Geddy Lee talks about Rush reunion tour in new interview: ‘I needed to make music again’

Geddy Leefrom Rushtalked about preparations for the band’s upcoming reunion tour — and about their beloved Toronto Blue Jays arriving at World Series — in a new interview with CBC News.

“Well, I’m a little overwhelmed right now, to be honest. Alex Lifeson and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if we could actually do this again,” he said. Lee about the reaction to the tour 50 Something.

“When we finally decided, of course people were optimistic, but we really weren’t expecting the kind of overwhelming response that our announcement provoked from our fan base. It’s been a remarkable few weeks in our homes, but very emotional — very emotional.”

Lee performed live only sporadically since the death of the band’s drummer Rush, Neil Peartin 2020, and as the reunion tour continues to expand cities and add dates due to demand, the bassist told CBC News who is “preparing” for the rigors of touring.

“I’ve been playing diligently for about a year and a half. And it wasn’t because we had been planning this tour for so long. I just decided that after writing all these books and having the experience of doing television shows, I needed to make music again,” he said. Lee.

“So I’ve been exercising regularly trying to get my fingers, these little digits, back in shape. And, of course, since we decided to do the tour, I’ve been working out hard, and Alex also. But let’s be ready. We are working on it. We will dedicate many hours to this.”

Lee added that the Rush won’t play three-hour shows like “in our younger years, but we’ll certainly play for more than two hours. And we’ll do a lot of music, for sure.”

For the reunion tour, the Rush recruited the drummer Anika Nilleswhich was highly recommended by the bass technician Lee after the two worked together on the last tour of Jeff Beckwhere Nilles served as that guitarist’s drummer.

“It was a very difficult decision to return to the road, and [a morte de Peart] was the main obstacle, obviously. How to replace the irreplaceable, so to speak?,” he said Lee.

“And we were lucky enough to be introduced to the name Anika Nilles through a member of my road crew — my bass tech Skullywho was on tour with Jeff Beck — and she was the drummer of Jeff Beck on his last tour. And he came back from that tour praising her a lot. So when we made the decision to see what it would be like to play with another drummer, we got in touch with her, and she’s just an amazing person. And she came to Canada and we very discreetly snuck into a studio and rehearsed for about a week. And in the end, we were convinced that this would work for us. Yes, she is just a tremendous musician.”

Lee continued: “When she came here [ao Canadá] For the first time, we started playing some of the songs, trying to translate the music from Rush for someone who didn’t grow up a fan of Rush; She wasn’t a fan of Rush. She knew, of course, how to play Neil — every drummer knows who Neil is, or was, I should say — so it was a bit of a daunting task. And we had to go through each song and explain the nuances of the music and the idiosyncratic nature of how our songs are put together. So sometimes she would get a little overwhelmed, but she is an incredibly dedicated worker. She has great technical facility and simply has a very positive attitude, and that is very good for Alex and I are around now.”

It wasn’t all tour preparation for Leeas the bassist was photographed sitting behind home plate and enjoying a crucial moment in the club’s campaign Blue Jays towards World Series earlier this week. “I’ve never heard a crowd so loud, so electric and so in sync,” he said. Lee about when George Springerfrom Blue Jayshit a series-clinching home run to take Toronto the World Series.

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