Rush Reunite With Three Legendary Drummers for New Neil Peart Documentary

Neil Peart’s influence on rock drumming is about to be examined from an unusually personal angle.

A new documentary, Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple, will bring together Rush members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson with three celebrated drummers — Stewart Copeland of The Police, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Danny Carey of Tool. The film is scheduled to premiere on Canada’s CBC on September 23, 2026.

But the most intriguing part of the project isn’t simply the list of names. The documentary will reportedly feature the three drummers actually performing with Lee and Lifeson, giving viewers something more unusual than the standard archive-footage tribute: a musical look at what Peart’s legacy means to other generations of elite drummers.

Three drummers, three different connections to Peart

Copeland, Smith and Carey don’t represent the same musical tradition, which makes their involvement particularly interesting.

Stewart Copeland’s work with The Police helped establish a highly distinctive approach to rock drumming that drew heavily on reggae, punk, jazz and world-music influences. His connection to Peart was also personal: Copeland was a longtime friend of the Rush drummer.

Chad Smith comes from a different corner of rock. As the drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers, his playing is deeply tied to funk, groove and improvisation. Smith had already shared a stage with Lee and Lifeson at the second Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in Los Angeles in September 2022.

Danny Carey provides another connection. Tool’s music is rooted in progressive and alternative metal, with elaborate rhythmic structures that make Carey one of the most prominent modern drummers working in a progressive-rock tradition. Like Smith, he performed with Lee and Lifeson at the 2022 Taylor Hawkins tribute.

That history matters because Peart himself never approached drumming as a closed musical language. Rush’s music absorbed elements of progressive rock, hard rock, jazz and other styles, and Peart continually treated his own technique as something that could be developed rather than simply perfected and left alone. Rush’s official biography notes that his early influences included Gene Krupa, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker, Michael Giles, John Bonham and Michael Shrieve.

The documentary’s choice of drummers therefore offers a useful way of looking at Peart’s legacy: not as a single style to imitate, but as an example of how a drummer could keep expanding his musical vocabulary.

The documentary arrives at a significant moment for Rush

The timing of No One’s Disciple is especially notable.

Neil Peart died in January 2020 at the age of 67, following a career with Rush that spanned more than four decades. He had retired from touring in 2015, and Rush subsequently entered an extended period away from the stage.

Now, in 2026, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are performing Rush material again, with German drummer Anika Nilles behind the kit on the band’s Fifty Something tour. The decision to return without Peart was significant in itself: rather than attempt to find a replacement for the drummer who had become inseparable from Rush’s identity, the band chose a musician capable of bringing her own interpretation to the material.

That makes the documentary’s approach particularly interesting.

Nilles represents Rush’s present-day touring chapter. Copeland, Smith and Carey, meanwhile, provide three different perspectives on Peart’s influence. The film can consequently be viewed alongside Rush’s current return to the stage rather than as a purely retrospective project.

The band’s history makes the distinction important. Rush was never simply Lee, Lifeson and a rotating drummer. Peart joined in 1974 and quickly became central not only to the band’s sound but also to its songwriting, taking over the majority of the band’s lyric-writing responsibilities. Rush’s official biography describes him as the group’s drummer, percussionist and lyricist, while noting his later induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.

Peart’s obsession with getting better may be the real story

There is another reason No One’s Disciple could stand apart from a conventional rock documentary.

According to CBC’s description of the film, it will explore Peart’s development from his difficult beginnings as a young musician through his rise with Rush, while also examining his continuing pursuit of musical excellence. Archive footage will allow Peart himself to discuss that philosophy.

That emphasis is consistent with how Peart approached his craft throughout his career.

He famously continued studying drums even after becoming one of the most respected players in rock. Rush’s official biography records that he returned to formal study in the 1990s with Freddie Gruber and later studied with Peter Erskine. He also created instructional projects including A Work in Progress, Anatomy of a Drum Solo and Taking Center Stage: A Lifetime of Live Performance.

This is an important part of Peart’s story because his reputation can sometimes reduce him to the image of the technically extraordinary drummer behind Rush’s enormous kit.

His career suggests something more complicated.

Peart was constantly interested in learning, changing and refining his approach. His playing evolved alongside Rush’s music, from the sprawling progressive compositions of the 1970s to the more streamlined arrangements of the band’s 1980s work and beyond. His influence was therefore not simply about playing complicated drum parts. It was also about treating musicianship as an ongoing process.

That philosophy helps explain why a documentary about Peart would make sense with other major drummers sitting behind the Rush drum kit.

More than a tribute to a missing band member

There is an obvious emotional dimension to seeing Lee and Lifeson play Rush songs with drummers other than Peart. But No One’s Disciple appears positioned to explore something broader than the question of who could replace him.

Nobody can recreate what Peart was to Rush.

Instead, the more interesting question is what remains after a musician of that magnitude is gone.

Copeland, Smith and Carey each arrived at elite-level drumming through very different musical paths. Their involvement turns the documentary into a conversation between generations and styles — and potentially demonstrates how Peart’s influence traveled far beyond progressive rock.

That also makes the film a fitting companion to Rush’s 2026 comeback. The live band has moved forward with Nilles, while the documentary looks backward at the musician whose playing, writing and relentless pursuit of improvement helped define Rush for more than 40 years.

Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple premieres on CBC on September 23, 2026.