Rush

Geddy Lee - Bass guitar, lead vocals, keyboards
Alex Lifeson - Six- and twelve-string acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, mandola, backing vocals, bass and synthesizer pedals
Neil Peart - Drums, electronic and acoustic percussion (1974–present)
John Rutsey - Drums, backing vocals (1968–1974)

@ Wiki
Rush is a Canadian rock band comprising bassist, keyboardist, and vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. Rush was formed in the summer of 1968, in the neighborhood of Willowdale in Toronto, Ontario, by Lifeson, Lee, and John Rutsey. Peart replaced Rutsey on drums in July 1974, two weeks before the group's first U.S. tour, to complete the present lineup. Since the release of the band's self-titled debut album in 1974 Rush has become known for the instrumental virtuosity of its members, complex compositions, and eclectic lyrical motifs drawing heavily on science fiction, fantasy, and individualist libertarian philosophy, as well as addressing humanitarian and environmental concerns.

Musically, Rush has changed its style dramatically over the years, beginning in the vein of blues-inspired heavy metal on their eponymous debut to styles encompassing hard rock, progressive rock, a period dominated by synthesizers and, more recently, modern rock. Rush's three decades of continued success under the lineup of Lee, Lifeson, and Peart have earned the band the respect of their musical peers. Rush has influenced various modern artists such as Metallica, The Smashing Pumpkins and Primus, as well as many notable progressive metal bands such as Dream Theater and Symphony X.

Rush has been awarded several Juno Awards and was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1994. Over the course of their career, the individual members of Rush have been recognized as some of the most proficient players on their respective instruments with each member winning several awards in magazine readers' polls. As a whole, Rush boasts 23 gold records and 14 platinum (3 multi-platinum) records, making them one of the best-selling rock bands in history. These statistics place Rush fifth behind The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, KISS and Aerosmith for the most consecutive gold and platinum albums by a rock band. Rush ranks 78th in U.S. album sales according to the RIAA with sales of 24.5 million units.

The band is currently promoting their latest album, Snakes & Arrows. An intercontinental concert tour is scheduled to begin June 13, 2007.

Musical style
Rush's musical style has changed substantially over the years. Their debut album is strongly influenced by British-Blues rock: an amalgam of sounds and styles from such rock bands as Cream, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. Over the first few albums their style remained essentially hard rock, with heavy influences from The Who and Led Zeppelin, but also became increasingly influenced by the British progressive rock movement. In the tradition of progressive rock, Rush wrote long songs with odd meters and fantasy-inspired lyrics, but they did not soften their sound. This fusion of hard and progressive rock continued until the end of the 1970s. In the 1980s, however, Rush successfully merged their trademark sound with the trends of this period, experimenting with New Wave music, reggae, and pop rock. This period included the band's most extensive use of instruments such as synthesizers, sequencers and electronic percussion. It is largely agreed that the culmination of this era of Rush was in 1987 after the release of Hold Your Fire. With the approach of the early '90s and Rush's character sound still intact, the band transformed their style once again to harmonize with the alternative rock movement. The new millennium has seen them return to a more rock-n-roll roots sound, albeit with modern production. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Jason Ankeny @ Allmusic
Over the course of their decades-spanning career, the Canadian power trio Rush emerged as one of hard rock's most highly regarded bands; although typically brushed aside by critics and although rare recipients of mainstream pop radio airplay, the group nonetheless won an impressive and devoted fan following while their virtuoso performance skills solidified their standing as musicians' musicians.

Rush formed in Toronto, Ontario, in the autumn of 1968, and initially comprised guitarist Alex Lifeson (born Alexander Zivojinovich), vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib), and drummer John Rutsey. In their primary incarnation, the trio drew a heavy influence from Cream, and honed their skills on the Toronto club circuit before issuing their debut single, a rendition of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," in 1973. A self-titled LP followed in 1974, at which time Rutsey exited; he was replaced by drummer Neil Peart, who also assumed the role of the band's primary songwriter, composing the cerebral lyrics (influenced by works of science fiction and fantasy) that gradually became a hallmark of the group's aesthetic.

With Peart firmly ensconced, Rush returned in 1975 with a pair of LPs, Fly by Night and Caress of Steel. Their next effort, 1976's 2112, proved to be their breakthrough release: a futuristic concept album based on the writings of Ayn Rand, it fused the elements of the trio's sound -- Lee's high-pitched vocals, Peart's epic-length compositions, and Lifeson's complex guitar work -- into a unified whole. Fans loved it -- 2112 was the first in a long line of gold and platinum releases -- while critics dismissed it as overblown and pretentious: either way, it established a formula from which the band rarely deviated throughout the duration of their career.

A Farewell to Kings followed in 1977 and reached the Top 40 in both the U.S. and Britain. After 1978's Hemispheres, Rush achieved even greater popularity with 1980's Permanent Waves, a record marked by Peart's dramatic shift into shorter, less sprawling compositions; the single "The Spirit of Radio" even became a major hit. With 1981's Moving Pictures, the trio scored another hit of sorts with "Tom Sawyer," which garnered heavy exposure on album-oriented radio and became perhaps their best-known song. As the 1980s continued, Rush grew into a phenomenally popular live draw as albums like 1982's Signals (which generated the smash "New World Man"), 1984's Grace Under Pressure, and 1985's Power Windows continued to sell millions of copies.

As the decade drew to a close, the trio cut back on its touring schedule while hardcore followers complained of a sameness afflicting slicker, synth-driven efforts like 1987's Hold Your Fire and 1989's Presto. At the dawn of the 1990s, however, Rush returned to the heavier sound of their early records and placed a renewed emphasis on Lifeson's guitar heroics; consequently, both 1991's Roll the Bones and 1993's Counterparts reached the Top Three on the U.S. album charts. In 1996, the band issued Test for Echo and headed out on the road the following summer. Shortly thereafter, Peart lost his daughter in an automobile accident. Tragedy struck again in 1998 when Peart's wife succumbed to cancer. Dire times in the Rush camp did not cause the band to quit. Lee took time out for a solo stint with 2000's My Favorite Headache; however, rumors of the band playing in the studio began to circulate. It would be five years until anything surfaced from the band. Fans were reassured in early 2002 by news that Rush were recording new songs in Toronto. The fruit of those sessions led to the release of Rush's 17th studio album, Vapor Trails, later that spring. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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History of RUSH

PROLOGUE: by Steve Gett @ Erik and Anna
In August, 1968, top British session guitarist Jimmy Page was in something of a dilemma. For the past two years, he had been playing with the legendary Yardbirds, whose previous line-ups had boasted such worthy talents as Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. However, after Beck quit to pursue a solo career at the end of 1968, Page had been left to carry the group through the next 18 months, until it finally crumbled under his feet.

While Jimmy was eager to start a new band, the Yardbirds were already booked on a 10-date Scandanavian tour the following month. Consequently, he began a desperate search for accompanying musicians, soon hooking up with John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant. Over the ensuing months the group was to change its name to Led Zeppelin and go on to become Britain's most celebrated rock act.

Meanwhile, as Jimmy Page unveiled his New Yardbirds in Europe, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in the suburbs of Toronto, a young Canadian guitar player, named Alex Lifeson, was busy forming Rush. Although Page was fortunate in enjoying immediate acceptance with his outfit, it necessitated years of hard graft and extreme patience before Lifeson and his band made their mark.

After battling fiercely to break out of Canada, Rush were forced to embark on endless US road outings before garnering major recognition and acclaim. For many years, radio stations ignored their music, and, in the pre-video age, touring was the only means of gaining exposure. Despite the long wait, Rush were to end up selling more records and playing to more people than Zeppelin ever did.

Attempting to parallel the histories of Rush and Led Zeppelin would prove an impossible, and extremely futile, exercise. Yet, it's interesting to observe that each band basically encountered success under its own terms. For both, the major forte was an essential high quality of musicianship, combined with a diverse range of musical styles. Never was there any compromise in their overall approach on the road to fame and fortune.

Led Zeppelin are, of course, sadly no more. However, Rush are still going strong and continue to warrant recognition as Canada's finest hard rock export. Throughout their illustrious history, the group has released a succession of highly innovative albums and delighted concert audiences around the world. Their work has been admired for its breadth of reach, technical elegance, and for the confidence with which it has combined great boldness with artistic poise.

