"It had been a taboo subject" – why Geddy Lee isn't ruling out a Rush reunion with Alex Lifeson anymore
With the passing of Neil Peart in 2020, the idea of Rush ever continuing seemed impossible. But time changes things, and it's given Geddy Lee the perspective to be open to going out and playing with guitarist Alex Lifeson 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 told The Washington Post. "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 door is open then, for Rush or another Lee / Lifeson project, and that's good news indeed. The duo last played Rush material together in August 2022 for the South Park 25 Anniversary show at Red Rocks Ampitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. Lee revealed to the Washington Post that the duo also got together again in October that year to jam, but in July 2023 Lifeson underwent surgery for stomach issues and Lee is mindful of his recovery with regards to any future musical plans.
"He needs to feel good and feel healthy and strong," Lee says. "And then maybe we have a discussion."
I see that there’s a lot of race left in both of those horses
Rush's debut album celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024, and earlier this year Lifeson's Envy Of None bandmate Andy Curran aired his own hopes for what that landmark might prompt. I’m going to answer that in two ways," he told Rock History Canada of the chances of a Rush reunion."I’m going to say, I hope they do [reunite] as a Rush fan. I hope those boys do because I see that there’s a lot of race left in both of those horses. Those guys are extremely creative guys… I would be shocked if they didn’t do something together; that’s maybe the hopeful side of me.”
Meanwhile, Rush fans have Geddy Lee's TV series to look forward to. A four-part documentary, Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? is coming to Paramount+ and will feature the Rush man talking to and exploring the lives of fellow bassists including Krist Novoselic, Les Claypool, Melissa Auf Der Maur and Metallica's Robert Trujillo.
"It was a lot of fun. I got to hang with Geddy for two days solid," Trujillo told Detroit's WRIF's Meltdown radio show [transcribed by Blabbermouth]. "I'd met him before, but we were hanging out for 10 to 12 hours through the weekend. And we just kind of threw it all into two days. We had two beautiful days down in SoCal. And it's basically a lifestyle hang. He wants to know, or wanted to know, what's it like in the world, in the life of Robert Trujillo outside of bass? And he came by the house. We went down to Venice Beach. We kind of got a bit of education on the history of my neighborhood and some of the people I grew up with. It was really, really cool. And the stars kind of aligned those two days."
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The bassist added that it was somewhat surreal to spend time with his teenage musical hero.
"I played in backyard party bands at age 16 and we played La Villa Strangiato, we played YYZ, we played all those classic songs," continued Trujillo. "The harder, the better back then. And we probably butchered them, but we would play these backyard parties and play Rush songs in the same way that we also played Ozzy [Osbourne] songs and we played Black Sabbath songs and Van Halen and all these different bands. So you can imagine hanging out with one of your heroes and just trying to stay grounded. At the end of the day, everybody's a human being and you always wanna treat people with respect and, again, stay grounded. But at the same time, you're going, 'Damn, that's Geddy Lee.'"
