NEIL PEART Documentary Maker: 'We Wanted To Make A Film' About RUSH Drummer 'That Only Featured People Who Knew Him Personally'

A new documentary about late RUSH drummer Neil Peart, "Neil Peart: No One's Disciple", received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. Directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn of the music documentary studio Banger Films — who previously directed the 2010 RUSH documentary "Beyond The Lighted Stage" — the 96-minute film premiered on September 16, with a subsequent public screening on September 19. It also aired on Canada's CBC network on September 23 as part of the series "The Passionate Eye".

"Neil Peart: No One's Disciple" documents the late Canadian musician's tough start as a young artist, followed by his meteoric rise. The film includes interviews with RUSH co-founders Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, alongside reflections of other acclaimed drummers. It also features Lee and Lifeson's new live performances of RUSH classics — with the likes of Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS),Stewart Copeland (THE POLICE),Danny Carey (TOOL) and Gavin Harrison (KING CRIMSON) filling Peart's seat at the drum kit.

Speaking with Modern Drummer CEO David Frangioni, Dunn was asked about his approach to making "Neil Peart: No One's Disciple". Sam said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we decided fairly early on that we wanted to make a film about Neil that only featured people that knew him personally. Because we felt that the type of person that he was, such a true artist and someone who, frankly, as we all know, too, who are fans, was not always comfortable with the accolades and the praise and the attention of being a star, of being a genius, of being one of the best drummers of all time. So the right thing to do felt like making a film about Neil with the people that knew him. And as we say in the film, Neil loved his drum brothers. He loved his drumming community. He was really tightly connected to that community of musicians. And so we thought that there was no better tribute to Neil than to get some of his drum brothers in the room to make some music with Geddy and Alex, and to tackle those notoriously pretzel-like drum parts to celebrate Neil's musicianship. It just felt like the right way to do it. 'Cause you and I both know we could have had a lineup out the door and around the block 100 times of drummers that would want to appear in a film about Neil Peart. But we decided that we would get Chad, Danny, Gavin and Stewart to do it, not only because they could play Neil's parts, but also so they could tell stories with Geddy and Alex about Neil from a personal perspective. And we just knew that that was gonna give the film that much more richness, that much more depth, that much more emotion, and hopefully make the audience feel as connected as they possibly could to Neil, now that he's gone, through these conversations with people that knew him very well."

Regarding how Chad,Stewart, Danny and Gavin were chosen to appear in "Neil Peart: No One's Disciple", Sam said: "What we realized, as we were piecing the film together, is that in many cases — actually, in all cases — Neil was a fan of these drummers. And that became sort of an added layer of coming to get to know Neil a little bit better. In other words, he endeared himself to fellow artists whose work he really respected. And as Gavin says in the film, Neil reached out to Gavin, and Gavin said, 'I would never have thought of writing Neil Peart an e-mail, let alone expecting a reply.' And so what I'm proud of with the film is that it's not only that we have these great drummers playing this music and talking about their relationship with Neil, but also we get to know more about Neil and Neil's respect for other artists, which is just giving us a deeper insight into his personality and how seriously he took, again, his drumming community."

On the topic of how he got his hands on some of the live performance and rare footage that was used in the film, Sam said: "Well, a lot of it, of course, was material we'd collected when we did 'Beyond The Lighted Stage' back in 2010. So some of the material was not in that film. Some of it was, and we reused pieces of it here, 'cause there was just so much good material to use. We also turned to some very close friends of Neil's who are in the film and some who aren't to dig into their boxes, in their shoe boxes, in their attics, and tear up some floorboards for us to see what they could find. But then, of course, in addition to that, Banger ourselves have our own archive of interviews with Neil that we collected over the years, primarily for 'Beyond The Lighted Stage' and then for 'Rock Icons'. For example, the scene of Neil at [the abandoned] Le Studio [in Morin Heights, Quebec, the studio where RUSH recorded several of its most iconic albums] was a scene that we shot in the 'Rock Icons' series, which we could only use a little snippet of because that episode was actually about Geddy. So it was great to be able to go back to that footage and dig into it a bit more and find pieces of it to use in this film. Because Neil was such a private person, there wasn't a lot of footage with just sort of hanging with him. You've either got an archive photo or you've got an interview, but nothing that you feel like you're actually with him, and that's why the Le Studio footage was really great to revisit and include in the film… It so happens [we have that footage] because we have actually been documenting RUSH for 15 years now. So, obviously we didn't know back then we were gonna be making a film about Neil, but I gotta say, it kind of feels like we were the ones to make this film, and perhaps the only ones, because we have this collection of material with this band that we've been shooting for, for a long time. So it was really wonderful to be able to put some of that unused footage to use."

Peart died on January 7, 2020 in Santa Monica, California after a three-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 67 years old.

RUSH announced Peart's passing three days later, setting off shockwaves and an outpouring of grief from fans and musicians all over the world.

In 2022, Lee revealed that Peart wanted to keep his cancer diagnosis a secret prior to his death.

"[Peart] didn't want anyone to know [about his illness]," Lee said on Canadian talk show "House Of Strombo". "He just didn't. He wanted to keep it in the house. And we did. And that was hard. I can't tell you it was easy, 'cause it was not easy. And it was ongoing. His diagnosis was… he was given 18 months at the most, and it went on three and a half years. And so that was a constant flow of us going to see him, giving him support."

Lee went on to say that he and Lifeson had to be "dishonest" to fans in order to protect Peart's privacy.

"What his family had to live through was really difficult, so it was a lot of back-and-forth," he said. "And when you're in that state, it's very hard to function normally, because you can't talk to anybody about it, 'cause no one's supposed to know. And so people hear rumblings and they bring things up to you, and you deflect it. And so that feels, on one hand, it feels dishonest, but on the other hand you're being loyal to your friend. So fuck the dishonesty part. That wins."

He continued: "I would say that was the most difficult time for us to move forward, during that whole thing, because we were in this bubble of grief sort of walking towards an inevitable and terrible conclusion."

RUSH is currently on the road with Anika Nilles, a German drummer who toured with legendary guitarist Jeff Beck in 2022, and newly added keyboardist Loren Gold, who is best known as touring member of THE WHO and CHICAGO. The June 7 show at Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California was the kick-off gig of the "Fifty Something" tour, which marks RUSH's first with the band's revamped lineup of classic members Lee (vocals, bass) and Lifeson (guitar) alongside Nilles and Gold.

RUSH is performing multiple shows in cities across Canada, the United States and Mexico. These special "evening with" shows find the band playing two sets each night. Each show features a distinct selection of songs, and RUSH builds each night's setlist from a catalog of around 40 tracks, including its greatest hits and fan favorites.

After Lee and Lifeson announced RUSH's initial 2026 tour dates in early October 2025, they instantly sold out. They then doubled the tour's length due to increased demand before adding even more dates to the trek.