When, as a fourth-grader, I put on my older step-sister’s scary black-and-red album “Moving Pictures,” I didn’t know what to expect. That first pulse of “Tom Sawyer” was scary, exciting, and… powerful. I was air-drumming in no short order, to “YYZ” as well, which I figured was some kind of Satanic code. (Many years later I found out it was the airport code for Toronto.) A poster of Rush ended up on my wall, all the way through high school and many albums later.

I found out later that there were Neil Peart obsessed air-drummers all over the world. I saw them at concerts, I saw them sometimes even knowing the fills and time-signature changes as well as I did. Bassist (and foot keyboardist!) Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, with Neil, had a dynamic magic together like nothing else on earth.

Before “I Love You, Man”, a little indie film called “Adventures of Power” reached out to bring Neil Peart out of seclusion. The rest was the greatest air-drum experiment of all time, and the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Videos of YYZ, Tom Sawyer (solo and with Neil), and much more are on this page.