THE MAIN STORY: by Matt Lupoli
Rush is the only band that has Geddy Lee's wail, Alex Lifeson's blazing guitar licks, and Neil Peart's furious drumbeats. It is one of the greatest rock bands of all time. It was started in Willowdale, Toronto, Canada in the Spring of 1968. This was the time of bands such as "The Yardbirds", "Cream", "Led Zeppelin", "Jimi Hendrix", and "The Who". They played the style of these bands. The band members were 15 at the time. It was started by Alex Zivojinovich and John Rutsey. Alex changed his name to Alex Lifeson because his real last name was too hard to say and spell. The name "Lifeson" is an English translation of "Zivojinovich." In August of '68, the formal lineup was Jeff Jones on bass and lead vocals, John Rutsey on drums and backing vocals, and Alex Lifeson on guitars and backing vocals. They first got a job to play at a coffee house called the "Coff-In." While they had dreamed of playing, they had neglected to come up with a name for their group. They all went to John Rutsey's basement and they didn't have much luck coming up with a name. Then John Rutsey's older brother yelled, " Why don't you call the band Rush?" So "Rush" was the title of the band. In September of '68, Jeff Jones (bassist/vocalist) was replaced by Gary Lee Weinrib. Gary's grandmother had a Yiddish accent, and when she called him Gary it sounded like she was calling him Geddy, so he changed his name to Geddy Lee. Then in January of '69, Lindy Young joined the band and he played keyboards and back-up guitars. Soon after, the band was changed to "Hadrian." In May of '69, Geddy Lee (bassist/vocalist) quit Hadrian and made his own band called "Ogilvie." He was replaced in Hadrian by Joe Perna. In June of '69, Geddy Lee changed his band's name from "Ogilvie" to "Judd." In July of '69 Lindy Young (keyboardist) left Hadrian to join Judd and then Hadrian split up. Then in September of '69, Judd split up also. Immediatly after, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and John Rutsey formed together again as Rush. In February of '71, Mitch Bossi joined Rush. He was a 2nd guitarist in the band (along with Alex Lifeson.) He quit in May of '71. Then there were only 3 members left.

In 1973, Rush decided to release their first single before they released an album. On side A, there was a song called "Not Fade Away." Not Fade Away was a cover of a Buddy Holly song. On side B, there was a Lee/Rutsey song called "You Can't Fight It." This single wasn't released world wide. Not a single record company in Canada would produce Rush's music. So Rush made their own record company which was called Moon Records. The single was only released in Toronto and other parts of Canada for $0.69. It was often given away for free. It is very rare, which makes this single worth a fortune today.

The single was not as successful as they thought it would be. In 1974, when the band members were 20, they started making their first album anyway. It was simply titled "Rush." The first album was soon released and the band went on tour in Canada. The album did not travel much outside of Toronto and the band was still not well known.

Alex Lifeson / John Rutsey / Geddy LeeA copy of the album made it's way down to WMMS in Cleveland. There it was listened to by a DJ that was named Donna Halper. The song "Working Man" sounded good, so she put it on the air. Emediatley, the radio station received calls from people asking when the new Led Zeppelin album was coming out. People thought that this band sounded very closely related to Led Zeppelin. They even thought that Geddy Lee sounded like a clone to Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant.

As the album was played on the air, it got more and more popular in Cleveland. Donna Halper sent for some more copies of the album so she could give them to some record stores. These copies were quickly sold. Soon, someone from Mercury Records heard the album on WMMS and liked it. Mercury then re-released the Moon Records album. Now that it was released world wide, Rush became more well-known. Click here to see Donna Halper's version of this story.

Rush became more popular in Canada and the U.S. Unfortunatly, John Rutsey (drummer) had different ideas about the band's future than Alex and Geddy did. His diabetes were a strong argument against extended tours and he just wasn't excited about playing in the band anymore. He quit the band at the end of the Canadian tour and before they could even go on tour in the United States.

If the band was going to go on tour in the United States, they were going to need a new drummer. That month the band held auditions for a new drummer and they met up with 22-year-old Neil Peart. Neil was from St. Catharines, which was a town just south of Toronto and across Lake Ontario. He had been playing the drums since he was 13. He played in a few high school bands and then he moved to London in the early 70's. He worked at a shop called "The Great Fog", but he then became disillusioned by the British music scene. He later returned back to Canada. Geddy and Alex liked Neil's drumming because he had a British drumming style that was similiar to the style of Keith Moon. Neil joined the band on July 29, 1974. The new drummer Neil Peart first played during the U.S. tour of the first album. The band learned that Neil thought up very good lyrics that had to do with science fiction themes, and his drumming was much better than John Rutsey's. This new formal lineup was their permanent lineup.

In 1975, they released their second album which was titled "Fly By Night." In this album, they started to move away from the Led Zeppelin style so they could make a style of their own. This was also the album when Neil became an integral member of the band. The album was an even greater success than the first album. The best song on the album was "By-Tor & the Snow Dog" which was an imaginative science fantasy tale that was set to music. Geddy played the part of By-Tor and Alex played the part of the Snow Dog. Later that same year, they came out with their third album which was titled "Caress of Steel."

In 1976, they came out with their fourth album. It was titled "2112." After it was released, the world began to take notice of Rush. Often called "Rush's break-through album", it was a huge success. It probably featured Rush's best song ever which was called "2112". It was an epic song about the galaxy in the year 2112 A.D. It takes place at the "Temples of Syrinx." A bunch of priests live there and they have a strong belief that they are all equal and they do not believe in individualism. All of the people who live there are banded together under the Red Star of the Solar Federation. One of the people who lives in the temples finds a guitar. Guitars had been banished for decades and he had never seen one before. He learns how to play it and he shows it to the priests. The high priest knows what it is and he thinks it is evil and that it destroyed the elder race of man. He becomes enraged with anger so he rejects it and destroys it.

During this time, Rush came up with their logo. It first appeared on their "2112" album. It looks like a red pentagram with a nakid man on it. This red pentagram is the evil red star of the Federation in the "2112" song. The nakid man is the hero of the story. Neil said that all it means is the abstract man against the mass [sic]. The red star symbolizes any collectivist mentality.

Later that year, the band decided to make a 5th album. Geddy, Alex, and Neil thought that they had finished the first chapter so they decided to come out with a live album. They came out with the album "All The World's A Stage" which was recorded live in Toronto. It included all of their best songs from their first four albums. From then on, for every 4 studio albums they made, they would come out with a live album.

In 1977, Rush came out with their 6th album which was titled "A Farewell To Kings." This album reached the Top 40 in the U.S. and Great Britain. One of the songs on this album was titled "Closer To The Heart." The fans loved this song and Rush even included it on their 2nd and 3rd live albums. Some people think that "Closer To The Heart" could be the ultimate Rush song. It is the song that describes the band. For example, "Closer To The Heart" is to Rush as "Stairway To Heaven" is to Led Zeppelin.

They later made a sequel to "A Farewell To Kings" called "Hemispheres." After 1978's Hemispheres, Rush achieved even greater popularity with 1980's "Permanent Waves". Neil Peart was no longer writing epic songs. He was writing shorter, less sprawling compositions. The single "The Spirit of Radio" even became a major hit.

In 1981 they released "Moving Pictures". It was probably their greatest album ever. Rush scored another hit of sorts with "Tom Sawyer," which probably became their most well-known song. Moving Pictures became their best-selling album ever. As the 1980s continued, Rush grew into a phenomenally popular live draw. This can be seen in 1982's "Signals", 1984's "Grace Under Pressure", and 1985's "Power Windows", which continued to sell millions of copies.

In the late 80's, Rush started to cut down on their tour dates and release albums with less hard rock and more synthesizers. This can be seen in 1987's "Hold Your Fire", 1989's live album "A Show Of Hands", and 1989's "Presto." At the dawn of the 1990s, Rush returned to the style of the heavier rock from their first albums. They released 1991's "Roll the Bones" and 1993's "Counterparts." Both albums reached the Top Three on the U.S. album charts.

Over the years, the band members found time to raise families. Geddy Lee got married and had a son and a daughter and he had formerly expressed interest in running a minor league baseball team when he wasn't touring. Neil Peart got married and he had a daughter. Alex Lifeson got married and had 2 sons. He also spent time as a licensed pilot when he wasn't on tour.

They also won a lot of awards. Their awards are:

THE BAND'S AWARDS:
Juno Awards:
Most promising group of the year: 1974
Group of the year: 1977,1978
Best Heavy Metal Album: 1991
Best album cover: 1991,1992
Best Hard Rock Album: 1992
Hall of Fame: 1993

Grammy awards:
Runner up in Best Rock Instrumental: 1982, 1992

Hall of Fames:
Rush was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1994 for being influential.

