Following the death of Rush’s drummer Neil Peart from brain cancer in January 2020, the trio’s surviving members, frontman Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, insisted that they would never perform as Rush again. However, in a new Washington Post interview, Lee suggests that he may be having a change of heart.
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A major inspiration for Lee to potentially play with Lifeson again, possibly under the Rush moniker, came in part from their performance at two star-studded Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts held in September 2022 in London and Inglewood, California, respectively. At the shows, Lee and Lifeson played three Rush tunes backed by a few different drummers, including Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Tool’s Danny Carey, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith.
According to The Washington Post, Lee really enjoyed playing Rush songs again with his old bandmate, as well as hanging out with other musicians at the events and revealed that during the London after-party, Paul McCartney congratulated Lee and Lifeson and encouraged them to consider touring again.
“It had been a taboo subject, and playing those songs again with a third person was the elephant in the room, and that kind of disappeared,” Lee explained about the performances at the Hawkins tributes. “It was nice to know that if we decide to go out, Alex and I, whether we went out as part of a new thing, or whether we just wanted to go out and play Rush as Rush, we could do that now.”
The newspaper also reports that in October of 2022, Lee and Lifeson got together to jam at Lee’s house for the first time in several years. Lee did note, however, that Lifeson had mixed feelings at the time about moving forward with a reunion, and that he was still recovering from a surgery he had in July to address long-time stomach issues. “He needs to feel good and feel healthy and strong,” Lee said. “And then maybe we have a discussion.”
It is worth mentioning that in August of 2022, Lee and Lifeson reunited to perform the classic 1977 Rush song “Closer to the Heart” at two special concerts celebrating the 25th anniversary of the animated series South Park at Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver. Those performances marked the first time Lee and Lifeson had performed live in public since the end of Rush’s 40th anniversary tour in 2015.
Meanwhile, Lee is set to release a new memoir, My Effin’ Life, this Tuesday, November 14. As Lee’s wife of 47 years, Nancy Young, explained to The Washington Post, the inspiration for him to write his life story came about in part as a way of healing from the losses of Peart, the band, and his mother, Mary Weinrib, who died in 2021 at age 95.
“He needed to do this,” Young said. “To sit down and really write about Neil and his mom and the history. It was really very cathartic.”
On Monday, November 13, in New York City, Lee will launch a North American book tour to promote My Effin’ Life. The trek is mapped out through a December 7 event in Lee’s hometown of Toronto and will be followed by a series of U.K. appearances later that month.
In addition, Lee’s recently announced docuseries, Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?, will premiere December 5 on Paramount+. The four-part series will feature him spending time with four other well-known rock bassists, Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, Primus’ Les Claypool, and ex-Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
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