I saw a meme recently featuring a quote from my all-time favorite drummer, the late Neil Peart from Rush. It said:
Eric Clapton said he wanted to burn his guitar when he heard Jimi Hendrix play. I never understood that because, when I went and saw a great drummer or heard one, all I wanted to do was practice.
This really is the key. Neil Peart was widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, rock drummer of all time, and he deserved those accolades, yet he still found people who inspired him to work harder to become even better. For the vast majority of us, sooner or later there will come along someone who we feel is better than us at what we do and at that point we will have a decision to make. Will we get discouraged and give up or will we get inspired to become even better? The truth is we are not called to be better than someone else, and that’s good because the arts are so subjective. Rather we are called to be the best we can be. This means we need to be practicing, working our art forms and getting better.
When it comes to rock drummers, I consider Neil Peart to be the greatest of all time. Mr. Peart saw others who made him want to be even better. May we al learn and grow for a lifetime.
Here is a link to Mr. Peart in action.
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