In 1996, Alex Lifeson got together with some guys from bands like "I Mother Earth" and "Primus" so he could release his own solo album. The name of the band and the name of the album was "Victor". His son Adrian played in the album also. Later that year, Rush came out with their 19th album. It was titled "Test For Echo." It was a success. They had made it after their 18-month vacation. That was the longest vacation for them. Even 6 months is a long time for the band members.

In August of 1997, Neil Peart's daughter and only child died in a car accident. He had to take a break for a while and so did the rest of the band. Then, they started mixing up their 20th album, which was also their 4th live album. It was titled "Different Stages". During the mix, Neil Peart's wife died of cancer in July. This was a terrible event for the band and the fans. The album came out on November 10, 1998. The album was a 3 disc set with 2 discs from the their last 2 tours and the 3rd disc from the "A Farewell To Kings" tour in 1978. The fans loved the album. But the fans also wanted to know if there was going to be a Different Stages Tour or possibly a new studio album coming out in the near future.

There was no tour for Different Stages. Many fans were without any official news for many months as Rush's hiatus raged on. Nobody knew what was going on with the band.

Then in the spring of 2000, official news was released saying that Neil had gotten back together with Rush. They planned to get back into the studio in October of 2000, after Geddy Lee would complete his first solo album.

But, In September of 2000, Neil got remarried in a small private ceremony. This was great news to the fans. Of course this pushed back the date of when Rush would get back into the studio. Meanwhile, Geddy was still working on his solo album. Geddy had united with old friend Ben Mink to write some songs with him. This resulted in Geddy's first solo album entitled "My Favorite Headache" which was released in the fall of 2000. After a short mall tour in support of the album, Geddy announced that he would later get back with the band in the winter to start work on a new Rush album.

The band got back together and in May of 2002 they made their triumphant return with "Vapor Trails". A highly anticipated and successful tour kicked off in June and lasted until November. In the fall of 2003, Rush released "Rush In Rio", a live album and DVD recorded at the last date of the Vapor Trails tour in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The set (the DVD in particular) was highly successful.

In 2004, following the huge success of their return to touring, Rush embarked on their 30th anniversary tour. Released during the tour was an 8-song EP featuring covers of songs by bands such as Cream, The Who, The Buffalo Springfield, and The Yardbirds. The EP was named "Feedback" and it was a tribute to the bands that Geddy, Alex, and Neil covered in their first bands when they were 13 and 14 years old. At the same time, Rush was featured on the live concert DVD "Toronto Rocks", which was filmed at SARSfest, July 30, 2003. The festival was put on to raise money for the Toronto SARS scare and featured other popular bands such as The Guess Who, AC/DC, and The Rolling Stones.

EPILOGUE: by Matt Lupoli
2005 marked the release of a brand new DVD set entitled "R30 - 30th Anniversary World Tour." The first disc featured a concert video from their sold out show in Frankfurt, Germany during the 30th Anniversary World Tour. The second disc was a treasure chest collection of old music videos, interviews, and various other tid bits. The deluxe edition of the DVD set also had an audio version of the Frankfurt concert (not sold seperately) as well as signature guitar picks and a souvenir backstage pass. The DVD release was very successful. Their next release (scheduled for June 2006) is a new DVD box set featuring the concert videos "Exit... Stage Left", "Grace Under Pressure Tour", and "A Show Of Hands" which have been discontinued on VHS for several years. The new set is entitled "Replay X3." =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ The Canadian Music Hall of Fame In 1974, Rush released its first (self-titled) album. It became the biggest selling debut from any Canadian band and brought with it the first of countless Juno nominations. Since then, Rush has shown a phenomenal propensity, for both national and international success, recognition, awards, sellout shows, and silver, gold and platinum certifications. After breaking in the US in 1976 with 2112, and then internationally in 1980 with the release of Permanent Waves, Rush went on to sell more than 30 million records worldwide. Among the band's many awards are a Group of The Decade - 1990, Harold Moon Award (SOCAN) - 1992, two Grammy nominations - 1982 and 1992, and a Toronto Arts Award in 1993. The band has received 33 Juno nominations up to and including 1993. As well, Rush has influenced innumerable bands (Primus, Dream Theatre, Queensryche, Fates Warning) and musicians. Individually, the members are perennial winners of reader's polls in magazines such as Modern Drummer. Guitar Player and Playboy, among others. Perhaps the most intriguing accolade that has been bestowed upon this trio was the declaration in 1993 by Harvard Lampoon, the world's oldest humour magazine, that the players in Rush were the Musician's of the Millennium. Despite all of the acclaim, the members of Rush have displayed a remarkable ability to keep their lives private and to completely avoid the usual entertainment scandals, rumours and innuendo that almost inevitably follow most celebrities. In fact, close examination points to the distinct possibility that, while the members of Rush take their music very seriously, they don't really perceive themselves as "rock stars". Even when their personal lives are revealed, it is not the fast land of jet setting and posh parties that is exposed, but tales of drummer Neil Peart's bicycle tours, guitarist Alex Lifeson's scuba-diving sojourns with former PM Pierre Trudeau and bassist Geddy Lee's wife co-owning a Toronto based clothing design company called Zapata. Musically, Rush has always been an enigma. In a world of three-chord heavy rock, the group's only peers are in the arena of fusion jazz, although its roots are early-to-mid 70's Led Zeppelin and post-psychedelic "prog-rock". For Rush to comfortably share a place in the Juno Hall of Fame alongside such diverse legends as Anne Murray, Leonard Cohen, Maureen Forrester, The Band, Glenn Gould, Neil Young, and Oscar Peterson also speaks volumes about the multi-hued landscape of Canadian music. Rush has a unique ability to age not just gracefully but imperceptibly. There is nothing that Rush has done in 1974 or 1984 or today in 1994 that is conceivable for the band to continue doing in 2004 and beyond. =>>>>>>>>>>>

Rush - Tom Sawyer @ You Tube

Rush @ You Tube
Official Web Site

Alex Lifeson

@ NDDB

Alex LifesonAKA Alexander Zivojinovic

Born: 27-Aug-1953
Birthplace: Fernie, British Columbia, Canada
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Guitarist
Nationality: Canada
Executive summary: Guitarist for Rush

Father: Nenad Zivojinovich
Mother: Melka Zivojinovich
Wife: Michelle Zivojinovich
Son: Justin Zivojinovich

Filmography as Actor
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (6-Oct-2006) =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Dinosaur Rock Guitar

Famous / Infamous for
Famous for: A pioneer in the art of guitar textures. Alex popularized the use of the chorus effect starting with A Farewell to Kings in 1977.

Infamous for: Alex Lifeson Disease, and having a different hairstyle and guitar rig on each Rush album and tour.

Influences
Obvious: Steve Howe of Yes, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett of Genesis, and Jimmy Page. Alex basically took the cerebral approach of prog rockers like Howe and Hackett, and crossed it with a big dose of hard rock and roll courtesy of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin to create progressive music that rocked. And indeed, in the beginning, Rush sounded like the offspring of a Led Zeppelin/Yes marriage. Alex plays a lot of acoustic guitar; like Howe, much of it classical, and a lot of 12 string ala Rutherford and Page.

Not-so-obvious: Rush in general owes a huge debt to early King Crimson; the reason it isn't more obvious is that most people have never heard King Crimson! Take a listen to King Crimson's 1975 album Red, and then listen to Permanent Waves or Moving Pictures — the similarities are striking. Starting in the late 70s, Allan Holdsworth began to worm his atonal way into a lot of Alex's lead work. Andy Summers was also an 80s influence, as was the Edge from U2. These three guys stole so many ideas from each other in the 80s that it's not easy to tell who was influencing who; I think it's safe to say they were all very aware of each other's work.

Strengths
Sound: Alex's style revolves around occupying a lot of space, and nobody does it better. Through the careful use of time-based effects as well as unusual, ambiguous chord voicings, Alex creates a wash of sound that is almost three dimensional.

Chord voicings: I honestly believe that many of the chords Alex plays didn't exist (at least in rock) before he created them. Take a listen to the Hemispheres album for a virtual clinic on Lifeson chords. You can analyze them from a theory standpoint but that won't do them justice; the approach to fingering them is so outside-the-box that a schooled player would NEVER think to do it that way.

Versatility: Alex is a very versatile player who employs many different tones, textures, and styles to get his point across while still maintaining his identity. No matter what gear he's playing through or what strange direction Rush may be heading with their music, when Alex comes in with his guitar it screams RUSH! every bit as characteristic as Geddy Lee's voice or Neil Peart's hyperkinetic drumming.

