Rush

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (2010) is a documentary co-written and co-directed by Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen about a Canadian rock band renowned for the expert musicianship of its three members: Geddy Lee (vocals, bass guitar, keyboard), Alex Lifeson (guitar, synthesizers) and Neil Peart (drums, lyrics).

Life Lesson:

Never stop learning.

Movie Scene:

Neil Peart: “I didn’t have the looseness that I wanted to hear out of my own playing.”

Jason McGerr: “After so many years of being an amazing player, Neil could have clearly just decided not to play drums until it was time to go play a Rush show. But instead, he cared enough about what he did to try and break down his current technique and work with Freddie Gruber, and sort of, reinvent his playing style. ”

Peart: ” […] I asked myself, can I really do this? Will I have the discipline? It’s a huge commitment. […] Freddie is all about the motion, and it was all about the motion of the hands and feet that contributed to a dance. And one of the first things he did was stand up and do a little soft-shoe dance for me and saying, ‘when you’re doing that, is that dance happening on the floor? No, it’s happening in the air’. So these were revelations to me, to start thinking about not just the hit, but the motions between.”

McGerr: “[…] It takes a lot of courage being a drummer of the stature that Neil Peart is to be able to say ‘I can improve’ and when he came back out and made his appearances after working with Freddie and he turned his grip around, his traditional grip, and had a different approach, he was so much more relaxed. That was the most refreshing thing you could have seen, is that your hero could also still learn, that they weren’t just done.”

Related articles

• Leadership Lessons from Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage a rockin’ focus on goals (theexecutiveroundtable.ca)