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Neil Peart Modern Drummer
Awards Updated 04/03/2008
Each year, Modern Drummer
invites readers to participate in a poll rating drummers in different styles of
music, as well as other categories. Neil Peart has consistently placed at the
top of these polls for the past 20 years. This is one of the reasons Neil is
so well regarded in the drumming community. Perhaps his greatest achievement is that he won Best Recorded Performance for every album from
Moving Pictures to Different Stages (basically, whenever Rush released a new
album). To give you some perspective, the only other drummers to be awarded Best
Recorded Performance more than once are
Mike Portnoy (5 times) and
Dave Weckl (2 times).
Best Recorded Performance:
1981: Moving Pictures
1982: Exit... Stage Left
1983: Signals
1985: Grace Under Pressure
1986: Power Windows
1988: Hold Your Fire
1989: A Show of Hands
1990: Presto
1992: Roll The Bones
1993: Counterparts
1997: Test for Echo
1999: Different Stages
2005: R30
2007: Snakes & Arrows
Drumming Categories:
- Best Educational Video: Anatomy of a Drum
Solo: 2005
- Modern Drummer Hall of Fame: 1983
- Best Rock Drummer: 1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,
2005, 2007 (see Honor Roll below)
- Best Multi-Percussionist: 1983,1984,1985,1986
- Best Percussion Instrumentalist: 1982
- Most Promising New Drummer: 1980
- Best All Around: 1986
- 1986 Honor Roll: Rock Drummer, Multi-Percussion
Starting in 1986, Modern Drummer started the
Honor Roll category. To make the honor roll, an artist must be selected by the
Modern Drummer readership as "winners in any one category of the MD Readers Poll
for a total of five years."
Letters from Neil in Modern Drummer
In the October 2006 issue of Modern Drummer, Neil
wrote a letter thanking readers for his 2005 awards.
When I first heard that the Modern Drummer Readers
Poll had awarded me with triple honors for rock drummer, recorded
performance, and educational DVD, I felt a heady mix of emotions.
Pleasure, foremost, and certainly surprise, mixed with a little
unworthiness. In time, that combination of reactions added up to a
pure sense of gratitude at having my work be so appreciated by
people, especially other drummers.
"The praise of the praiseworthy," I call it.
If anyone thinks a person ever gets "used to"
being honored, or winning awards, and doesn't really care too much,
I'm here to tell you that it's not so. There are few feelings in
life that equal being appreciated, and you can never get enough of
it. Plus, genuine appreciation has the quality to endure, and I
still feel a warm glow when I think about those three honors.
To all those who voted for me, thank you most
sincerely.
Neil Peart
October 1994
THANKS FROM NEIL
When I finally arrived home at the end of our
Counterparts tour—in the usual wrung-out state of exhaustion—and began to
sift through the pile of mail on my desk, I was pleasantly surprised to open
a package from Modern Drummer and find that I had been awarded the "Best
Recorded Performance" in the Readers Poll. A weary smile raised this sagging
face, and a spark of gratitude lit up these tired old bones!
If anybody thinks I would ever get jaded
about such things, let me assure you: no way! As I have said before (and I
hope I will say again), it is the ultimate reward to have your work
appreciated by other drummers. As I continue my own musical odyssey, working
on technique and structure and applying them to each other, it thrills me no
end that I continue to find an audience out there that is discriminating and
appreciative—and especially an audience of drummers.
So my sincere gratitude to all of you for
this honor. And indeed, rather than making me feel complacent or even
satisfied about my past work, it serves to inspire me toward the challenges
of the future—like those lines from Robert Frost, which have always moved
me: "For I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." Thank you
all very much.
Neil Peart
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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