Founding drummer of Rush dies at 55

For my 13th birthday, my best friend John Doyle gave me a vinyl copy of Rush’s Moving Pictures. Being a very young drummer myself, this album of course changed my life, as I began my lifelong Rush obsession on that humid July afternoon. Quickly buying up their back catalog, I had a special affinity for their 1974 debut with drummer John Rutsey—mainly because I could actually (well, almost) play all of Rutsey’s beats, as opposed to the intricate polyrhythms of his successor, drum demigod Neil Peart.

And play them I did: those rapid single-stroke rolls in “What You’re Doing” that made my forearms ache; that bad-ass cowbell (mine was a coffee can) in “In the Mood”; those muffled cymbal crashes and metronomic snare march in “Take a Friend”; his kickdrum boogie in “Before and After”; and his big drum finale in “Working Man.”

John Rutsey died at age 55 on Saturday, May 10, according to this fansite. Hopefully Ged and the boys will honor their fallen mate on their Snakes & Arrows tour this summer. I just finished listening to Side 2 of the Rush album, and I still can’t play Rutsey’s always creative and tasteful fills in the spotlight tune “Need Some Love.” Thanks for the blisters, John—you will not be forgotten. (Special thanks to Metal Bob for breaking the news to me.)