The personal tragedies that befell Neil Peart in 1997 looked likely to end Rush’s career. He lost his daughter in a car crash; then, just 10 months later, he lost his wife to cancer. Knowing she’d died of a broken heart, the drummer took off on his bike. He wrote a song and a book about his travels; then, finally returned to the Rush fold with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.
The result was 2002’s Vapor Trails – and while fans were delighted to welcome their heroes back, they were perhaps less delighted with the album. In 2010 guitarist Lifeson told Prog about the trio’s feelings on their work at the time.