Weaknesses
Solos: Alex basically gave up playing guitar hero style lead guitar about 20 years ago. What a sackless choice for a guy who can quite literally play his ass off! A quick spin of Freewill from Permanent Waves proves he can rip with the best of them. He has lost no ability. He can still play all the old songs and hot solos, and does so in every concert. But you just don't hear that player on the newer material. His soloing is usually very chaotic and as the years progressed Alex has became more atonal and less melodic. This is partly a function of the parts he has to solo over. Still, there's little in the way of melody or hooks in any of Alex's solo work post Moving Pictures. Blame Holdsworth.

Attitude: as in, there is no gunslinger attitude left in Alex. Starting with Signals in 1983, Rush morphed from a guitar based power trio with some keyboards here and there, to a keyboard based pop band with some guitar here and there. There are a lot of fantastic moments on 80s Rush albums, but the guitar hero went MIA in 1983 and hasn't been seen since. There are occasional reports of sightings. The player Alex once was, was spotted in a Cadillac with Elvis and the smoking man at a Stuckey's near area 51. Mulder and Scully are on it, but reports remain unconfirmed. We at dinosaurrockguitar.com have reason to believe that Geddy Lee had him abducted in 1982, and replaced by a MIDI controlled android with a bad haircut.

Tone
Alex's gear, like his hair, changes almost constantly. Describing either accurately is like trying to hit a moving target. In general, Alex's tone is actually pretty clean and has a good amount of low end in it. In the early days of the band, he used a variety of Gibson guitars, including Les Pauls, ES-335s, a Howard Roberts Fusion, and an ES-1275 doubleneck. In the 80s, Alex went for a more processed, thinner sound, often employing custom strat style guitars made by Lado in Canada. In the 90s, he switched over to PRS.

He has used just about every amp made and then some; for the early stuff, it was various Marshalls, Hiwatts, and Fenders; the 80s was primarily a solid state Gallien Kreuger setup; in the 90s, he went back to Marshalls. Alex's guitar sound has always been heavily processed compared to whatever else was going on at the time. In the mid-70s, he relied on phase shifters, tape delays, and a Cry Baby. This was expanded to include an Electric Mistress flanger, volume pedal, and a BOSS CE-1 chorus (the big gray box) by the end of the decade. With the advent of rack effects, Alex added banks of digital delays, Roland Dimension D chorus units, Lexicon reverbs, pitch transposers, and other sweetening to his sonic palette. You almost never hear a dry guitar on any Rush record. There is a good deal of chorus and delay on his basic sound. As Alex's sound has grown more and more high tech, the warm tube amp and woody guitar sound of the old days has been replaced by a brighter, harsher tone that really cuts through the band, but is much less pleasing to the ear. I attribute this to his choice of PRS guitars - they just aren't as warm sounding as the old Gibsons from the late 70s, although they're more versatile (and of course, Creed endorses them, so they must be cool).

The classic Farewell to Kings-era Lifeson tone formula is: a Gibson guitar with twin humbuckers through a BOSS Chorus into an EL-34 based British tube amp (Marshall or Hiwatt). Switch the Gibby to a Super Strat with a humbucker and Floyd, and you're pretty much covered through Moving Pictures. After that, do you really care?

Guitar Style
An entire book could be written on Alex's rhythm playing. He started out playing a lot of standard rock power chords with the occasional odd voicing tossed in. Gradually, the odd voicings took over. Alex arpeggiates many of his chords when playing cleaner passages. He lays down huge swathes of chorused guitars on the dirtier stuff. At this point in his career his rhythm playing is somewhere between the hard rocker he was in the 70s, and the limp-wristed Simple Minds fan he was in the 80s. Elements of both are present.

Alex's solos are a mixture of legato, sustained notes and chaotic runs. In his early work he relied primarily on both major and minor Pentatonic scales, with some Aeolian and Dorian thrown in for passing tones. The Page influence is fairly obvious but he was a much more precise player than Page even at age 20. Alex plays classical guitar like someone who spent time in formal studies at some point. As a classical player he takes a lot of cues from Steve Howe's work with Yes — think Mood for a Day. Around 1980, Alex started getting into Allan Holdsworth, and switched to a Super Strat so he could use the whammy bar to slide into various pitches, and add vibrato to notes. He also started playing a lot of really strange stuff. Listen to the solo on Tom Sawyer, for example. What the hell is that? What key is it in? (If you know, please tell me as I've been trying to figure it out for 20 years.) He's continued along this path since that album. Digital Man is another good example. Listen to how he slides around with the whammy to scoop into pitches and apply vibrato. And I don't know what key a lot of that solo is in either, although it reverts to a pentatonic feel towards the end. It's just bizarre.

Alex's picking attack sounds sloppy when he's soloing but that's probably the sound he's going for. There is a good mixture of legato and alternate picking in his playing. He can burn when he wants to. In his glory days, he tended to start his solos slow and low — opening with some sustained notes low on the neck and climbing up to build intensity. As he climbed in pitch, he usually kicked in the afterburners towards the end.

Vibrato
Chaotic, fast, fairly wide. Often uses the whammy bar to apply vibrato ala Holdsworth or David Gilmour. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Wiki
Alex Lifeson OC (born Alexander Zivojinovich on August 27, 1953, in Fernie, British Columbia, Canada), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist for the rock group Rush.

Lifeson founded Rush in the summer of 1968, and has been an integral member of the three-piece band ever since. For Rush, Lifeson plays electric and acoustic guitars as well as other stringed instruments. He also performs backing vocals in live performances, and occasionally plays keyboards. During live performances, Lifeson, like the other members of Rush, performs real-time triggering of sampled instruments, concurrently with his guitar playing.

The bulk of Lifeson's work in music has been with Rush, although Lifeson has contributed to a body of work outside of the band as well. Aside from music, Lifeson is part owner of the Toronto restaurant The Orbit Room, and is a licensed aircraft pilot and motorcycle rider.

Along with his bandmates Geddy Lee and Neil Peart, Lifeson was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio was the first rock group so honoured.

Lifeson is currently working with Rush in preparation for the May 1, 2007 release of their latest album, Snakes & Arrows, and a concert tour to follow.

Biography
The son of Serbian immigrants, Nenad and Melka Zivojinovich, Lifeson was born in Fernie, British Columbia, Canada and raised in Toronto, Ontario.[citation needed] His assumed stage name of "Lifeson" is a semi-literal translation of the name "Zivojinovich", meaning "son of life".[citation needed]

Lifeson's nickname among his associates is "Lerxst". The name appears in the sub-titles of La Villa Strangiato, an instrumental based humorously on Lifeson's nightmares, from the Rush album Hemispheres.

Body of work
The bulk of Lifeson's work in music has been with Rush.

Lifeson's work outside of his involvement with the band includes the following:

* In 2006, Lifeson founded The Big Dirty Band, which he created for the purpose of providing original soundtrack material for Trailer Park Boys: The Movie.
* Victor, Lifeson's solo album released in 1996. Victor (the album) was attributed as a self-titled work (ie. "Victor" is attributed as the artist as well as the album title). This was done deliberately, as an alternative to issuing the album explicitly under Lifeson's name.
* Lifeson composed the theme for the first season of the science-fiction TV series Andromeda.
* Lifeson jammed regularly with The Dexters (The Orbit Room house band from 1994-2004). The Dexters' lead guitarist Bernie LaBarge nicknamed Alex "Big Al Dexter".
* Lifeson made a guest appearance on the 2007 album Fear of a Blank Planet by UK progressive rock band, Porcupine Tree.
* Lifeson was approached by Digitech for inclusion of his trademark sound in their 2120 Artist Studio Guitar System. Lifeson created one of the presets, calling it "New Lerxst."

