Neil Peart: A Rare, Intimate Interview with George Stroumboulopoulos Airs This Sunday

Update: The complete, unedited video interview is now online at this LINK while the full radio episode can be accessed HERE. For more information, please click HERE.

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Neil Peart was recently interviewed by George Stroumboulopoulos regarding the release of Neil's latest book Far and Near: On Days Like These. The interview will air this Sunday evening, November 9th on CBC Radio 2's The Strombo Show with George Stroumboulopoulos. From the press release:

"One likes to believe in the freedom of music..."

The Strombo Show will run the gamut this Sunday night, keeping the spirit of radio alive by delivering the best records in the best order.

It's a show for music lovers by music lovers.

We'll be ranging over three hours of commercial-free music to honour both old and new. George Stroumboulopoulos will be joined by Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist of the legendary band RUSH, for a rare and intimate conversation from George's home.

Aside from being one third of the holy trinity, Peart is a celebrated author and he recently released his seventh title: 'Far And Near: On Days Like These'. With George, they'll explore his open road journeys and reflect on forty years of Rush.

Here's a partial transcription of the interview where Neil discusses how Rush have never given up on a song:

NEIL: An example of the Rush way of doing things - we've never given up on a song, we do not have a single unreleased song in the world.

GEORGE: Seriously.

NEIL:No, never - because if we went far enough and if we believed in it, we kept working on it. A lot of stuff got thrown away before it got that far or syphoned into other songs. I call my lyrical file the "scrap pot" and I'll go when I'm looking for bits and pieces and musically, we're the same - if things not happening, we'll throw it away. There's one song on 'Clockwork Angels' that was 'Wish Them Well' - three times we wrote that song and threw it away and it was the third version, finally, that pleased us all. All the way along, it took that. The will was only fed by the inspiration; do we believe in this song, but inevitably when you get to the recording stage and the mixing stage, it might not be what you'd envisioned. So we all have those certain songs that, oh I believed in that song and I thought it'd be more.

A video preview of the interview is available at this LINK or via the viewer below:

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There's also a small photo gallery from the interview available. Click on any of the thumbnail images below to enlarge the photo:

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To purchase Neil's new book, click HERE.

Thanks to Colton Eddy - Producer & Researcher, CBC-Radio 2: The Strombo Show for the news and photos!

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