In a recent interview on New York’s Q104.3 classic rock station, Alex Lifeson was asked by Jonathan Clarke about whether he and Geddy Lee have had any informal discussions regarding the potential of finding a new drummer to join RUSH since Neil Peart‘s passing in January 2020.
“Oh, well, yeah, of course, because we’re bombarded by it all the time,” Lifeson said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “After Neil passed, it didn’t take more than a few minutes before we started getting e-mails from all kinds of drummers who wanted to audition for the band, thinking that we were just gonna replace somebody that we played with for 40 years who wrote all the lyrics for our music. I don’t know what some of these people were thinking.
“So, yeah, we’ve had the conversation, because we can’t avoid it,” he continued. “But honestly, Ged is my best friend. I talk to him — I must talk to him every day. We get together for dinner, we play tennis, we’re doing all this charity work together. He’s my best bud, so, yeah, I go over there. He plays bass, I play guitar — yeah, we’ll play a little bit. I go over there ostensibly to play with him and we end up just sitting and drinking coffee and laughing the whole day. So it’s not just RUSH, RUSH, RUSH, RUSH, RUSH. I have a deep loving relationship with this man, and it’s not all about creating something that we did from the past. You never know what life brings you. Right now I’m super happy doing what I’m doing. I’m engaged with a lot of musical stuff. I love being a musician. I love playing guitar. I love playing guitar so much. It’s not just a vehicle for making a living. It’s me. It’s at the core of my essence. So it doesn’t have to be about RUSH or ENVY OF NONE. I mean, I do what I do.”
During a last year’s appearance on “Strombo’s Lit”, Apple‘s book club curated by Canadian media personality and Apple Music Hits host George “Strombo” Stroumboulopoulos, Lee said that he received messages from drummers following Peart‘s death, some of which were deemed “inappropriate.”
Lee said: “That was a very weird moment. My little black book got filled up really quickly.” When Stroumboulopoulos noted that these were “people you thought were friends,” Lee said: “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was, like, ‘Whoa, that’s just so inappropriate right now. Dude, wait two months. At least two months — if ever.’ It still happens, now that the clickbait freaks are out there talking about Alex [Lifeson, RUSH guitarist] and I getting a new drummer and starting RUSH again.”
Source: metaladdicts.com
