d. 1954)
• 1930 – Monique Andrée Serf, French singer (d. 1997)
• 1931 – Joe Santos, American actor
• 1931 – Bill Virdon, American baseball player and manager
• 1934 – Jackie Wilson, American singer (d. 1984)
• 1936 – Mick O'Dwyer, Irish footballer and manager
• 1936 – Jackie Mason, American comedian
• 1937 – Harald Rosenthal, German biologist
• 1938 – Charles Wuorinen, American composer
• 1939 – Ileana Cotrubaş, Romanian soprano
• 1939 – David Hobbs, English racecar driver and commentator
• 1939 – Dick Vitale, American sportscaster
• 1939 – Charles Webb, American novelist
• 1941 – Jon Lord, English pianist and organist (Deep Purple)
• 1942 – Anton Burghardt, German footballer
• 1943 – John Fitzpatrick, British racing driver
• 1943 – Joe Haldeman, American science fiction author
• 1943 – Charles Saatchi, British-Iraqi businessman
• 1945 – Luis Ocaña, Spanish cyclist (d. 1994)
• 1945 – Nike Wagner, German art festival director
• 1946 – Deyda Hydara, Gambian journalist (d. 2004)
• 1949 – Kiran Bedi, Indian social activist and police officer
• 1947 – John Gurda, American historian
• 1948 – Gudrun Schyman, Swedish politician
• 1950 – Giorgos Kastrinakis, Greek-American basketball player
• 1951 – James Newton Howard, American film composer
• 1951 – Dave Parker, American baseball player
• 1951 – Reinhard Schmitz, German footballer
• 1952 – Uzi Hitman, Israeli singer (d. 2004)
• 1954 – Paul Chapman, Welsh guitarist (UFO, Lone Star)
• 1954 – Gregory Maguire, American novelist
• 1954 – George Pérez, American comic book artist
• 1954 – Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada
• 1955 – Stephen Pewsey, English historian
• 1955 – Wolfgang Schilling, German footballer
• 1956 – Patricia Cornwell, American novelist
• 1960 – Steve Paikin, Canadian journalist
• 1961 – Michael J. Fox, Canadian-born actor
• 1961 – Aaron Sorkin, American screenwriter and playwright
• 1962 – Yuval Banai, Israeli musician and singer (Mashina)
• 1963 – Gilad Atzmon, Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist and political activist
• 1963 – Johnny Depp, American actor
• 1963 – David Koepp, American screenwriter and director
• 1964 – Gloria Reuben, Canadian actress
• 1964 – Wayman Tisdale, American basketball player and smooth jazz bassist (d. 2009)
• 1964 – Hiroko Yakushimaru, Japanese actress and singer
• 1966 – Tamela Mann, American gospel singer and actress
• 1967 – Richard Cooey, American murderer (d. 2008)
• 1967 – Jian Ghomeshi, Canadian broadcaster
• 1967 – Rubén Maza, Venezuelan long-distance runner
• 1968 – Niki Bakoyianni, Greek high jumper
• 1969 – Nick Kiriazis, American actor
• 1969 – Eric Wynalda, American footballer
• 1969 – James Dean Bradfield, British musician, guitar & vocals for Manic Street Preachers
• 1970 – Erika Miklósa, Hungarian coloratura soprano
• 1970 – Robert W. Brown II, American lawyer and entrepreneur
• 1971 – Gilles De Bilde, Belgian footballer
• 1971 – Jackie McKeown, Scottish vocalist and guitarist (The Yummy Fur, 1990s)
• 1972 – Tomoe Hanba, Japanese voice actress
• 1972 – Matt Horsley, Australian football player
• 1973 – Tedy Bruschi, American football player
• 1973 – Frederic Choffat, Swiss film director
• 1973 – Iain Lee, British television/radio personality
• 1973 – Grant Marshall, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1973 – Laura Ponte, Spanish model and member (by marriage) of the Spanish Royal Family
• 1974 – Samoth, Norwegian guitarist and drummer (Emperor, Zyklon)
• 1975 – Otto Addo, German-born Ghanaian footballer
• 1975 – Andrew Symonds, Australian cricketer
• 1976 Romain Tranchart, Music Producer and founder of Modjo
• 1977 – Roopa Mishra, Indian civil servant
• 1977 – Amisha Patel, Indian actress
• 1977 – Peja Stojakovic, Serbian basketball player
• 1978 – Matthew Bellamy, English vocalist, guitarist, pianist and songwriter (Muse)
• 1978 – Michaela Conlin, American actress
• 1978 – Shandi Finnessey, American beauty queen
• 1978 – Miroslav Klose, German football player
• 1980 – Navíd Akhavan, Iranian-German actor
• 1980 – Mike Fontenot, American baseball player
• 1980 – Udonis Haslem, American basketball player
• 1980 – Lehlohonolo Seema, South African football player
• 1980 – D'banj, Nigerian singer, songwriter and harmonica player
• 1981 – Natalie Portman, Israeli-born actress
• 1981 – Anoushka Shankar, English-born sitarist, daughter of Ravi Shankar
• 1981 – Vic Zhou, Taiwanese actor, singer and model
• 1982 – Christina Stürmer, Austrian singer
• 1982 – Andrew Walker, Canadian actor
• 1983 – Alektra Blue, American pornographic actress
• 1983 – Alex Templeton-Ward, musician, writer
• 1983 – Firas Al Khatib, Syrian football player
• 1983 – Danny Richar, Dominican baseball player
• 1983 – Jim Tang, Hong Kong actor
• 1984 – Yulieski Gourriel, Cuban baseball player
• 1984 – Aruni Kashyap, Indian poet
• 1984 – Kaleth Morales, Colombian vallenato singer and songwriter (d. 2005)
• 1984 – Masoud Shojaei, Iranian footballer
• 1984 – Jake Newton, Guyanese footballer
• 1984 – Wesley Sneijder, Dutch footballer
• 1985 – Anthimos Ananiadis, Greek actor
• 1985 – Sonam Kapoor, Indian actress
• 1985 – Sebastian Telfair, American basketball player
• 1985 – Richard Kahui, New Zealand All Black rugby player
• 1986 – Kary Ng, Hong Kong singer and actress
• 1986 – Adamo Ruggiero, Canadian actor
• 1986 – Karan Wahi, Indian actor
• 1988 – Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Greek football player
• 1988 – Sara Isakovič, Slovenian swimmer
• 1988 – Mae Whitman, American actress and voice actress
• 1989 – Chloë Agnew, Irish singer (Celtic Woman)
• 1989 – Dídac Vilà, Spanish footballer
• 1990 – Lauren Socha, English actress
• 1993 – Danielle Chuchran, American actress

