Rush guitar legend, Alex Lifeson, recently revealed that he's been playing Rush songs with Geddy Lee. It's something they hadn't done regularly in nearly a decade, as Rush played their final show in 2015 and called it quits after the death of drummer Neil Peart in January 2020.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Alex Lifeson catches us up on his busy post-Rush life, and explains in detail why he really, really doesn't want to tour again, despite Lee’s best efforts to the contrary. An excerpt from the feature follows...
Rolling Stone: I think you were hesitant to go out with Envy Of None (Alex's project featuring Andy Curran, producer/engineer Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne) or go out on tour in any circumstances. Is that still your thinking?
Alex Lifeson: "Yeah, on the one hand, it would be awesome to do it because I think the presentation of us live would be stunning with the right lights and and the right setup on stage with the right players. It would be really great if we could recreate the feel of the records. But at the same time, this is not latter-day Rush. This is a start of a smaller unit. Traveling probably in a van! [Laughs.] Or I don’t know if it would be that basic, but I wouldn’t want to start all over again for any reason. I’m just too old and I have too much stuff in my life that I’m loving and happy with. And it’s great to be with my family on a more permanent basis and all of that. So then that goes back to the whole thing about Rush. Ged and I are hanging out a lot - and we always do - but now we’re hanging out at his place and we’re playing. And we’re actually playing a lot of Rush songs."
RS: Wow.
Lifeson: "It’s funny because we sound like a really bad tribute band for the first three or four run-throughs on these things. It’s “Oh, my God, what did I play there? Why did I play that so hard?” And then muscle memory kicks in, and we’re having a ball doing it. It’s good for the fingers. We’re together in a room like we’ve always been. That’s been really good, but there’s no chance that we’re going to get a drummer and go back on the road as the rebirth of Rush or something like that. And if we wanted to write new material, nobody cares about new material anymore. They just want to hear the old stuff from guys like us."
RS: Rush fans would care, though! Rush fans are special.
Lifeson: "Yeah, they are special. But maybe the feeling is that it’s just really about taking people back to an earlier time in their lives that they have very fond and vivid memories of, and I get it and that’s great. And then you do it for the money. And that’s not what we were ever about or what we would want to do. Offers come in all the time, but I don’t know. I don’t think that’s something that we’re really interested in."
RS: I must say, clearly you and Ged are on slightly different pages about this. I think Ged even was trying to nudge you publicly, based on the last time I talked to him about seven months ago. He thinks you guys can do something. He had a whole vision for it, which was more people on stage, so it was not as much burden on you guys. And it wouldn’t have to be called Rush. And he said he’s working on you with it, but obviously the work has not been successful.
Lifeson: "No, we’ve talked about it in depth, and I was waffling between maybe considering it and not. And then my health issues came up. I know if we went on the road, it couldn’t be like we used to do it. You need to go out for five or six months. You can’t just go out and play on the weekends. It just doesn’t work that way, especially if it’s going to be a big production. I don’t know. We talk a lot about it. We’re in different worlds. I’ve been working on this Envy Of None stuff for four or five years now. He’s been busy writing his books and he travels a lot and he does all those things that are important to him. He hasn’t been playing on a regular basis, and that’s why he really loves it when we’re together like this. And this is where we came from when we were kids. This is not about putting something together for a possible tour or a record or something. This is the joy of those two teenagers sitting in a room looking at each other and trying to learn how to play an instrument better."
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