RUSH's ALEX LIFESON On His Mindset After NEIL PEART's Death: 'I Didn't Really Wanna Play' Music

In a new interview with Tom Power, host of "Q" on Canada's CBC Radio One, RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson confirmed that he still gets together with RUSH bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee "once a week" to hang out and occasionally play music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Geddy's my best friend. We do so much stuff together. We play tennis together. Often we drink a little too much wine together. He definitely drinks too much coffee sometimes. So I'll go over to his place, and we'll just hang around. Invariably we'll go downstairs into his studio and we'll play and for fun we play some RUSH songs — just the two of us, just jamming, really. In fact, just playing. And it's so much fun for the two of us to play. We've been writing music together for 50 years. And honestly, he's my best friend. Why wouldn't I wanna hang around with him? So that's our relationship. And the rumors fly and all of that stuff — of anything, a new album and whatever. But we just really, really enjoy each other's company. I talk to him almost every day and have forever."

Lifeson also reflected on RUSH's final tour, which ended on August 1, 2015 at the Forum in Los Angeles, marking the band's 25th show at the venue and bringing the trek to a triumphant end. He said: "We toured for 40 years. There was nothing lacking. We got to do everything. And it's thrilling to hear that crowd, but to be honest with you, when you're walking up on that stage, you're not thinking about them. You don't even notice them. You're thinking about, 'I hope I don't play that wrong note that I played the other night. And when we get to that transition, what should I be doing?' You're thinking about work. And our nature is not — certainly with [late RUSH drummer] Neil [Peart] — was not about the celebrity of what we were doing. That's great to have it, and all of that stuff, but we were thinking about work and doing the best job we could. We felt we had a very serious responsibility. People were paying a lot of money to come see us play. We've gotta put on a good show. You're not gonna get up there and get drunk and jump around like you're some kind of rock and roll God. We didn't [do any drugs]… Well, maybe a little bit in the early days — a little pot here and there before a show… But certainly when we were headlining — no drinks. Not even a sip of beer — nothing, just to keep your faculties in place. So, we always took it very, very seriously."

He continued: "Neil was adamant that he was done. There was a time where he was thinking that maybe we could stretch it a bit, but then he had a problem with his feet and he was done. Ged and I were disappointed. We felt like we had a lot of gas in the tank still. That particular tour was great, 'cause that was a retrospective from the last tour right down to the beginning where our amps were on two little stools on stage in a gymnasium. We did the whole trip in time. And we could have done that tour for at least another 20 or 30 shows. We wanted to go to Europe desperately. We had a lot of fans there and we never got there — in the U.K. especially. So I think Ged and I were very disappointed. I'd say we were, to be honest with you, maybe a little bitter that it ended that way. But what could we do? Neil did it for 40 years. He absolutely had the toughest job in the band. And he felt like if he couldn't play a hundred percent, then he was done."

Asked if it was tough staying at home after that and not being on the road, Alex said: "At that point in my life, no, it wasn't tough being home. I had two grandkids. So it meant that I could spend more time with them, and they were growing up. It was a replacement a little bit for my kids because we were away for so much. So you adapt. You miss it. You wish you could still do it, but the more you become a homebody, the less you think about the glory of all of that stuff and that there are other things in life and there are other great things that you wanna do and other paths you wanna follow. So the transition was not that difficult, aside from the little bit of resentment we had. Then, of course, Neil discovered that he was ill. And nothing mattered after that.

"When Neil lost his daughter in '97, I didn't play guitar for a year," Lifeson recalled. "I was just so drained of any desire, I guess, to enjoy the beauty and love of music. And the same thing happened when [Neil] passed away. I didn't really wanna play, and it wasn't the same.

"I have this thing — I grieve for a year, and I try to go beyond that then and reset myself. And that's what I did with [my new project] ENVY OF NONE after [Neil] passed."

Peart died in January 2020 after a three-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 67 years old.

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.

Since Peart's death, Lifeson and Lee have not recorded any new music or performed live under the RUSH name, although both of them confirmed that several drummers reached out to them in the days after the legendary drummer's passing about the possibility of stepping in for Neil.

Lifeson made his mark on the music industry over 50 years ago, redefining the boundaries of progressive rock guitar. His signature riffing, copious use of effects processing and unorthodox chord structures befitted him the title by his RUSH bandmates as "The Musical Scientist." While the bulk of Lifeson's work in music has been with RUSH, he has contributed to a body of work outside of the band as a guitarist, producer and with the release of his 1996 solo album "Victor". Lifeson ranks third overall in the Guitar World readers' poll of "100 Greatest Guitarists" and is also included in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time."

ENVY OF NONE, the band featuring Lifeson, Andy Curran (CONEY HATCH),Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne, released its second album, "Stygian Wavz", on March 14 via Kscope.