New Classic Rock Magazine Interview with Geddy and Alex Sheds Light on the Upcoming R50 Box Set ... and the future

The upcoming February 2025 issue of Classic Rock Magazine (purchase here) celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Rush's debut album with an all-new interview with both Geddy Lee (from London) and Alex Lifeson (home in Canada). The cover feature was written by long-time Rush scribe Philip Wilding.

The interview provides some additional clues to the upcoming RUSH 50 box set that we first reported earlier this month:

We’re here ostensibly to talk about Rush’s forthcoming R50 set, the latest collection of the band’s live archive housed in a lavish box with new essays. (Full disclosure: I wrote about the band from Vapor Trails through to the final show in LA and everything in between for it.) R50 also features some unreleased and hard-to-find audio from the band’s very early club and high school days as well as the final song they played together as a band at the LA Forum show on the R40 tour. It’s not only a thing of beauty, but also a bittersweet reminder of just how great Rush were as a live band, regardless of the decade they found themselves in.

Wilding also touches upon the return of Geddy and Alex to the stage when they performed during the two Taylor Hawkins tribute shows in London and Los Angeles:

Lee: “Dave [Grohl] just called me out of the blue and said, look, we’re going to put together a tribute, two shows and Taylor would have loved you and Alex to be part of it. I said, well, you had me at hello. But he’s very wise and he’s a very smart guy, Dave. He said, look, one thing we have to do is make sure it’s not just one drummer, because you don’t want people thinking this is Rush 2.0. And he brought Omar Hakim on board and they both flew up to Toronto to rehearse with me and Al. They made everything so easy for us. Al and I were pretty nervous about doing that show, about being Rush again, and he did everything he could to put us at ease.

Geddy and Alex also talk about continuing to jam together on occassion to keep their musical and playing chops in shape:

Lifeson: “It’s good to jam with friends as you get older. I need to play. Once a week I go to Ged’s it’s in the calendar - keep my fingers moving, play Rush stuff, new jams. We do record it, but I couldn’t even begin to tell you where it’ll go.”

Lee: “I’ve been spending the summer getting my fingers in shape because all these other day jobs I’ve taken - TV, writing and all that - have taken me away from my playing. And so, this was a summer that | dedicated to being at home for my family and also to be able to get my fingers back in shape and to get my head around writing different things, writing poetry and prose. And I don’t know if that will end in those things becoming songs, if they’ll surface in music or be left as prose. I don’t know.

Issue #336 of Classic Rock should hit the newsstand soon, and should also be available to purchase online HERE.

Additional excepts from the interview are also available on the main site.

Thanks to Geoff Clarke for providing some valuable details!

Comments

---