Who The Hell Is John Rutsey?

As stated before, I went out this weekend and picked up my first Rush album. The debut self-titled album Rush. I was half way through track #3 Take A Friend when I was reading the CD insert and saw the early photos of Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart and Geddy Lee, and notice that Neil Peart looks so different. Wow has he changed... wait.... what? That's not even him. Who's John Rutsey? You mean... Neil Peart is NOT the original drummer for Rush? Why didn't anyone tell me?!? This is madness! My tiny Rush knowledge universe is turned upside down. Well, not really. I know nothing about Rush.

According to Wikipedia, John Rutsey was one of the co-founders of Rush along with Alex Lifeson and Jeff Jones. Uh..... Jeff Jones? WTF? Seriously? Who the hell is Jeff Jones? It says he was replaced by Geddy Lee. Ok, one original Rush member at a time. I'll get to Jeff Jones in a minute. John Rutsey played drums for Rush until '74. He had diabetes and had health concerns about touring. He then got into amateur bodybuilding. John Rutsey original co-founder and drummer of Rush died in his sleep on May 11, 2008 of a heart attack.

Wikipedia also mentioned that John Rutsey's family held a private funeral, but anyone who wanted to pay tribute to John Rutsey could do so by donating to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada. I just made a donation in memory of John Rutsey. If you would like to do the same click here.

The only album John Rutsey was with Rush was the first one. Well, John, you laid an amazing foundation to be built upon. I guess if I were to be replaced by another drummer, it better be the best damn drummer in the world.