But I think the credit has to go to Geddy... he spent a lot of time in the studio with Paul, I think he needed that kind of focus to be in there to be a part of the whole thing, and for the most part he made all the major decisions.

Both Neil and I had done solo projects where we were the boss and I just thought that if he was willing to get into it, it would really be a good experience for him.

At the same time, I've never been afraid of death or the concept of death.

And on top of that, when we work together we have a wonderful working relationship we push each other we challenge each other we laugh 80% of the time that we are together we're very fortunate.

It was a gradual move towards getting back in shape again. He [Peart] hadn't played drums for a long time and he needed the time to just build up his chops again. And for us, Geddy and I hadn't worked writing together in a while and because we'd been doing such diverse things we needed some time to get used to each other again.

We got together and it was very slow. The first two weeks we spent just talking about everything -- I don't think we played a single note.