Gavin Harrison will always remember his first contact with Neil Peart – the beginning of a long friendship between the two drummers.
It was in the early 2000s, when Harrison was in the early stages of his career with progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. Peart, meanwhile, had recently returned to Rush after a long absence in mourning for his wife and daughter.
Harrison tells MusicRadar: “In 2002, when I joined Porcupine Tree, the first record I made with them, In Absentia, was recorded in Avatar in New York, and the engineer was Paul Northfield. Now, Paul was working with Rush around the same time, and he obviously played In Absentia to Neil.
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“It’s interesting because a year or two later I got an email from Neil, completely unsolicited, out of the blue, saying how much he liked In Absentia and my drumming. So I was like, ‘What?!’”
The feeling was mutual. Peart offered high praise for Harrison’s musicianship and for carrying the prog rock torch with distinction. And Harrison celebrated Peart’s dual exceptionalism as both a drummer and lyricist.
Now, six years since Peart died at the age of 67, the documentary No One’s Disciple tells the story of his extraordinary life.
At the heart of this documentary are performances of classic Rush songs by the band’s surviving members – guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Geddy Lee – with a revolving cast of guest drummers.
Gavin Harrison is one of four drummers featured, along with Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Danny Carey of Tool and Stewart Copeland of The Police.
Filmed in a rehearsal space, Harrison performed two songs with Lee and Lifeson – Dreamline, from 1991 album Roll The Bones, and Far Cry, from 2007’s Snakes & Arrows.
But before the filming took place, Harrison was unaware that Lee and Lifeson had already found the drummer with whom they would tour again as Rush – Anika Nilles.
Asked why he picked Dreamline and Far Cry from Rush’s vast catalogue, Harrison replies: “Both of those songs were pre-chosen for me by Geddy and Alex. I did ask to play one song, and I didn’t know at the time that they were already rehearsing with Anika Nilles. It hadn’t been announced, I didn’t know anything about it. So I didn’t realise that the songs that they were presenting to us [Carey, Copeland, Smith and himself] were songs that they were already preparing for an upcoming tour.”
He explains: “By the time I went to LA to film it, and that was last October [2025], it had already come out that Anika was gonna play on the tour, she was gonna be the drummer, so it was quite a surprise. But there was nothing audition-y about the process, or any kind of competition. It was just to try to play the songs in honour of Neil.”
Would Harrison have accepted the gig with Rush if this had been offered to him?
He states flatly: “It’s a hypothetical question. I can’t really give you an answer to that because it never happened.
“I mean, what if Earth, Wind & Fire called me up and said, ‘Do you want to be our drummer?’ Or Paul McCartney called me up? I don’t really have fantasies about joining other bands.
“Plenty of people have said to me, ‘If you could build a band, who would be in it?’ But I don’t really spend any time thinking, ‘Oh, who would I have on bass? Who would I have on guitar? Who could I get to play keyboards?’ I don’t really spend any time thinking about those kind of things.”
Hypotheticals aside, Harrison is simply grateful for the times he had with Peart.
He admits: “I didn’t grow up listening to Rush. Actually, I didn’t grow up listening to much progressive music at all. But I was well aware of who Neil was and who Rush were. I’d always admired what Neil did.”
He says of their friendship: “One day, Neil invited me to lunch and we got on really well. Then we started emailing each other. You know, very sort of nerdy drummer stuff. We weren’t really trying to cure the world. We were just two drummers.
“And I was very impressed how down-to-earth and ego-free he was. I mean, you couldn’t really get more famous than him as a drummer, but he didn’t have any kind of ego at all.
“We used to chat on email, and every time I went to LA I would try to go and see him. One time, Neil came to a Porcupine Tree gig, I think in 2009, and I would go to his man cave where he had his car collection. We’d have lunch, hang out, and just talk drums.”
For Harrison, Neil Peart was an inspiration not only as a drummer but also as a person.
“Absolutely,” he says. “Neil was very inspirational person.
“I admired the way that he worked in the band. It was a really full-on commitment for him. It was his musical life, plus the fact that he could write the lyrics – he was so gifted in the language department.
“He sent me every book that he wrote, and it was fascinating to read them and to learn more about his life.
“Yeah,” a smiles, “a very inspiring person.”
