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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

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New Neil Peart interview at RollingStone.com

Tue, Jun 12, 2012@12:19PM | comments removed/disabled

Rolling Stone has just posted a new interview with Neil Peart where Neil discusses the Clockwork Angels album, which just released today. He also touches on the upcoming tour in support of the album and whether they'll be playing the entire thing, which he doesn't rule out:

... we never know until we get to rehearsals. We always pick at least a half-dozen songs more than we end up playing, because the show gets too long. The songs we pick are the songs we want to play, and this time we picked a whole bunch of older ones that we want to bring back and present in a different way. So our wishlist always exceeds what's possible. ...

Neil also addresses his longstanding association with the writings of Ayn Rand and whether her words still speak to him:

Oh, no. That was 40 years ago. But it was important to me at the time in a transition of finding myself and having faith that what I believed was worthwhile. ... For me, it was an affirmation that it's alright to totally believe in something and live for it and not compromise. It was a simple as that. ... Now I call myself a bleeding heart libertarian. Because I do believe in the principles of Libertarianism as an ideal - because I'm an idealist. .... And so, I've brought my view and also - I've just realized this - Libertarianism as I understood it was very good and pure and we're all going to be successful and generous to the less fortunate and it was, to me, not dark or cynical. But then I soon saw, of course, the way that it gets twisted by the flaws of humanity. And that's when I evolve now into ... a bleeding heart Libertarian. That'll do.

The interview closes with Neil being asked whether he thinks he'll still be working like this in 10 years:

I don't think it'll be possible, honestly. What I do is so athletic that I'm glad I've been able to hold onto my peak this long. And like I said before, I dedicate myself all the time to that kind of physical stamina and fitness levels and not to let it go. ... The next two years are mapped out pretty well, and that's enough. We usually only plan one year in advance. So, that's the other funny thing about longevity, because we watched one year go by and two, three four ... each one one at a time, but we never planned, ever, more than a year in advance. Now we're planning the next two years, so that's more than enough future for anyone to dare to presume.

You can read the entire interview at this link.

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