Neil Peart's drumming influences |
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Updated: 04/25/2020
In 1983 Neil Peart wrote about how he developed his drumming style, "One thing I have come to learn about influences is that although copying one style can never be original, copying many styles often is original... The best advice for someone who wants to develop an original style is: Don't copy one drummer, copy twenty! I copied a hundred." (Modern Drummer, February 1993)
In 2007, after nearly a quarter-century of playing with Rush, Peart reflected on his influences and inspirations in a slightly different way: "It will be understood, I hope, that the idea of being inspired by other drummers like that isn't to 'get ideas.' It's more about listening to great players and thinking to yourself, 'That's how good I want to be.' You get fired up to try to raise your game, and that's the spirit in which I showed up at the studio to start working on what would become Rush's nineteenth studio album, Snakes And Arrows." (Modern Drummer, August 2007)
Many of those "hundred" are represented here: from the 1950s through the 1990s (we'll add 2000 through 2015 at a later time). For a visual representation of Peart's influences, see this infographic.
- Early Influences: Big Band (1950s)
- Early Influences: R&B and Rock (1960s/early 1970s)
- Drum solo influences
- Rock influences: late 1960s/early 1970s
- 1970s influences
- 1980s influences
- 1990s influences
- Teachers (1965-2008)
- Bibliography
Scroll through the slides to read quotes from Peart about his drum influences.
"Gene Krupa was the first rock drummer in very many ways. Without Gene Krupa, there wouldn't have been a Keith Moon."
Infographic of Neil Peart's influences: 1952-1990s
This infographic maps all the influences in one place.
Key: Black highlight = Major influence; Green highlight = teacher.
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