10 Perfect Anti Rock Star Songs
2. Limelight - Rush
Part of the appeal that comes with being in a prog rock band is holding on to that niche audience that loved you in the early days. Since songs like this don't normally get on the radio, you don't have to worry about the harassment that happens with most of the big rock stars. When you end up crossing over anyway, you wouldn't blame someone like Neil Peart for getting pretty insecure.
Even though Limelight was written well before Tom Sawyer blew up, this is Neil giving an open letter to his fans about the way he is perceived in the public eye. Being an extremely private person from day one, Neil liked the fact of being able to control his star power, never really doing meet and greets and finding it embarrassing to soak up the spotlight a lot of the time. That's not being a diva though...it's about being shy at the end of the day.
In these lyrics, Neil tries to make sense of what life must be like in the spotlight, saying that he can't pretend that he has anything in common with the strangers that come to his shows every single night. While it might sound like he's mad about being famous, it goes a little bit deeper than that. Success can be a wonderful thing, but Neil is an introvert in an extroverted world, so it's better to keep some barriers between him and his fans some of the time.