RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson shared with Ultimate Classic Rock that he’s been going back through the band’s repertoire alongside his bandmate, bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee.
Lifeson said: “We decided that we would play some RUSH songs. Because, you know, we haven’t played these songs in 10 years. We started that a couple of weeks ago. We get together one day a week over at his place. We just picked some RUSH songs and we started playing them and we sound like a really, really bad RUSH tribute band.”
Lifeson further mentioned that RUSH enthusiasts shouldn’t raise their expectations for him and Lee to return to touring and playing any of the band’s timeless tracks.
“I’m 70. It’s not as easy to get my fingers to do what my brain tells me to do,” he said. “They’re much lazier than they used to be and they have a poor memory. Doing this really helps a lot, and it’s fun. That’s it. The whole thing was that in the beginning, it was just fun. We’re having a riot together doing that. There’s no rhyme or reason. We’re not planning on going back on the road, finding a new drummer or anything like that. It’s just fun to do it.”
Earlier this year, Lifeson kept the door open to the idea of performing with Lee once more, expressing to Greg Prato of Ultimate Guitar:
“There’s certainly a lot of interest in us doing something. I think for a lot of RUSH fans, they’ve been hoping for… Geddy had his book tour. I went out on a few of those dates with him. I think that’s kind of sparked more interest in us working together.
“Ged‘s a very busy guy,” Alex continued. “He’s written a couple of books over the years. He has a lot of stuff that he’s into. This is my studio in my apartment. I’ve been working on the ENVY OF NONE stuff as well as a few other projects. So I’ve been playing and recording for all these years.
“When he’s ready, he always says, ‘Come over for a coffee and we’ll go down to the studio and bash around a few notes.’ Yeah, call me. And so far he’s been so busy, but I think maybe in the new year — or this is the new year — maybe soon we’ll find the time to sit down and see what happens,” he added. “Maybe nothing happens. Maybe it’s not there anymore. Maybe it’s gonna be amazing. I don’t know. We’ll see. Honestly, it’s not a priority for us. We’re happy in our lives. So, it’s not like we need to go back to something. And that’s my fear. That if we — that would be the expectation, this is like RUSH 2. But by necessity it has to be something different. And it can never be RUSH. Without Neil [Peart, late RUSH drummer], it can never be RUSH. That’s it. It’s over. But you never know what can happen. So we’ll see.”
Peart passed away on January 7, 2020, following a private struggle with brain cancer spanning three and a half years. RUSH took three days to reveal Peart‘s death, triggering profound shock and an overwhelming wave of sorrow from fans and musicians worldwide.
