MusicRadar

It's mid-afternoon in New York City, and Neil Peart is unwinding. And how exactly does Rush's world-famous drummer and lyricist kick back in the Big Apple? By solving a math problem, of course. But this particular equation has a very specific purpose, and it's one that will soon be played out in front of TV cameras, a studio audience and millions of home viewers, for Peart is one of the stars - in fact, he's the closing act - of Drums Solos Week on The Late Show With David Letterman.

There's just one little hitch: The show's producers have asked the renowned sticksman, who this Thursday (9 June) will follow performances by The Late Show's own Anton Fig, along with Sheila E and drum legend Roy Haynes, to keep the razzle-dazzle down to "three, maybe four minutes," says Peart. Hence, the numbers crunching.

Just back from a morning rehearsal, Peart admits that when he was approached to be part of Drum Solos Week, his initial reaction was, "I don't know…it's not really my thing. But then I thought, Hey, a drum solo on TV - sounds great! I'd be very honored to be the ambassador to drum solos."

Only now there's the TV time factor, and it's got Peart's fertile mind running in circles. "My regular live drum solo is about eight and a half minutes, so I decided I'd have to do a mental edit, accelerate the changes and minimize the improvisational parts and so on. At the rehearsal, during my first attempt, I had it down to about four minutes and 50 seconds, and the producers were giving me these worrisome looks." Peart's second run-through was more acceptable: "I got it down to about four minutes and two seconds."

Trying to weed whack a heralded, road-tested piece of music had Peart literally saying to himself, "'Put this in, not that…This, not that…This, not that.' I found myself just racing, which is a problem when I come to the end and I'm playing with the Buddy Rich Big Band on the song Love 4 Sale, because I have to be in time with it. I was so edgy and found it so hard to settle into that nice groove. So all I have to do tonight is play that four-minute-and-two-second version of the solo, settle down and play the tempo and the end properly, and I'll be happy."

During a break in his TV schedule, Neil Peart sat down with MusicRadar to talk about the art of the drum solo - his own, those of his heroes, and how, over the past few years, he's moving "more and more towards improvisation."

You've pretty much answered this, but the solo you have to edit for The Letterman Show will basically be a truncated version of what you've been playing on the Time Machine tour.

"That's right. It's half improvised and half composed. I've tried to become more of an improvisational soloist over the past few years, pushing myself in the direction. So the first half of it follows a certain pattern of basic grooves – essentially, I try never to repeat, though – and then the second half is composed. I always say, 'I know where I'm going, but I don't always know how I'm going to get there.' To me, drum soloing is like doing a marathon and solving equations at the same time. Trying to edit everything for the Letterman performance is a lot for my tiny poo brain." [laughs]

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