SKF NOTE: Writers of Modern Drummer‘s 10th Anniversary Issue all agreed our interviews, in MD founder/publisher Ron Spagnardi’s words, “would be to assess the current state of the art by looking back at how it was arrived at, and then looking ahead to predict where it might be going. As always, the answers had to come from the drummers themselves.
“[T]he obvious drummers to contract were those whom the readers of the magazine had honored in the MD Readers Poll: the four living Hall of Fame members, and six other drummers who were voted to the top of their categories in the most recent poll.”
I stepped down as MD’s Managing Editor in October 1983. So this was a freelance assignment.
Neil Peart’s 1986 interview was by telephone. I scrambled last minute to make it happen. Normally I would have made sure I had a working electrical outlet or fresh batteries for my cassette recorder. Cleaning and demagnetizing the tape heads were routine. Finding a quiet, comfortable place to sit, where I could take notes, or refer to my written ideas/questions was key.
What I had not planned on were desk phones and land lines not working with my Radio Shack suction cup mic. Fortunately, I was in a home with two phones, so I improvised. I placed one phone’s earpiece near my cassette recorder’s built-in mic and recorded our interview that way. Neil and I talked over the other phone in the other room.
After transcribing and editing our conversation using a typewriter, I submitted this finished manuscript for publication to Modern Drummer.
Scott K Fish 
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