Deaths[link]

• 62 – Claudia Octavia, wife of Roman Emperor Nero (b. 40)
• 68 – Nero, Roman Emperor (b. 37)
• 373 – Ephrem the Syrian, Syriac Christian hymnodist (b. 306)
• 439 – Spearthrower Owl, Maya ruler of Teotihuacan (Mexico)
• 597 – Saint Columba, Irish Christian missionary (b. 521)
• 630 – Shahrbaraz, King of Persia
• 1361 – Philippe de Vitry, French composer (b. 1291)
• 1563 – William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, English statesman (b. 1506)
• 1572 – Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (b. 1528)
• 1583 – Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. c.1525)
• 1656 – Thomas Tomkins, Welsh composer (b. 1572)
• 1716 – Banda Bahadur, Sikh military commander (b. 1670)
• 1717 – Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, French mystic (b. 1648)
• 1799 – Chevalier de Saint-Georges, African-French swordsman, soldier of fortune and composer, known as the "black Mozart" (b. 1745)
• 1834 – William Carey, English minister and missionary (b. 1761)
• 1870 – Charles Dickens, English author (b. 1812)
• 1875 – Gérard Paul Deshayes, French geologist (b. 1795)
• 1892 – Yoshitoshi, Japanese Ukiyo-e artist (b. 1839)
• 1892 – William Grant Stairs, Canadian explorer (b. 1863)

