Rush pay belated tribute to drummer Neil Peart in No One's Disciple

Rush have finally made the tribute to Neil Peart that circumstance denied them. Neil Peart: No One's Disciple, an official CBC documentary about the late drummer, premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16, and the trailer is out now.

The film brings peers and admirers into a room with the two surviving members. The Police's Stewart Copeland, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith, Tool's Danny Carey and Porcupine Tree's Gavin Harrison jam with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, with breaks for reminiscence between the playing.

"I remember thinking there's no way this guy is cool enough to be in our band," Lifeson says in the trailer of first meeting Peart, while Lee describes being floored by his facility with triplets and Smith recalls how straight-faced he played.

Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn co-directed it, which puts the project in familiar hands. The pair made Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, as well as Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, Iron Maiden: Flight 666 and Super Duper Alice Cooper.

The word belated is Lee and Lifeson's own point in the trailer. Peart died in January 2020, at a moment that made any public tribute close to impossible, and the band had not played live in years by then, since he retired in December 2015.

Rush have since returned to the stage with drummer Anika Nilles, a move Peart's widow gave her blessing to. Lee has spoken about the fear of coming back at this age and being a compromised version of yourself, and drew the line straight back to Peart, who retired rather than show anything less than his best. The documentary was first reported as arriving this autumn, and it is one of the year's larger rock film events.