RUSH Turned Down Offer To Play Las Vegas Residency

RUSH turned down an offer to play a Las Vegas residency, it has been revealed.

The information came to light via journalist John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, who recalled a conversation that he had a few months ago with Bobby Reynolds, AEG Live's senior vice president in Las Vegas.

When Katsilometes told Reynolds that he was "still waiting for a RUSH residency," Bobby responded: "RUSH was my first concert. I put every kind of damn offer you can put in front of RUSH."

Revealing that the overture was made in late 2015 through early 2016, with plans to have the Canadian progressive rock band playing T-Mobile Arena maybe four or six weekends a year, Reynolds said: "Las Vegas would have been the only place you could see RUSH, and I think it would have been incredible. I know their popularity, and their fans are all over North America and Canada. You look at that opportunity now — we'll never know what it would have meant."

Vegas has been home to concert residencies from some of the biggest names in the music business, including such rock acts as AEROSMITH, DEF LEPPARD, MÖTLEY CRUE, GUNS N' ROSES, SCORPIONS, QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT and JOURNEY.

RUSH's final show took place at the Forum in Los Angeles back on August 1, 2015.

Neil Peart died less than a week ago at age 67. The iconic RUSH drummer passed away in Santa Monica, California, on January 7 after battling brain cancer for three and a half years.

In announcing his passing, Peart's bandmates called him their "soul brother and band mate of 45 years." They also asked for privacy, urging those who want to express condolences to do so by donating to a cancer research group or charity.

Peart previously said that playing concerts at his age caused too much painful wear and tear on his body and he'd rather call it quits before the performances start declining in quality.