• 1923 – Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria (b. 1846)
• 1946 – Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII], King of Thailand (b. 1925)
• 1952 – Adolf Busch, German composer (b. 1891)
• 1958 – Robert Donat, English actor (b. 1905)
• 1959 – Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1876)
• 1961 – Camille Guérin, French scientist (b. 1872)
• 1964 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born tycoon and politician (b. 1879)
• 1968 – Bernard Cronin, Australian author and journalist (b. 1884)
• 1973 – John Creasey, English crime and science fiction novelist (b. 1908)
• 1973 – Erich von Manstein, German military commander (b. 1887)
• 1974 – Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1899)
• 1979 – Cyclone Taylor, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1884)
• 1981 – Allen Ludden, American game show host (b. 1917)
• 1989 – Rashid Behbudov, Azerbaijani singer and actor (b. 1915)
• 1989 – George Wells Beadle, American geneticist, Nobel laureate (b. 1903)
• 1991 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (b. 1903)
• 1993 – Thomas Ammann, Swiss art dealer and collector (b. 1950)
• 1993 – Alexis Smith, Canadian actress (b. 1921)
• 1994 – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel laureate (b. 1903)
• 1997 – Stanley Knowles, Canadian politician (b. 1908)
• 2000 – John Abramovic, American basketball player (b. 1919)
• 2000 – Jacob Lawrence, American painter (b. 1917)
• 2003 – Georges Pichard, French comics artist (b. 1920)
• 2004 – Rosey Brown, American football player (b. 1932)
• 2004 – Brian Williamson, Jamaican activist (b. 1945)
• 2006 – Drafi Deutscher, German Schlager singer (b. 1946)
• 2007 – Frankie Abernathy, American reality TV personality (b. 1981)
• 2008 – Suleiman Mousa, Jordanian historian (b. 1919)
• 2008 – Algis Budrys, American writer (b. 1931)
• 2009 – Dick May, Former NASCAR racecar driver (b. 1930)
• 2011 – M. F. Husain, Indian artist, painter (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances[link]

• International Archives Day
• Anniversary of the Ascension of King Abdullah II (Jordan)
• Autonomy Day (Åland Islands)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Aidan of Lindisfarne (Lutheranism)
  • Columba, Abbot of Iona: Ireland and Scotland, 597 CE Anglicanism
  • Ephrem the Syrian (Roman Catholic Church and Church of England)
  • Primus and Felician
  • June 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• La Rioja Day (La Rioja)
• Murcia Day (Murcia)
• National Heroes' Day (Uganda)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: June 9

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

Neil Peart
Peart performing a drum solo at the Xcel Energy Center on May 22, 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Neil Ellwood Peart
Born	(1952-09-12) September 12, 1952 (age 59) Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Progressive rock, hard rock, heavy metal
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer, author
Instruments	Drums, percussion, tubular bells
Years active	1969–present
Labels	Mercury, Anthem, Atlantic
Associated acts	Rush, Buddy Rich Big Band
Website	neilpeart.net
Notable instruments
Sabian Paragon Signature cymbals, designed by Peart

Neil Ellwood Peart ( /ˈpɪərt/; born September 12, 1952), OC, is a Canadian musician and author. He is the drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush. Peart has received numerous awards for his musical performances, and is known for his technical proficiency and stamina.^[1]

Peart grew up in Port Dalhousie, Ontario (now part of St. Catharines). During adolescence, he floated from regional band to regional band in pursuit of a career as a full-time drummer. After a discouraging stint in England to concentrate on his music, Peart returned home, where he joined a local Toronto band, Rush, in the summer of 1974.

