ALEX LIFESON: GEDDY LEE And I Get 'Substantial' Offers 'All The Time' To Perform Together Again

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Alex Lifeson confirmed that he has been "playing a lot of RUSH songs" with his longtime bandmate Geddy Lee at the bassist/vocalist's house in Toronto in recent weeks. "We're together in a room like we've always been," the guitarist said. "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."

When the interviewer noted that RUSH fans "would care", Lifeson clarified: "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."

Elaborating on why he is opposed to the idea of performing RUSH music with a new drummer, Lifeson said: "I just don't know if doing something like that would wreck it. Or wreck the legacy that RUSH has left. When it happened, it was disappointing for us. And then Neil [Peart, late RUSH drummer] got sick and all of that stuff, but our legacy is intact that we went out on a high note. That tour was great. It looked great. We played really well. We bonded even more so with our audience. I'd rather have that and the sadness of not doing it again, than doing it again and sitting on a chair on stage because I can't stand. [Laughs] I'd rather be remembered for that than something that's more current."

Alex went on to say that he and Geddy are continuing to have conversations about the possibility of performing together again. "We talk about it, but at the same time, he's my best friend and he loves me and he cares for me," he said. "He knows that I do have issues both physical and emotional with this whole idea. And he respects that we have so much respect and love for each other. I would do something like that, that he wanted to do, because I love him and I want to make him happy. But he knows that I wouldn't be happy. It's the bond that we have."

He added: "I don't think I would be happy in my heart if we were to do something like that. I really would feel like we were doing an injustice to our fans and that would be just a money grab.

"We get offers all the time, and they're pretty substantial, but I don't know. It's not enough for me. How much do you need? I'm trying to get rid of stuff. I sold the bulk of my guitars. I had some cars. I sold those. I had a house in the country that I sold. I want to be slimmer and a little tighter in, in my life with fewer anchors around my neck."

This past January, Lifeson didn't rule out the possibility of playing with Lee again, telling Greg Prato of Ultimate Guitar: "There's certainly a lot of interest in us doing something. I think for a lot of RUSH fans, they've been hoping for… Geddy had his book tour. I went out on a few of those dates with him. I think that's kind of sparked more interest in us working together.

"Ged's a very busy guy," Alex continued. "He's written a couple of books over the years. He has a lot of stuff that he's into. This is my studio in my apartment. I've been working on the ENVY OF NONE stuff as well as a few other projects. So I've been playing and recording for all these years.

"When he's ready, he always says, 'Come over for a coffee and we'll go down to the studio and bash around a few notes.' Yeah, call me. And so far he's been so busy, but I think maybe in the new year — or this is the new year — maybe soon we'll find the time to sit down and see what happens," Lifeson added. "Maybe nothing happens. Maybe it's not there anymore. Maybe it's gonna be amazing. I don't know. We'll see. Honestly, it's not a priority for us. We're happy in our lives. So, it's not like we need to go back to something. And that's my fear. That if we — that would be the expectation, this is like RUSH 2. But by necessity it has to be something different. And it can never be RUSH. Without Neil [Peart, late RUSH drummer], it can never be RUSH. That's it. It's over. But you never know what can happen. So we'll see."

For the past couple of decades, Lifeson has been suffering from psoriatic arthritis, a chronic, autoimmune form of arthritis that causes joint inflammation and occurs with the skin condition psoriasis. During an appearance on the January 10 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", the now-70-year-old Canadian musician opened up about the severity of longtime physical ailments, saying: "I would say that's slowly getting worse, as to be expected. I have psoriatic arthritis, and I've been dealing with it for quite a while — for almost 20 years. I'm on two biologics [biologic drugs for the treatment of arthritis], so sort of like a double whammy in dealing with it. And it's been very, very effective. Despite the side effects and all of that, it's been a really effective regimen for me, and it's really helped my hands. I have times where the inflammation has its own mind, and that's when you'll see me shaking my hands [while I am playing]. But it is what it is, and I can still get by, and I'm so used to it, I don't really even think about it that much anymore. "

Lifeson also talked about the possibility of him returning to the road, either with Lee or with another project. He said: "[After] 40 years of touring, I'm not interested in touring anymore. I enjoyed it when we did it. There were lots of ups and downs. The gig is great, the show is great, and for the other 21 hours in a day, you're just waiting for those three hours. And it gets tiring, especially when you have a family and you have loved ones at home that you're estranged from for months and months and months at a time. I don't miss that aspect of it. Do I like playing in front of people? Yeah. I still like that — maybe not to the point where I have to do it. But when [Geddy and I] did the Taylor Hawkins benefits and we did the 'South Park' thing in Denver, and I do these Christmas shows with Andy Kim and lots of great musicians that I get to play with, then it's fun. I really enjoy that, and it's controlled, and it's great. To make a big deal and do a tour and get back into that thing, I don't really have an interest in that. I know Ged would like to play again and he would like to spend some time writing. But beyond that, honestly, we haven't talked about anything beyond just getting together and having a coffee and just bashing out a few notes."

Alex continued: "[Geddy] has a lot of stuff in his life. He's a very busy person. He's really enjoying this phase of being [a book] author. He's on the go, go, go, go all the time. And I'm here, and I'm playing on all these different projects. So, in a way, I've continued being that musician, and he's gone off to do other things. So, whenever he's ready, like usual, I only live five minutes away from him, like we have all our lives. I go over and hang out and we'll turn the recorder on and do some stuff, but there's no plan for a tour. There's no plan for anything. And I know rumors get started and people have their desires and lots of people would love to see us get back and play again. Well, I don't know. I don't know. Who knows? Maybe if we're together, we're messing around and we get excited… Certainly after we did those gigs, it was quite heady and very exciting. But I really love my life right now, and I don't know if I'm gonna disrupt it by being away from the things that I'm really enjoying, for any reason."

Lifeson also reflected on RUSH's final tour, which concluded in August 2015 in Los Angeles. According to Rolling Stone, the trek took the novel approach of presenting the band's music in reverse chronological order, meaning Alex and his bandmates — Lee and drummer Neil Peart — began the show with songs from their most recent albums and slowly worked back to their earliest material. As time went backwards, stagehands would swap out the backdrop to match the period they were visiting. That meant by the time they reached the encores, it looked like they were playing in the high school gyms of their youth.

"The last tour I thought was a terrific tour for RUSH," Alex said. "I thought we played really well. I thought the show was really fun. Going back in time to the beginning was a great way to celebrate the end of the band. I don't know if, at 70 years old, 10 years later, if I can play like I played back then. I haven't played that material in nine years. And if I can't play it like I played it nine years ago, then I really have no interest in doing it. I think RUSH has a strong legacy because of the way things ended. We ended on a high note, and that's the way people remember us. And I think that that also is partly the reason why so many people would love to see us back out, because that's the memory they have of us. We were dedicated to what we were doing. We practiced a lot. We were passionate. We played our hearts out. Physically, ten years later, at this stage, [after] these ten years, I don't know if we can do that. I don't know, can Ged sing like he did? Can I play guitar? Can he play bass like he did? I don't know. Unless we did a big rehearsal and tried to do all that stuff, we'll never know. But just thinking intellectually how this would work, I'm not keen on doing it, really."

Peart died on January 7, 2020, after quietly battling brain cancer for three and a half years. RUSH waited three days to announce Peart's passing, setting off shockwaves and an outpouring of grief from fans and musicians all over the world.

In 2022, Geddy revealed that Neil wanted to keep his cancer diagnosis a secret prior to his death.

Lee went on to say that he and Lifeson had to be "dishonest" to fans in order to protect Peart's privacy.