SKF NOTE: This handwritten note is Neil Peart accepting Modern Drummer Founder Ron Spagnardi’s invitation to join the MD Advisory Board.

Most interesting to me, and perhaps to his fans who know Neil only as a prolific book author, is Neil’s third paragraph. In his 1981 note we have an indication of Neil’s cold feet at writing and submitting his “Moving Pictures” piece for publication.

An article I have spoken of contributing for the last several months still reposes incomplete in my notebook, but I hope to find the time & mental space soon to complete and submit it.

It would deal with the special circumstances and challenges of the drummer in the recording studio as part of a group, in particular it would, elaborate on the recording of our ‘Moving Pictures‘ album.

All writers and musicians experience cold feet. Typically, Neil persisted, and almost one-and-a-half years after writing his note to Spagnardi, MD published the first of three installments of Neil’s “The Making of Moving Pictures.” The full piece was published in three issues of MD: December 1982, January 1983, and February 1983.