Early in his career, Peart's performance style was deeply rooted in hard rock. He drew most of his inspiration from drummers such as Keith Moon and John Bonham, players who were at the forefront of the British hard rock scene.^[2] As time passed, however, he began to emulate jazz and big band musicians Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. In 1994, Peart became a friend and pupil of jazz instructor Freddie Gruber.^[3] It was during this time that Peart decided to revamp his playing style by incorporating jazz and swing components. Gruber was also responsible for introducing him to the products of Drum Workshop, the company whose products Peart currently endorses.

In addition to being a musician, Peart is also a prolific writer, having published several memoirs about his travels. Peart is also Rush's primary lyricist. In writing lyrics for Rush, Peart addresses universal themes and diverse subject matter including science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy, as well as secular, humanitarian and libertarian themes. All five of his books are travel-based non-fiction, though they diverge into his life and these subjects as well. Peart currently resides in Santa Monica, California, with his wife, photographer Carrie Nuttall, and daughter, Olivia Louise. He also has a home in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada, and spends time in Toronto for recording purposes.

Life and career[link]

Early childhood[link]

Peart was born in a Hamilton hospital and lived his early years on his family's farm in Hagersville,^[1][4] on the outskirts of Hamilton. The first child of four,^[5] his brother Danny and sisters Judy and Nancy were born after the family moved to St. Catharines when Peart was two. At this time, his father became parts manager for Dalziel Equipment, an International Harvester farm machinery dealer. In 1956 the family moved to the Port Dalhousie area of the town. Peart attended Gracefield School and later Lakeport Secondary School, and describes his childhood as happy and says he experienced a warm family life. By early adolescence he became interested in music and acquired a transistor radio, which he would use to tune into pop music stations broadcasting from Toronto, Hamilton and Welland, Ontario and Buffalo, USA.^[4]

His first exposure to musical training came in the form of piano lessons, which he later said in his instructional video A Work in Progress did not have much impact on him. He had a penchant for drumming on various objects around the house with a pair of chopsticks, so for his 13th birthday, his parents bought him a pair of drum sticks, a practice drum and some lessons, with the promise that if he stuck with it for a year, they would buy him a kit.^[4]

His parents bought him a drum kit for his 14th birthday and he began taking lessons from Don George at the Peninsula Conservatory of Music.^[4] His stage debut took place that year at the school's Christmas pageant in St. Johns Anglican Church Hall in Port Dalhousie. His next appearance was at Lakeport High School with his first group, The Eternal Triangle. This performance contained an original number titled "LSD Forever". At this show he performed his first solo.^[4]

Peart got a job in Lakeside Park, in Port Dalhousie on the shores of Lake Ontario, which later inspired a song of the same name on the Rush album Caress of Steel.^[6] He worked on the Bubble Game and Ball Toss, but his tendency to take it easy when business was slack resulted in his termination. By his late teens, Peart had played in local bands such as Mumblin’ Sumpthin’, the Majority, and JR Flood. These bands practiced in basement recreation rooms and garages and played church halls, high schools and roller rinks in towns across Southern Ontario such as Mitchell, Seaforth, and Elmira. They also played in the northern Ontario city of Timmins. Tuesday nights were filled with jam sessions at the Niagara Theatre Centre.^[4]

Career before joining Rush[link]

At eighteen years of age, after struggling to achieve success as a drummer in Canada, Peart travelled to London, England hoping to further his career as a professional musician.^[3] Despite playing in several bands and picking up occasional session work, he was forced to support himself by selling trinkets to tourists in a souvenir shop called The Great Frog on Carnaby Street.^[7][8]

While in London he came across the writings of novelist and objectivist Ayn Rand. Rand's writings became a significant philosophical influence on Peart, as he found many of her writings on individualism and Objectivism inspiring. References to Rand's philosophy can be found in his lyrics, most notably "Anthem" from 1975's Fly by Night and "2112" from 1976's 2112.^[9]

After eighteen months of dead-end musical gigs, and disillusioned by his lack of progress in the music business, Peart placed his aspiration of becoming a professional musician on hold and returned to Canada.^[3] Upon returning to St. Catharines, he worked for his father selling tractor parts at Dalziel Equipment.

