10 Rock Stars Who Absolutely Hated The Music Business

Even at a time when rock and roll dominated the music world, it was going to take a lot to get a progressive rock band on the airwaves. That suited Rush just fine though, having a core niche audience that loved their complexity and Neil Peart writing songs that were more fanciful than what you would find in a song by the likes of KISS or Aerosmith. They had a much wider crowd once Tom Sawyer hit it big though, and this is where Neil starts to exit the conversation a lot of the time.

Being a much more mild mannered rock star compared to his peers, Neil preferred to keep most of his excitement onstage, never really giving that many interviews and letting Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee do most of the heavy lifting. That divide only seemed to increase in the last few years of Rush's existence as well, as Neil stopped doing any meet and greets with fans, getting on his motorcycle the moment that the last note rang out in the stadium and meeting the rest of the band on the next stop of the tour.

This isn't just diva behavior for the hell of it though. From day one, Neil has always been a fairly private guy, and it took years before he would even step up from behind his drum stool to say anything, let alone speak to an interviewer who likely knew very little about his life story. He may be one of the kings of the drum throne, but that kind of adulation never suited Neil. Avoiding his fans isn't coming from a place of ignorance...it's from being incredibly shy.