A Look Back at Jason Segel’s Obsession With Late Drummer Neil Peart on ‘Freaks & Geeks’

Fans of the cult classic Freaks and Geeks know and love Jason Segel's charmingly awkward character, Nick Andopolis, and his dream of becoming a superstar drummer.

In the wake of Rush drummer, Neil Peart's, death, we at Billboard are remembering a particularly touching scene in which Andopolis rocks along to a Rush song channeling Peart, whom he calls "the greatest drummer alive" throughout the series.

The clip shows the rocker hopeful in his garage, setting the mood with colorful lights and dry ice-induced fog, before he drums to "Spirit of the Radio" off 1980's Permanent Waves.

Andopolis shows his love interest, Linda Cardellini's Lindsay, his prized, massive drum kit earlier in the season, boasting its "14 mounted toms, 8 floor toms, 4 splashes, 2 gongs, 10 cowbells , 4 rides, 5 snares, a rototom rack, and it’s all mounted on my infamous quadruple kick drum system." 

The Rush drummer died in California on Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer. He was 67.