Rush Drummer Neil Peart Does Not Retire

Yesterday, Drumhead released an interview with Rush drummer Neil Peart, which included this quote:

“Lately Olivia [ Neil’s daughter] has been introducing me to new friends at school as ‘My dad – he’s a retired drummer.’ True to say, funny to hear.”

It doesn’t really seem like there’s a whole lot of ways to misinterpret that statement… but Geddy Lee tells Classic Rock that’s exactly what fans did. Using the old “the quote was taken out of context” chestnut (What the hell else could Peart have said that would make the above quote sound like he’s not retiring, I wonder?), Lee claims that part of the media’s “job” is “Talking about something when there’s nothing to talk about,” asserting that Peart has only retired from touring.

“There’s really nothing to say,” said Lee, before saying a whole lot of other stuff, too:

“I think Neil is just explaining his reasons for not wanting to tour, with the toll that it’s taking on his body. That’s all I would care to comment on it.

“We’ll get together eventually and chat about things. But in my view, there is certainly nothing surprising in what he said. Neil just feels that he has to explain with all the thousands of people asking, ‘Why no more tours?’ He needs to explain his side of it.”

Which may be true, although it suggests that Peart either doesn’t know what the word “retired” means, which I find hard to believe. But if we take Lee at his word, this is good news for admirers of Peart and Rush in general, because it suggests the future may hold more recordings or one-off shows for the band.

And if Lee is wrong, well, he can just claim later that Classic Rock took his quote out of context. That always works, right?