Joining Rush[link]

After returning to Canada, Peart was recruited to play drums for the St. Catharines band Hush, who played on the South Ontario bar circuit.^[3] Soon after, a mutual acquaintance convinced Peart to audition for the Toronto-based band Rush, which needed a replacement for its original drummer John Rutsey. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson oversaw the audition. His future band mates describe his arrival that day as somewhat humorous, as he arrived in shorts, driving a battered old Ford Pinto with his drums stored in trashcans. Peart felt the entire audition was a complete disaster.^[3] While Lee and Peart hit it off on a personal level (both sharing similar tastes in books and music), Lifeson had a less favourable impression of Peart.^[3] After some discussion, Lee and Lifeson accepted Peart's maniacal British style of drumming, reminiscent of The Who's Keith Moon.

Peart officially joined the band on July 29, 1974, two weeks before the group's first US tour. Peart procured a silver Slingerland kit which he played at his first gig with the band, opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann in front of over 11,000 people at the Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 14, 1974.^[10]

Early career with Rush[link]

Peart soon settled into his new position, also becoming the band's primary lyricist. Before joining Rush, he had written few songs, but, with the other members largely uninterested in writing lyrics, Peart's previously underutilized writing became as noticed as his musicianship.^[11] The band were working hard to establish themselves as a recording act, and Peart, along with the rest of the band, now had to learn to live from a suitcase.

His first recording with the band, 1975's Fly by Night, was fairly successful, winning the Juno Award for most promising new act,^[12] but the follow-up, Caress of Steel, for which the band had high hopes, was greeted with hostility by both fans and critics.^[13] In response to this negative reception, most of which was aimed at the B side-spanning epic "The Fountain of Lamneth", Peart responded by penning "2112" on their next album of the same name in 1976. The album, despite record company indifference, became their breakthrough and gained a following in the United States.^[14] The supporting tour culminated in a three-night stand at Massey Hall in Toronto, a venue Peart had dreamed of playing in his days on the Southern Ontario bar circuit and where he was now introduced as "The Professor on the drum kit" by Lee.^[15]

Peart returned to England for Rush's Northern European Tour and the band stayed in the United Kingdom to record the next album, 1977's A Farewell to Kings in Rockfield Studios in Wales. They returned to Rockfield to record the follow-up, Hemispheres, in 1978, which they wrote entirely in the studio. The recording of five studio albums in four years, coupled with as many as 300 gigs a year, convinced the band to take a different approach thereafter. Peart has described his time in the band up to this point as "a dark tunnel."^[16]

Playing style reinvention[link]

In 1992, Peart was invited by Buddy Rich's daughter, Cathy Rich, to play at the Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship Concert in New York City. Though initially intimidated by the request, Peart accepted the offer and performed for the first time with the Buddy Rich Big Band. Peart remarked that he had little time to rehearse, and noted that he was embarrassed to find the band played a different arrangement of the song than the one he learned.^[17] Feeling that his performance left much to be desired, Peart decided to produce and play on two Buddy Rich tribute albums titled Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich in 1994 and 1997 in order to regain his aplomb.

While producing the first Buddy Rich tribute album, Peart was struck by the tremendous improvement in ex-Journey drummer Steve Smith's playing, and asked him his "secret." Smith responded he had been studying with drum teacher Freddie Gruber. As a result, Peart would put Rush-related activities on hold while he regularly met with Gruber.

In early 2007, Peart and Cathy Rich again began discussing yet another Buddy tribute concert. At the recommendation of bassist Jeff Berlin, Peart decided to once again augment his swing style with formal drum lessons, this time under the tutelage of another pupil of Freddie Gruber, Peter Erskine, himself an instructor of Steve Smith.^[17] On October 18, 2008, Peart once again performed at the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. The concert has since been released on DVD.

