Geddy Lee Celebrates His 70th Birthday Today!
Congratulations to Rush's frontman Geddy Lee who is celebrating his milestone 70th birthday today! Geddy (born Gary Lee (Gershon Eliezer) Weinrib) was born in the North York neighbourhood of Willowdale, Toronto. As many fans know, his given first name "Gary" transformed into "Geddy" during his high school days thanks to his mother's heavily-accented pronunciation of his name. Geddy began playing music in school when he was 10 or 11 and got his first acoustic guitar at 14. In school, he first played drums, trumpet and clarinet. However, learning to play instruments in school wasn't satisfying to Lee, and he took basic piano lessons independently. His interest increased dramatically after listening to some of the popular rock groups at the time. His early influences included Jack Bruce of Cream, John Entwistle of The Who, Jeff Beck, and Procol Harum. "I was mainly interested in early British progressive rock", said Lee. "