Guitar equipment
In Rush's early career, Lifeson used a Gibson ES-335 for the first single and the first three albums: Rush, Fly By Night, and Caress Of Steel, and for the 2112 tour he used a Gibson Les Paul and Marshall amplification. Later on in the '70s he started using a Gibson EDS-1275 (similar to Jimmy Page) for songs like Xanadu. By the time of Hemispheres he had switched primarily to a cream-colored Gibson ES-355 guitar, with most of the amplification coming from Hiwatt amplifiers. Pedal wise he used various phaser and flanger pedals a Cry Baby Wah Wah, and a "Plexi" amplifier. Beginning in the late 1970s, he increasingly incorporated twelve-string guitar (acoustic and electric) and chorusing (Using the Boss Chorus Ensemble and later the Roland Dimension C) into his sound. By the time of the 1982 Rush album Signals, Lifeson's primary guitar had become a hot-rodded Stratocaster with a Bill Lawrence high-output humbucker L-500, (a type later made famous by Dimebag Darrell) in the bridge position and a Floyd Rose bridge, and as the '80s wore on he switched from passive to active pickups and from vacuum tube to solid-state amplification, all with an increasingly thick layer of digital signal processing. Lifeson used Stratocasters from 1980 to 1986, he used them on newer material from Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures on their respective tours and more predominantly from 1982's Signals up to 1985's Power Windows, with a small detour on the Grace Under Pressure CD to use Hentor Sportscasters, (These were Fender Strats with the Fender Strat name scraped off and replaced with the name Hentor Sportscaster. Strat in reality, Hentor by name only.) which were custom built for him. For the Moving Pictures and Signals albums and on several tours Alex used up to four quite rare brown Marshall 4140 Club & Country 100W combo amps, giving him his perhaps most characteristic guitar tone to date. Lifeson was also later on an endorser of the now all-but-forgotten Gallien-Krueger solid-state guitar amplifier line. In the late 1980s he switched to Carvin amplifiers in the studio and his short-lived Signature brand guitars onstage and in the studio.

Lifeson primarily used PRS guitars during the recording of Roll The Bones in 1990/1991. When recording 1993's Counterparts, Lifeson returned to rock guitar tradition: he continued to use PRS guitars and Marshall amplifiers to record the album, and for the subsequent tour. On one Counterparts song, Stick It Out, Lifeson used a Gibson Les Paul to create a deeper, more resonant tone for the song's signature riff but used a PRS on the guitar solo. He maintains this "classicist" stage rig today, although his signal processing chain is still so complicated as to make Pat Metheny's processing rack or Robert Fripp's "Lunar Module" look minimalist. Lifeson currently uses PRS, Fender, and Gibson guitars, two Hughes and Kettner Triamp MK II's, two Zantera amplifiers, and six Hughes and Kettner custom cabinets. In 2005, Hughes and Kettner introduced an Alex Lifeson signature series amplifier; $50 from every amplifier sold will be donated to UNICEF.

Other instruments played
During live Rush performances, Lifeson uses a MIDI controller that enables him to use his feet to trigger sounds from digital samplers, without taking his hands off of his guitar. Lifeson and his bandmates share a desire to accurately depict songs from their albums when playing live performances. Toward this goal, beginning in the late 1980s the band equipped their live performances with a capacious rack of samplers. The band members use these samplers in real-time to recreate the sounds of non-traditional instruments, accompaniments, vocal harmonies, and other sound "events" that are familiarly heard on the studio versions of the songs. In live performances, the band members share duties throughout most songs, with each member triggering certain sounds with his available limbs, while playing his primary instrument(s). It is with this technology that Lifeson and his bandmates are able to present their arrangements in a live setting with the level of complexity and fidelity that fans have come to expect, and without the need to resort to the use of backing tracks or employing an additional band member.

Lifeson's (and his bandmates') use of foot-pedal keyboards to trigger sampled instruments and audio events is visible on R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour concert DVD (2005).

In addition to 6- and 12-string guitars, Lifeson has played the Moog Taurus Bass Pedals, mandola and bouzouki on their albums. He has also been known to use alternative tunings such as Nashville tuning and Drop D tuning.

Television and film appearances
* In a 2003 episode of the Canadian smash hit mockumentary Trailer Park Boys, titled "Closer to the Heart", Lifeson plays a fictional version of himself. In the story, he is kidnapped by Ricky and held as punishment for his inability (or refusal) to provide the main characters with free tickets to a Rush concert. In the end of the episode, Alex reconciles with the characters, and performs a duet with Bubbles at the trailer park.
* Lifeson appears in Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, as a traffic cop in the opening scene.
* Lifeson appeared on The Golf Channel in 2006 with PGA Tour golfer Rocco Mediate for an entire episode of Personal Lessons.

Awards
* 1983 - "Best Rock Talent" - Guitar for the Practicing Musician
* 1991 - Inducted into the Guitar for the Practicing Musician Hall of Fame
* 1996 - Officer of the Order of Canada, along with fellow bandmates Geddy Lee and Neil Peart =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Alex Lifeson Of Rush Talks About His New Masterbilt EF-500R

Don Mitchell @ Epiphone

Few guitarists have garnered the respect of other guitarists like Alex Lifeson. What can I say about this musicians musician that hasn't already been said? He's just about accomplished every goal that any guitarist could have and he's won nearly every award you can think of, both as a guitarist and with his band Rush. On Thursday, July 22, 2004 I had the pleasure to chat with this legendary player about his career, family and his Masterbilt EF-500R. I found out there is much more to Alex Lifeson than guitar-god status. He is genuinely one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and has a great outlook on life in general.

EPI: Hey Alex, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me today. Tell me about your early guitar days. What was your first guitar and how did you begin to develop your playing?
ALEX: Well, when I was twelve, my parents bought me my first guitar. It was a Kent and then the following year I got a Conora which was my first electric. I'm basically self taught from listening to records. I was heavily influenced by Hendrix and Pete Townsend of the Who…Jimmy Page was a big influence as were Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, particularly the Cream era. We started Rush in 1968 when I was fifteen years old and started playing clubs, high schools, things like that in the Toronto area and Southern Ontario, the province that we live in. In 1974 we got our first record deal and started touring.

EPI: I didn't realize you and Geddy met at such a young age.
ALEX: Yeah, I actually met Ged a couple years before we started Rush and we would jam at his place or my place. We just released our Feedback CD that features some of the songs we played back then.

EPI: So Rush is really the only band you've ever been in?
ALEX: Pretty much, yeah…

EPI: Out of all those guys you cut your teeth on, who would you say was the single biggest influence on your playing?
ALEX: I would say that probably Jimmy Page was the greatest influence in my early days. Certainly Hendrix was just unbelievable but I never expected to be able to play like him! And….you know, I rediscovered during the production of this Feedback project that Pete Townsend was really an enormous influence on me. He was such a consummate rhythm guitarist. That's kind of where I developed a lot of my approach to the way I look at the band. The Who were really a three piece band instrumentally, similar to us in that they had a very active rhythm section. Between Geddy and Neil…those guys play like crazy all the time so I always felt that it was important for the guitar to play a broader foundation role. I tried to develop a style that was more chord based with suspended chords, open chords, etc., just to create more noise underneath this activity of the rhythm. Townsend used to do that a lot. He had such a great strumming technique and he had a really great guitar sound too. You know he never had that over-distorted, "buzzy" kind of heavy sound. It was always clear and "ringy" with all the power in his right hand. The way he strummed, how hard he hit the strings affected his tone and that's something I think I've developed into my style over the years. For example, in the studio I prefer to roll the volume back to 7 and just hit it a little harder or maybe even 5 or 6 and feel the power in my arm rather than in the vibration of the speaker.

EPI: Would you say the inspiration for the new CD was a return to your roots?
ALEX: Yes, in a way it was….into our deepest roots. We knew that we were going to do this 30th anniversary tour and we wanted to have something released. We talked about maybe doing a couple cover songs making them available on our website but once we got into it, we fell in love with the idea. We were having so much fun that we expanded it to 8 songs and if we'd had the time, we could easily have done 12 or 13 songs and made a full album. These are songs we played when we were kids just starting out and learning how to play our instruments. There's a "Crossroads" version similar to what Cream did, "For What Its Worth" and "Mr. Soul" from Buffalo Springfield, "Seven & Seven Is" by a band called Love with guitarist Arthur Lee. Every guitar player and every drummer had to learn that song when it came out….I think in '67. We really had a lot of fun with this project and it was a wonderful way for us to pay tribute to some of the music we grew up with.

We even recorded it with the spirit in mind. We went into a studio here in Toronto called Phase One. They've got an old Neve console, kind of from that era and we recorded everything off the floor with the three of us in the same room. Now days we tend to record everything separately but we were all in the same room, playing at the same time, no click track, all kinds of Lava Lamps in the studio, about ten thousand candles, a bunch of cool old carpets we threw down on the floor….it really had that vibe to it.

EPI: Sounds like a blast! Are you playing these tunes on the tour?
ALEX: We're doing four of them. "Heart Full Of Soul" by the Yardbirds, "Crossroads", "Summertime Blues", and "The Seeker" by the Who.

