MY NEIL PEART STORIES.

The Rush drummer has died, brain cancer, which all my musician friends keep dying from these days. The first time I heard him, my idiot brother, had taken the first two DOORS albums, and traded them for a Black Sabbath album (Masters of Reality) and Rush’s “Moving Pictures.” I was around 10-years-old, and...it took me a few years to buy The Doors albums back, but only a month to appreciate…

“If I played guitar, I’d be Jimmy Page,” is a lyric from a Beastie Boys song. I always thought it was clever, but since I always wanted to be a drummer, I thought I’d have the line, “If I played drums I’d be John Bonham.”

The closest I got to being like Bonham was the dad-bod and beard I’m sporting now. But this isn’t about drummers, it’s about guitarists. Arguably, one of the best in rock…

I hate much of the music that comes out today. Don't even get me started on that "Old Town Road" song, which might be the worst song I've ever heard in my life, yet it now has the distinction of being the longest #1 song in music history.

Yet there was a song I heard last year by rapper Lizzo that I think is kind of catchy. So when she was on The Today…

When I was a DJ at a classic rock radio station, my friends asked if I got sick of certain bands that seemed to get played endlessly. The answer was always no, because they have such a huge catalog of songs.

One of the bands that had over 10 songs always in rotation was Jethro Tull. They were also a band that would do great promotions and great concerts. I kept trying to get lead singer/flutist Ian Andersons autograph. It was difficult.

My friend Arnold, whose favorite band was…