Eleven years after their dissolution, Rush are back on the road with a new drummer to boot. Naturally, the rock world’s interest has led to Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson reminiscing over their near lifelong friendship – including two slightly sticky moments they discuss light-heartedly with Prog.
Geddy Lee recalled what happened when Alex Lifeson got him stoned for the first time, while the future Rush stars were at junior high school. It led to Lee splitting with the band he was in at the time.
The pair met when they were 13 years old. They had a lot in common; they were both children of Eastern European immigrants – Lee’s parents were Polish Jews and Holocaust survivors (an incredible story detailed in the singer’s phenomenal autobiography, My Effin’ Life), while Lifeson’s parents were from Serbia.
Both were aspiring musicians, too, though it would be a while before they played in a band together. “We were total outsiders,” says Lee. “We just connected. We didn’t hang around with anyone else in our class. We were just basically fucking around – we weren’t paying any attention.”
Lifeson: “Do you remember when we joined typing class? We were the only two guys in it. It was all girls! Maybe that’s why we chose it!”
Then marijuana entered the picture. “He was the one who introduced me to it,” says Lee, nodding at his bandmate. “I was playing in this other band whose drummer dreamed of being in The Who. Me and Al were hanging out, sitting in one of these portable wooden classrooms they had, and he gave me my first joint. I got so fucking stoned.
“And then I went, ‘Shit, I have to go to rehearsal!’ So Al came with me. We were walking in slow motion across the park. I got to the guy’s house, and he looked at me and went, ‘Look at your eyes, man. Are you stoned?’
“He was freaking out like you’d expect your parents to freak out. I was like, ‘This is a bummer, man – Al, this guy’s a drag! I gotta go home! How do I come down from this stuff?’ And he went, ‘You gotta drink Coca Cola. It brings you down!’ So, yeah, we kind of bonded over marijuana.”
And he never touched the stuff since? “And I never touched the stuff since,” Lee says, though he may be joking.
It wasn’t the only time Lifeson was involved in Lee’s departure from a band – in 1969 he helped fire the bassist and vocalist from Rush. At the time they were a four-piece led by drummer John Rutsey and also featuring keyboard player Lindy Young, and they were stuck in a rut.
The strong-willed Rutsey decided they needed to shake things up, and that meant throwing Lee under the bus. Young was tasked with delivering the news – Lifeson says he just went along with it. “It was nothing to do with me!” he protests today. “It was the other guys!”
“I’m still not over it,” says Lee. He’s joking, of course. After a summer of taking acid, Lee rejoined his former bandmates and they picked up more or less where they left off.
“It worked out okay,” says Lee with knowing understatement.