EPI: I noticed you are headed to the UK later this Fall. How has the overseas market played into your career?
ALEX: The first time we went to Europe was in 1976 when we did a relatively short British tour. It was in the Summer and it was so successful that we were back in February of 1977 to do a much more extended sold-out tour. So, we had pretty good success early on, particularly in the UK but we haven't been there in about 12 years. As we started to pull back on our touring schedule, that was kind of the first area that went. You know, after a while you just can't do the "200 shows a year" thing anymore. We typically now do somewhere between 60 and 70 on a tour so obviously we need to concentrate on America....it only makes sense…but we decided to do this European tour because we hadn't been there in so long. As it turns out, the UK tour is sold out, half the dates in Europe are sold out and the other dates are doing very well…..and it's still a couple months off. It's nice to be reminded that we have a strong following in the UK and Europe.

EPI: Throughout your career, Rush has consistently broken the mold for what a successful rock band looks like....you know, the three-and-a-half minute, hook-laden tune was not in your repertoire and yet you have been hugely successful selling tens-of-millions of records and CD's and creating an insanely huge, loyal fan base. What do you think it is about Rush that connects with people despite the fact that you don't fit the dictated pop music mold?
ALEX: Well, I think in the very early days there was something about Rush that was really non-radio, that set it apart from everybody else. We wrote longer songs, we were more interested in the musicianship and it was all about the band and not about the lifestyle. On top of that, our lyrics were a lot more serious than what a lot of rock bands were writing at the time so while we did get some good press, most of the press we got was not so good....and I think what happened was that people became attached to this band because we were different, unusual and not popular. It became kind of a cult thing and over the years our audience has just grown with us. We've tried to stay true to our original beliefs and we've been very uncompromising, satisfying ourselves before anyone else with our music.

We were fortunate enough to make a record that was successful, fairly early in our career…it was like 4 records in, called 2112 and the record company realized that hey, these guys have what they have and they know what it is, so we're not going to interfere and just let them do what they're doing because we're selling records. And management was the same way. We've never had anyone from the record company or management spend a day in the studio or even an hour in the studio when we've recorded! We've had total freedom to do what we want and I think our fans understand that and appreciate that….and expect that from us. We've really developed this relationship and the bottom line is that we try to play as best we can. We've always set a very high standard for ourselves and people appreciate that. People want to hear good players play and players that try hard. Modern music is all over the place right now but it's not well supported. Its hard to really find music that's challenging and compelling….and I'm not saying that music sucks…..there are a lot of great bands out there and lots of great players but you really have to look for them.

EPI: Are there any modern groups that you like or listen to?
ALEX: I've always been a huge fan of Tool. They haven't done anything in a while now but Adam Jones is a great guitarist. I really like his style of playing and they remind me of us in some ways. I know that we've been somewhat of an influence on them so I can hear that exchange in their music. Queens of the Stoneage, I really like a lot. Incubus, Mars Volta, you know that sort of thing. I don't really listen to a whole lot of music lately though.

EPI: With all your experience and your keen ear I am surprised that you haven't jumped into the producers chair yet.
ALEX: I've done some stuff, some small projects. Producing is something that I really enjoy doing and I'd like to do more of it but I know so many world class producers that are finding it difficult to get work now as it is. I'm not in a big hurry to step on their toes and right now my plate is pretty full anyway. We started working on this tour last September. It takes a lot of time and effort to get all the visual stuff together as well as the musical stuff. We'll be out until the beginning of October and then we'll take some time off, then start up with a new studio record and follow that with a tour. It's all a matter of how busy you really want to be. I really miss my family when I'm away. I was gone for 2 months before coming home this week and I treasure every minute I have at home.

EPI: Tell me about your family.
ALEX: I've been with my wife since we were fifteen. I have two grown sons but I have a grandson now who's coming up on nine months old, so that has become such an incredible experience for me. I love the fact that I'm getting a second chance at being around one of my kids, even if it's a generation apart. At least I'm seeing him grow and I can be an influence in his life. He's just a joy!

EPI: Wow! You've been with your wife since you were fifteen! How do you balance marriage and the grueling schedule of a world touring rock band?
ALEX: Well, you know it's become a way of life for us. We started touring, I mean really touring when I was 20 years old so it was certainly a difficult adjustment for us. We also had a family when we were very young but we just worked it out. No marriage is a smooth road. There are lots of bumps and curves but if you manage to get through all those bumps and curves early on you get a nice flat wide open road for the rest of the ride and it can be a wonderful thing, Certainly my wife and I have made many adjustments, many accommodations to each other and a marriage is fraught with many compromises that you have to accept but we've loved each other very deeply and that got us through any kind of rough patch.

EPI: That's a testament to your integrity and commitment to each other.
ALEX: Well it is, and you know Geddy and his wife have been together thirty four years. In fact I introduced her to him so I mean, that's kind of the way we are. We're from a very sort of normal middle class background with middle class values. We come from families that always had a good strong work ethic. You know my dad always had two or three jobs. He believed that if you needed something or you wanted to buy something then you had to be prepared to go out and work for it and I think I learned that from him. It was the same way with Geddy's family and Neil's as well.

EPI: That's refreshing to hear from someone that has reached your level of success in the rock music field, you know, not the norm.
ALEX: I think that it's the only way you get to be in a successful rock band thirty years later. I mean, I think you have to have your head screwed on pretty good and your values in the right place. It's so easy on the road and in the rock and roll world to start believing all the crap that people tell you and it will be your downfall if you start believing you're as great as everybody says. I've seen so many artists, so many musicians crash that way.

EPI: I understand you picked up one of our Masterbilt EF-500's recently. Have you had a chance to check it out?
ALEX: The day I got it, I took it out to sound check and I was using a Gibson J-150 that I really like. I mean I'm very happy with that Gibson and in the studio it's become one of my main acoustics. It has a really nice, sweet sound to it but when I plugged in the Masterbilt…It had that really clear bright top end but the real surprise was the depth of the bottom end and how tight the bottom end was on the guitar. We plugged it in and right off the bat, it required no EQ! I mean, it sounded great and I've been using it since. I'm really impressed with the way it sounds and the neck feels very interesting. It's got a bit of a V shape to it which is a little different for me and I like that. I have 14 guitars out on the road and we do 21 guitar changes through the course of the show. I'm doing that because I like having a different guitar in my hands so the Masterbilt adds one more dimension to that mix.

EPI: That's a lot of guitars. With so many guitar changes in the set, how important is your tech to you and what is his role?
ALEX: Very important. My tech is Rick Britton who has been with me since Vapor Trails. He does guitar set-up and he actually re-wired my whole rig. He's a bit of a genius and really good with that sort of thing. He made things a lot more efficient compared to how I was doing it and made the system a lot quieter and tighter. I do however like to do my own programming and I do my own switching. I know a lot of guys have it done off stage now but there are so many movements in the course of any one song and I like to be in control. I have a bit of a curse in that my pitch is very good and I hear things very easily so if something's not right, I can hear it right away. I'd rather be responsible for those sort of things than you know, screaming in frustration at someone else (laughs)….which I still do once in a while (laughs again).

EPI: Well listen man, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk and on behalf of a generation of players that have been and continue to be influenced by you....Thanks again!
ALEX: My pleasure. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Transcript: Alex Lifeson of Rush

@ CNN

June 3, 2002 Posted: 9:43 PM EDT (0143 GMT)

(CNN) -- At age 15, fledgling guitarist Alex Lifeson teamed up with a couple of kids from his suburban Toronto neighborhood to form Rush. Now, more than 30 years and 17 studio albums later, the band is still going strong.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's Geneen Pipher, an enthusiastic Lifeson shared his thoughts on Rush's new album, "Vapor Trails," the musicians who inspired him and making music with his son.

CNN: Congratulations on your new album -- it sounds amazing ...
ALEX LIFESON: Thank you so much.

CNN: It (the album) sounds to me like ... I don't know ... my first impressions of the album were that it was just three old friends just getting together, jamming, having fun, letting it all hang out, I guess is the term ...
LIFESON: You know, you're not far off the mark, actually. It was very gradual. I think coming from, you know, everything that happened in the last five years with Neil ... and Geddy doing his solo record, me doing some other things it took a little while to get going, but once we did it took on a life of its own and we were just along for a ride. And, it felt very much like that, you know, like it was just us getting together and playing and having fun with it. We're really going back to a more organic three-piece kind of thing.

CNN: Can you tell me a little bit about how you approached coming back after such a long time off?
LIFESON: Well, Neil spent much of that time trying ... recovering ... from the tragedy in his life. Geddy had done his solo record, I'd ... actually, I am sort of repeating myself aren't I? (laughs)

I had done some work producing some different bands, done some work with television, we got a call from Neil ... and it was really up to him ... everything was suspended in terms of what Rush was about; there was just no joy in it anymore when all that stuff happened. [Ed. Note: In 1997, Rush's drummer, Neil Peart, lost his only child, Selena, in an auto accident. Less than a year later, his wife, Jackie, died of cancer.]

But about six or seven months before we actually started work we got a call from Neil and he said, "I think it's time that we sat down and started talking about what we're going to do as a band." We got together and we were all a little apprehensive and a little unsure about how to go about it. But he indicated that he was ready to try it at least working again and we slated January 2001 as our beginning. And we got together and it was very slow ... the first two weeks we spent just talking about everything ... I don't think we played a single note while we were in the studio-and this time around rather than going to some country location and writing for six or seven weeks and then going into the studio and recording we started in the studio from day one and the intention was to work in a way where we could keep everything that we did rather than view it as a demo period of writing and then the actual recording.

So that made things a lot less pressured. It was key, I think, for us to make everything very comfortable for Neil make it a stressless environment, and -- as I said -- it was a gradual, you know, move towards getting back in shape again. He hadn't played drums for a long time and he needed the time to just build up his chops again.

And for us, Geddy and I hadn't worked writing together in a while and because we'd been doing such diverse things we needed some time to get used to each other again.

CNN: So your hiatus was basically ended by Neil, you weren't going to approach him at any point?
LIFESON: No. No, not at all. In fact as far as we were concerned whatever happened with Rush was gonna happen. It was out of our control. For us the important thing was to support our friend and brother in a ... during a very, very difficult time.

CNN: How is he doing these days?
LIFESON: He's doing very well. He remarried a year and a half ago. His wife is great. She's very supportive of him and strong. And he's learned to find happiness in life again. It was a very long, painful recovery and it's not over. It's a lifelong thing and the scars are very, very deep, but they are healing. And he seems ... you know Neil's never been really big on touring ... at least not for the last 10 or 15 years anyways. He's a very private person and not particularly comfortable around crowds and ... I mean he's in the wrong job for sure ...

CNN: Yeah, he's always struck me as the solitary writer kind of guy ...
LIFESON: Absolutely. He is. And he's a wonderful person and he is very, very funny and great to be with, but he, you know, with strangers it's difficult for him. But I sense an excitement in his voice, and when he talks about the preparation he's been going through for the tour and his involvement with the set list and all of that. I sense an excitement and I think he is looking forward to it ... on one level anyways.

CNN: You mention the set list for the upcoming tour. Can you give us any hints on what you're thinking about? Are you going to delight fans with some old stuff?
LIFESON: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean we're aware of the Web sites ...

CNN: RushPetition.com and the like?
LIFESON: (laughs) Yeah. And we're taking all of that into consideration, you know it is also important for us to pick songs that we won't get bored with over the course of a long-ish tour and we're talking about having some surplus songs where we'll just add them in on a nightly basis and switch [them] around to keep us on our toes. And I think we're going to drop some of the older classics that we've played for a long time and replace them with other old songs that we've never played before or at least haven't played in a long time. So until we actually get into rehearsals, I am not really sure what we'll do. We probably have about four and a half hours of material right now that we have to condense down into three hours.

CNN: So you're going to drop some of your old classics ... can you give me any idea of what those might be?
LIFESON: Well, "Closer to the Heart," for example. We've been playing it for, my God, 25 years -- every tour, every time! And I think we have like four different video versions of that song and its appeared on a few live records, so that's one I think it's time for retirement. And, I won't say what we'll replace those songs with but we are looking at older material to bring that at least into the first set ...

You know (on) this record there are no keyboards we really liked playing as a three-piece. It was very energetic and the music is very driving and quite intense. And when Geddy and I listened to all the old material when we were getting the set list together, we went back to "Fly By Night" and we spent an afternoon going through all our old records and it was WEIRD because we hadn't listened to these records in ages ... and we got off on a lot the very old stuff. We're really enamored with the idea of freeing ourselves up on stage a little bit. We've been trapped by the technology for quite a few years and we'd like to feel a little freer and have fun, you know? And feel like we're making a little more contact.
Alex Lifeson of Rush
Lifeson: The band's new song "Ceiling Unlimited" tells listeners "anything is possible."

CNN: It's interesting that you say that because my entire impression of the album was that it was just like you were having fun. There was a joy to it ...
LIFESON: Yeah.

CNN: I got a message of joy from it despite some pensive lyrics ...
LIFESON: Yes. You know the album is about hope and recovery and optimism and looking forward to a future. And there are moments that are ... very moving on this record. Lyrically, it is obviously autobiographical. But both Neil and Geddy worked hard to make sure that, certainly from Geddy's point of view, that it was a little bit more universal so that he could really get behind them and really sing them with the passion ... I think these are the best vocals he's done on any of the records and you come out of it feeling very positive.

CNN: I was particularly taken with "Ceiling Unlimited." Can you talk to me a little bit about that song?
LIFESON: Yeah. That came from one of the later jams. Most of the record was written in these groupings of jams that went on and would last like a week or so and then we would sift through all of these hours of jams that we'd do and we'd pick out bits and pieces that we really got off on and we'd start the song construction. And, "Ceiling Unlimited" came from the same grouping that "Peaceable Kingdom," "Freeze," and "Nocturne" came from. So they are all kind of related in that way. And, really, just the title is pretty obvious ... that anything is possible, and even out of the darkest darkness there's light. And, just reach for it.

CNN: You were mentioning the lack of keyboards. On this album you really seem to come alive.
LIFESON: Yeah.

CNN: You just seem to have come out of the woodwork. I was really struck by the stuff that you were doing on this album. He's out there. He rocks. Who knew?
LIFESON: Yeah, you know I am partly to blame for that. I'm a little bit lazy and I like ... I like things to be smooth. And in the past when we've worked on records, I've had strong feelings about keyboards and the competition between guitar and keyboards. I'd much rather spend time creating sounds on the guitar that are organic ... that would do the same job that keyboards do, which to me are very one-dimensional. ... And it is so much more fun to create these more unusual sounds.

To an extent, Geddy did that with his voice on this record too. He used his voice more as an instrument to create those same sort of backdrop sounds that we used keyboards on the past with. And, consequently, the album sounds bigger and more ... I don't know how to describe it ... more passionate. There's more "feel" to it.

I mean, I have been doing that for the past five years. The stuff that I do at home ... I have a studio at home, and for me it's like going to the gym. I go to my studio and I basically exercise at the studio and try a bunch of things and I write a lot of stuff that ends up being exercises, you know? I go back and I review it and I think "oh that's an interesting texture I got there," or "that doesn't sound like a guitar at all, I should keep that in mind." It's wonderful to be ... to have that flexibility and freedom to be creative.

CNN: How would you say that your guitar work on "Vapor Trails" differs from previous albums -- especially the ones in the later '80s and '90s?
LIFESON: Well certainly in the later '80s my guitar sound was much cleaner and brighter ... it had a very active sound rather than a passive sound. I think we were peaking on our keyboard explorations at that time too, so I gravitated to a sound that was a little more biting to get through that.

I think, in retrospect, one of the mistakes that we made with "Power Windows" and -- I won't say they were mistakes -- but with "Power Windows" and "Hold Your Fire," just because of time and scheduling we did the keyboards before we did the guitars and we just loaded those records with keyboards, particularly "Power Windows." When it came time to do guitars, I was ... I really had a tough time trying to fit pieces in ... and to me they are very fragmented and there isn't the kind of cohesion that, say, "Vapor Trails" has on it. It almost seemed to me like the guitar was secondary at times and that really has haunted me over the years, and I really wanted to get away from that.

Geddy knew full well by the time that we got to this record that I really wanted to get away from keyboards entirely. And, you know, his feeling is: if keyboards work for something, fine, let's use them, but if they don't work, fine, I don't care. I really don't want to play them.

And, you know, we do that stuff together so it became more natural with this one. And we've been moving in that direction for the last few records. And it was just a mindset to know that they weren't included at all on this record. I hope it stays that way.

CNN: So that was a conscious decision ...
LIFESON: Yeah. It was. It always is. And you know, I always go through that at the beginning of a record. For the last few records I have talked to Ged about getting away from the keyboards or using them much less ... and we try to ... or in the past we've tried to use more organic sounds ... in the recent past ... kind of organ sounds or piano sounds, rather than synthesized abstract sounds. But it was a ... this record was all about our hearts and it shows, I think.

CNN: This is something that could break wide open.
Alex Lifeson of Rush
Lifeson says he and his son, Adrian, enjoy playing music together.
LIFESON: Well, we've had terrific success so far with "One Little Victory." We came into Atlantic on Sunday night and they were all going crazy yesterday morning when we went to number one with the first single on, I guess, Heritage Rock Radio, and all the other charts, they have been up and up and up and up. So it's a really overwhelming feeling 'cause you know we're not a big radio band. It feels good.

CNN: Was there any point at which you thought Rush might not make another record and, if not, would you have been OK with that?
LIFESON: Yeah, I think were just so upset by the events that unfolded. For us music is a celebration and all of that left us when those events happened. And it was hard to get interested in music again. And certainly after a while with both Geddy and myself, we needed to move on and that was part of closure of that period.

With Neil it was a different story. We really had to wait for him ... before music could come back to him. And, really, he didn't listen to any music for four years really.

I think that, we felt unlikely that things would get back together ... and, yes, I think we were OK with it.

It was definitely a feeling of sadness. I think that there wasn't a sense of closure with the band, that it was a long history that we had, we'd accomplished a lot of things and if that's the way it was going to end, then so be it. We had no power to change it. And I think as we got further away from it and started pursuing some other things, we were more accepting of the possibility that we wouldn't get back together.

But when Neil called, I have to say that my heart soared. And the reason really was because it said so much about his recovery ... that he was coming back to the world of the living. I mean, even if he wasn't really ready for it, he was making an attempt and there was that little faint light in him that was glowing again.

CNN: It's interesting you say that because so many of the lyrics hint at that ... that he's still working on it and still coming through it all, but the glimmer is there ...
LIFESON: Yeah. It's the revival of spirit. And it's an ongoing work with him, but you know he's doing really good. He is really doing well.

CNN: I am glad to hear that.
LIFESON: Yeah. Everybody is, you know ...

CNN: Just as a human being, to say nothing of the music ...
LIFESON: Exactly! Exactly. It didn't matter about the band, a record or any of that. And it was great with our fans too because everybody was so hurt and pained by the experience and our fans really feel such a special association with the band and everybody was so ... you know, they handled it so well ... No one was pushy or prodding or anything like that. We were given some space and we really appreciated that.

CNN: That's another thing I wanted to ask you about. Your fans. What is it about your fans that makes them so incredibly loyal?
LIFESON: I guess we've always been outside of the mainstream. We've always been sort of a "cult" band. We haven't gotten much airplay over the years. It's been all about touring and playing live for our fans. And also lyrically, there's more to think about. We try to be thought-provoking, not, I don't think in Neil's lyrics it dictates one way or another of thinking but the important thing is just to think and make your own opinions and that's always been key with us. It's more of a thinking person's kind of music, I suppose, in an area of rock where it can either swing from partying like crazy to totally depressed (laughs) ... and basically nothing in between.

So I think as we've grown and our audience has grown and reaching different stages in their lives they've made that connection. It seems that we've provided something for a lot of people at different points in their lives when they needed some support or some kind of influence. And that's what we hear more than anything else. And, a lot of our fans they're doctors, airline pilots and engineers ... You know it's a really wide spectrum of people, but the common thing is that they all hold the band so dear to them. I mean we are so lucky. That has allowed us to do what we do and I don't know if we'd ever be able to do that today if we were a new band signing to a record company. I doubt it very, very much.

CNN: I was going to ask you if there was ever a point where you worried the fans might not be there after such a long time off, especially in today's flighty music climate ...
LIFESON: No I don't think I did worry about it. I mean I was ... I wondered how things would go and once we started the record we couldn't think about anything else ... the work was so intense. We couldn't come up for air for 14 months until it was finished. And then suddenly we were barraged with all this press and promotion to an extent we've never done before. It bowled us over. I mean we've been around a long time and we're used to this sort of thing. A little bit out of touch maybe, but we're used to it. But this is just crazy!

CNN: Are you glad?
LIFESON: I am totally flattered by it. It's a wonderful feeling. I'm a little tired by it that's for sure and I want to get into rehearsals. I think I'll feel a little more secure about things when we get into rehearsals. I mean today's a big day. The record is out finally, so that's one little hurdle that we've gone over and now it's preparing for the tour and then getting out on the road. But it feels wonderful. It just feels really wonderful to have all this interest in the band and it seems very, very heartfelt.

CNN: Can you tell me some of the songs or artists that would be on the soundtrack of your life?
LIFESON: Well for me I suppose Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin for sure. I mean Led Zeppelin had such a big impact, Jimmy Page in particular. I loved his style of guitar playing, I loved what he represented, I loved the looseness in his playing ... it was structured, yet it walked along an edge, that I found so full of life and so exciting. And so many different bits of music throughout my life when I think about it. When I was very young the Beach Boys, the sound of the Beach Boys, the joy in their music was really inspiring when I was 12 or 13 years old when I wanted to learn to play guitar and learn to play music. There have been many over the years.

CNN: What do your kids think of your music? Are you a hip dad?
LIFESON: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, they've liked the music for a long time. They've been on the road when they were very young, so their connection is a little different. You know, I don't know how they view me. I think to them I am just Dad. But they're not young kids, they're adults now. And my younger son, Adrian, does a lot of writing. He writes electronic music. It's beautiful. It's very dynamic and very emotional. And I've been doing a fair amount of work with him lately, he's asked me to come in and do guitar on some of the things he does. And it's very trancey kind of ambient music. So we're having a lot of fun. And he, you know, he guides me along, he tells me what he wants and what works and what doesn't really work and I love that. To be in that environment with your kid, where you're both creative and I feel like a kid still. I am 48 years old and I've been doing this since I was 15 in this band and I've been so lucky to be able to do that. And to have my son there with me, just hanging out together and getting off on the music and getting all excited is a wonderful experience.

CNN: Well, Alex, it's been an incredible pleasure to talk to you.
LIFESON: Thank you. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Rush @ CNN

Back on the 'Trail' with Rush
Band's new release first studio recording in six years

June 7, 2002 Posted: 4:31 PM EDT (2031 GMT)
Geneen Pipher @ CNN

(CNN) -- There is something special about old friends coming together, especially when the reunion results in a rejuvenation of spirit.

This has certainly been the case for Rush, Canada's bestselling power trio, who are back with a renewed vitality and a sense of victory with their latest release, "Vapor Trails."

But the reunion is about much more than music. This time it is personal.

These old friends have emerged from a difficult period in the band's 30-year history -- a time marked by great personal loss.

In 1997, the group's drummer and lyricist, Neil Peart, lost his only child, Selena, in an auto accident. Less than a year later, his wife, Jackie, died of cancer.

Rush's future seemed in doubt, as the band took an indefinite hiatus to allow Peart the time he needed to grieve.

A 'hazy' future
Geddy Lee, the band's bassist and vocalist, said he was not sure the group would ever record again.

"After the terrible events of '97 and '98 it was impossible, really, to think about the future in terms of the band," he said in a recent phone interview from New York.

"We were just hurting so badly that instinct ... takes over and it's like a primal need and desire to protect the people around you," he said.

Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson laid music aside for a time to support their lifelong friend.

"We just circled our wagons around Neil and hoped that there was something we could do for him -- anything," Lee said.

"Of course everything you do seems inadequate in some way because there is no way you can fill the gigantic void that suddenly appeared," he said. "So you just turn away from the future. I think the future becomes very hazy and you stop thinking in that way."

Lee said he did hold out hope that the group would one day reunite.

"I always, sort of, deep in my heart believed that there would at least be an attempt to resurrect some sort of musical reunion," he said. "But it was a very small feeling I had and, really, I didn't trust it very much. So it was quite likely that Rush would never be around again, and that was fine as long as Neil could find some reason to carry on in some capacity."

'Back to the world of the living'
The long hiatus ended with a call from Peart.

"When Neil called, I have to say that my heart soared," Lifeson said. "And the reason really was because it said so much about his recovery -- that he was coming back to the world of the living. I mean, even if he wasn't really ready for it, he was making an attempt, and there was that little faint light in him that was glowing again."

As Peart began to embrace life again, the band took its first tentative steps toward a new album.

Entering the studio in January 2001, Peart, Lee and Lifeson took a leisurely approach to the sessions, allowing themselves time to reconnect both as friends and musicians.

"We got together and it was very slow," Lifeson said. "The first two weeks we spent just talking about everything -- I don't think we played a single note."

After such a long time off, the band was rusty and needed time to get its groove back.

"It was a gradual move towards getting back in shape again," