Geddy Lee has reached out to British and European fans to explain why Rush's final tour, 2015's R40 Live: 40th Anniversary trek, was limited to just 35 dates in the US and Canada.
Speaking exclusively in the new issue of Classic Rock, Lee reveals that he initially hoped the band could schedule a more extensive run of dates, but that late drummer Neil Peart insisted that the tour be kept short.
"I’d pushed really hard to get more gigs so that we could do those extra shows and I was unsuccessful," says Lee. "I really felt like I let our British and European fans down. It felt to me incorrect that we didn’t do it, but Neil was adamant that he would only do thirty shows and that was it. That to him was a huge compromise because he didn’t want to do any shows. He didn’t want to do one show.
"So, in his mind, he’d compromised already. He said, I’ll do thirty gigs, don’t ask me for any more. So that was that. “I just kind of felt I owed an explanation to them, the audience. It’s part of why I went into the detail I did about Neil’s passing in the book [Lee's memoir, My Effin' Life], was to let fans in on what went down. That it wasn’t a straight line.
"This is how complicated the whole world of Rush became since August 1 of 2015 until January 7th of 2020 when Neil passed. Those were very unusual, complicated, emotional times. Fans invested their whole being into our band and I thought they deserved a somewhat straight answer about what happened and how their favourite band came to end."
"Ged and I were disappointed that Neil demanded playing only a limited number of dates which precluded a UK and European run," says Alex Lifeson. "I think a dozen or so more dates would have made us a bit more accepting.
"And there was a point where I think Neil was open to maybe extending the run and adding in a few more shows, but then he got this painful infection in one of his feet. I mean, he could barely walk to the stage at one point. They got him a golf cart to drive him to the stage. And he played a three-hour show, at the intensity he played every single show.
"That was amazing, but I think that was the point where he decided that the tour was only going to go on until that final show in LA."
Read the full interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in the new issue of Classic Rock.
