Neil Ellwood Peart was born in Hamilton, Ontario on September 12, 1952. While his first exposure to music was via childhood piano lessons, which didn’t have much of an impact on him, Peart had a hankering for drumming on various objects around the house. He first picked up drumming at the age of 13. “I got a pair of sticks, a practice pad, and lessons,” he said in 2012, adding that his parents told him, “Once you show that you’re going to stick with it for a year, then we’ll get drums.' Fair enough.”