RUSH guitarist and singer Alex Lifeson spoke about what his life is like without the band on WFAN radio’s show “Talkin’ Golf With Ann Liguori.”
Alex Lifeson has confessed to being without inspiration or desire to play his guitar since the death of his partner, the great drummer Neil Peart.
“Geddy and I were friends from junior high school. We had such a love of music. After school, I’d go to his place or he’d come to mine, and we would jam for a couple of hours almost every day.
“It was a dream of any adolescent male to join a rock band and pick up chicks and this whole thing, but for us, the music was so important, and it was really about becoming a good musician and the best at what you do. And we started early with that, and that was the underlying reason for what we were doing.
“When Neil [Peart, drums] joined the band, he was so skilled, even at that early stage, that it was inspiring to Geddy and me, and we just kind of moved as a unit,” he continued. “We also shared a very similar sense of music, so the time that we spent together when we weren’t focused on music was like being with your very best friends all the time.”
“And you got to travel and see this other world and live this experience that you only ever dreamed about. And you got to do it together with guys that you really loved. So it was a no-brainer, really, for us. We were really, really fortunate. ‘Cause I know lots of bands that imploded. Guys just couldn’t stand each other after a while. Or there was competition or jealousy over who wrote what song. And who made what money and all of that stuff.”
“We were always very democratic in the way we ran things. If it wasn’t a unanimous decision doing something, we didn’t do it. If there was a royalty payment because someone wrote something, the whole band shared in it. That took out a lot of the stress and angst and that kind of jealousy and anger that can develop in some bands.”
Some fans were indeed hopeful that Rush would go ahead with a replacement for Neil Peart, a drummer who in 2015 announced his retirement due to the problems that tendinitis caused in his hands.
In “Limelight” maintains the predominant structure of the album, Moving Pictures: A leading riff by Alex Lifeson on which the pleasant vocal melody of Geddy Lee rests. It could be defined as a slightly more commercial song than usual, but still rocker. Again, the guitar solo stands out (from 2:37), which starts off smoothly and then acquires greater speed. Peart’s lyrics describe the struggle to maintain privacy in today’s world, a difficult aspiration when it comes to a “rock star”. However, the track below is without lyrics and more focused on Alex Lifeson Isolated guitar on the song.
Alex is rude with his guitar and he makes it well demonstrated on every riff. Keep going for the video below: