Music Appreciation

In the eight-movement piece, the band would lay down a musical philosophy of their own. Alex Lifeson would later reflect on the moment Peart presented the lyrics for ‘2112’ in an interview with Rolling Stone: “I thought they were very serious. He was reading some Ayn Rand at the time. I was not a big Ayn Rand fan; I read Anthem — I think that was the only book of hers I’ve read. Neil and Geddy read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and that was an inspiration,” he recalled.

Adding: “What appealed to us was what she wrote about the individual and the freedom to work the way you want to work, not the cold, libertarian perspective. For us, it was striving to be a stronger individual more than anything, and that’s how the story came together.”

Before concluding: “I don’t recall exactly the conversations we had, but I’m sure Neil pointed out that this is a similar story to her stories of finding something that’s beautiful and developing it, learning to share it, crafting it and then being shut down by ‘The Man.’ It was our protest album.”

Peart outgrew his Ayn Rand phase years ago, and now describes himself as a "bleeding-heart libertarian," citing his trips to Africa as transformative. He claims to stand by the message of "The Trees," but other than that, his bleeding-heart side seems dominant. Peart just became a U.S. citizen, and he is unlikely to vote for Rand Paul, or any Republican. Peart says that it's "very obvious" that Paul "hates women and brown people" — and Rush sent a cease-and-desist order to get Paul to stop quoting "The Trees" in his speeches.

"For a person of my sensibility, you're only left with the Democratic party," says Peart, who also calls George W. Bush "an instrument of evil." "If you're a compassionate person at all. The whole health-care thing — denying mercy to suffering people? What? This is Christian?"