Gary McCracken, the drummer in Max Webster, has died aged 75

Gary McCracken has died at 75. The drummer spent the whole of Max Webster's run behind the kit, from the band's first records in the mid-1970s until they split in 1981, and Exclaim reports his death on Wednesday 17 September after a period in palliative care.

Kim Mitchell, the singer and guitarist who fronted Max Webster, had posted two days earlier that his bandmate was very sick. On the Wednesday he put up a pair of photographs of the drummer and signed off by calling him his brother in rock, which is about as much as anyone in that band ever said in public about each other.

The other tribute came from a different stage. Geddy Lee of Rush wrote on Instagram that he had just heard his old friend, the drummer he knew as Stixie, had passed away. Rush toured the world with Max Webster as their opener in the late 1970s and the two bands became close; Lee recalled that when a Paris show was cancelled, he and McCracken went anyway with the assistant Sam Charters for three days of chips, beer and berets.

The two bands left a record of that closeness. Max Webster and Rush collaborated in 1980 on Battle Scar, a song both groups played on, which is still the clearest evidence that these were not simply a headliner and an opening act sharing a bus.

McCracken was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario, and went back there after the band ended. He taught drums in the town for years, which is the quieter half of a career that most obituaries will skip past in favour of the arena tours.

He kept recording. McCracken released an experimental solo album called Audioscapes and played with Triumph, Wrabit and Klaatu, a list that covers a fair share of what Canadian rock sounded like between the late 1970s and the 1980s.

Max Webster reunited a handful of times over the decades, and the band's standing at home was formally recognised in 2023 when they were inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. McCracken attended the ceremony as the band's longest-serving drummer.

Exclaim did not give a cause of death, and no family statement had been published at the time of the report. Our other rock coverage of that Canadian drumming lineage includes a Neil Peart documentary arriving this fall and Neil Peart's widow backing Anika Nilles as Rush's drummer.