Neil Peart On the Late Show with David Letterman

Neil Peart appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman last night as part of "Drum Solos Week".  Neil performed a scaled down version of his Time Machine tour solo, coming in at just over four minutes.  The complete episode is available at CBS.com.

Before making his appearance on the Late Show, Neil Peart sat down with MusicRadar to talk about the art of the drum solo - his own, those of his heroes, and improvisation, as well as performing on the Late Show:

"Peart admits that when he was approached to be part of Drum Solos Week, his initial reaction was, 'I don't know...it's not really my thing. But then I thought, Hey, a drum solo on TV - sounds great! I'd be very honored to be the ambassador to drum solos.'  Only now there's the TV time factor, and it's got Peart's fertile mind running in circles. The show's producers have asked the renowned sticksman to keep the razzle-dazzle down to 'three, maybe four minutes,' says Peart.  'My regular live drum solo is about eight and a half minutes, so I decided I'd have to do a mental edit, accelerate the changes and minimize the improvisational parts and so on. At the rehearsal, during my first attempt, I had it down to about four minutes and 50 seconds, and the producers were giving me these worrisome looks.' Peart's second run-through was more acceptable: 'I got it down to about four minutes and two seconds...So all I have to do tonight is play that four-minute-and-two-second version of the solo, settle down and play the tempo and the end properly, and I'll be happy.'" - MusicRadar.com, June 7, 2011 Thanks to RushFanForever for the headsup!

Last night's (June 9th) episode was filmed the afternoon of Monday, June 6th.  Long time fan Bill Banasiewicz (B-man) was in attendance, and reported after the audience left the theater, he could hear the drum solo being performed a second time, perhaps for close up camera shots without obstructing the audience's view, etc.