Watch: Artist’s Neil Peart Sculpture Celebrates the Life of the Late Rush Drummer

A sculpture of Rush drummer Neil Peart comes together in a new video from Canadian artist Morgan MacDonald. A year after Peart's death, MacDonald's aim is for the statue to grace Ontario's Lakeside Park, an area Rush immortalized in their 1975 song bearing the park's name.

He crafted the likeness of Peart with support from his brother, lifelong Rush fan Bill MacDonald. The siblings are teaming with up-and-coming Canadian musician Peter Fewer to dedicate the tribute sculpture to the late Rush member, who died from brain cancer in January 2020.

Watch the video of the sculpture down toward the bottom of this post.

In the 7-minute clip from the artist, viewers get a close look at how Morgan crafted the Neil Peart sculpture out of clay. While not quite life-size, the carving features a replication of the Rush member's drum set — Peart's seated behind the kit, bashing away at the drums in a familiar pose.

A part of Lakeside Park, near where Peart grew up and actually worked and played during his summers as a youngster, has already been memorialized in the drummer's honor. A pavilion on the grounds is now called Neil Peart Pavilion after both a public vote and local government deliberations chose the nod to the Rush icon over a selection of more generic-sounding names.

As hoped by the sculptor, his Neil Peart tribute will eventually go on permanent display just outside of the percussionist's namesake pavilion. (See a mockup of the setup after the video below.)

Morgan, who operates out of Newfoundland, is "known for his large monumental bronze works and sculptural interpretations of history and culture," as summarized on the artist's website. His previous works include "The Rower" on the waters of St. John's Quidi Vidi Lake, a statue of Canadian statesman William Lyon Mackenzie King and a tribute to fallen Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers.