Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson has been pretty open and honest in recent years about the fact that the band’s R40 Live Tour in 2015 was indeed their final bow from touring and performing live after four decades in the business. Any chances of a possible one-off reunion between Lifeson, bassist Geddy Lee, and drummer Neil Peart, however, were also sadly put to rest with the tragic death of Peart in early 2020 following a private, three-year battle with brain cancer.
While the story of Rush came to a sad, but appropriate end following Peart’s death, that doesn’t mean the two surviving members have hung up their instruments for good.
In a recent interview with Make Weird Music, Lifeson provided fans with some not-so-subtle teases regarding possible future projects and new music between himself and Geddy Lee.
“After we finished the last tour in 2015, I started just writing on my own and doing some stuff. Geddy was working on his book. We talked about getting together and doing some stuff together, but it got very, very busy for him, even after he finished writing the book — taking it on the road,” Lifeson told the music discovery website. “So we never got a chance to sit down and start working or just having some fun together. We still talk about it, and I’m sure we will.”
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The guitarist continued, “Of course, now with the pandemic, it’s kind of wrecked things for a bit. But we’re both eager to get back together and kind of get back into that thing that we’ve done since we were 14 years old that we love to do. And we work really, really well together, so we’ll see what happens with that.”
It should also come as no surprise that Peart’s death last year shook the band and the entire rock community, and had a deeply personal impact on his two longtime bandmates in Lifeson and Lee.
“After Neil passed, it was very difficult to get inspired or motivated to play. As you can imagine, we were very, very close,” Lifeson continued about his creative partner of four decades. “You lose anybody that’s close, it’s a profound thing. And I think both Geddy and I expected to be better with it. Neil was sick for three and a half years, and no one really knew about it. Well, lots of people knew about it, but it wasn’t public, the information. So we thought that we would be prepared for the end when it came, and we weren’t. We both really struggled with it …. With Neil, I’m always seeing pictures, and I’m always reminded of him, and all that stuff, and that was difficult, but now that it’s [been] a year, I find that I think of the good times that we had together more than the sadness.”
Fans can watch Lifeson’s entire Make Weird Music interview in the video below.
Make Weird Music Alex Lifeson Interview – 1/30/21
[Video: Make Weird Music]
[H/T Consequence of Sound]