Family tragedy and recovery[link]

Soon after the conclusion of Rush's Test for Echo Tour on July 4, 1997, Peart's first daughter and then-only child, 19-year-old Selena Taylor, was killed in a single-car accident on Highway 401 near the town of Brighton, Ontario, on August 10, 1997. His common-law wife of 22 years, Jacqueline Taylor, succumbed to cancer only 10 months later on June 20, 1998. Peart, however, maintains that her death was the result of a "broken heart" and called it "a slow suicide by apathy. She just didn't care."^[18]

In his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, Peart writes that he told his bandmates at Selena's funeral, "consider me retired."^[18] Peart took a long sabbatical to mourn and reflect, and travelled extensively throughout North and Central America on his motorcycle, covering 88,000 km (55,000 mi). After his journey, Peart decided to return to the band. Peart wrote Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road as a chronicle of his geographical and emotional journey.

Peart was introduced to photographer Carrie Nuttall in Los Angeles by long-time Rush photographer Andrew MacNaughtan. They married on September 9, 2000. In early 2001, Peart announced to his bandmates that he was ready to return to recording and performing. The product of the band's return was the 2002 album Vapor Trails. At the start of the ensuing tour in support of the album, it was decided amongst the band members that Peart would not take part in the daily grind of press interviews and "Meet and Greet" sessions upon their arrival in a new city that typically monopolize a touring band's daily schedule. While Peart has always shied away from these types of in-person encounters, it was decided that exposing him to an endless stream of questions about the tragic events of his life was not necessary.^[19][20][21]

Since the release of Vapor Trails and his reunion with fellow band mates, Peart has returned to work as a full-time musician. Rush released a cover EP, Feedback in June 2004 and their 18th studio album Snakes & Arrows in May 2007, supported by tours in 2004, 2007, and 2008.

In the June 2009 edition of Peart's website's News, Weather, and Sports, titled "Under the Marine Layer", he announced that he and Nuttall were expecting their first child.^[22] Peart and Nuttall's first child, Olivia Louise Peart, was born on August 12, 2009.

Peart and the rest of the band toured North America, South America and Europe on the Time Machine Tour, which concluded on July 2, 2011, at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington.

Musicianship[link]

Style and influences[link]

Peart (right, behind Alex Lifeson & Geddy Lee) performing with Rush.

Peart's drumming skill and technique is well-regarded by fans, fellow musicians, and magazines.^[1][23] His influences are eclectic, ranging from Jon Thomas, John Bonham, Michael Giles, Ginger Baker, Phil Collins, Steve Gadd, and Keith Moon, to fusion and jazz drummers Billy Cobham, Buddy Rich, Bill Bruford and Gene Krupa.^[24][25] The Who was the first group that inspired him to write songs and play the drums.^[26] Peart is distinguished for playing "butt-end out", reversing stick orientation for greater impact and increased rimshot capacity. "When I was starting out", Peart said, "if I broke the tips off my sticks I couldn't afford to buy new ones, so I would just turn them around and use the other end. I got used to it, and continue to use the heavy end of lighter sticks – it gives me a solid impact, but with less 'dead weight' to sling around."^[27]

Peart had long played matched grip, but shifted to traditional as part of his style reinvention in the mid-1990s under the tutelage of jazz coach Freddie Gruber.^[3] Shortly after the filming of his first instructional DVD A Work in Progress, Peart went back to using primarily matched, though he does switch to traditional when playing songs from Test for Echo and during moments when he feels traditional grip is more appropriate, such as the rudimentary snare drum section of his drum solo. He discusses the details of these switches in the DVD Anatomy of a Drum Solo.

Equipment[link]

Neil Peart and his 360 degree drumkit

With Rush, Peart has played Slingerland, Tama, Ludwig, and Drum Workshop drums, in that order.^[28]