Rush’s Neil Peart Wins ‘Drummie’ Award

I’ve always kind of though of Rush as a musician’s band. By that, I mean that I think they have more than the typical percentage of fans that are themselves musicians. I attribute this to the technical excellence each member of the group demonstrates.

As excellent as both Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are with their chosen instruments, I believe the real stand-out of the group has always been Neil Peart. He’s a long-time favorite of drummers around the world and seems to be universally respected – a real drummer’s drummer.

This distinction has earned Peart an award recently, the “Drummer of The Year” Award as presented by DRUM! Magazine. The award is the result of the magazine’s readership survey that attracted approximately 4000 participants.

Phil Hood, publisher of Enter Music Publishing is quoted as saying: “Neil Peart was on our June cover because we suspected this would be a big album for Rush. Even though our audience skews younger than Rush’s fan base, he’s a huge influence on all drummers, so it’s not surprising he finally won this award from DRUM!’s readers.”

Needless to say, I am not surprised to learn that Peart was honored with this reward. More than a few drummers consider him the best rock drummer of all time and I would find it hard to argue with that.

For more on this story and the names of drummers who scored awards in other categories, check out Blabbermouth.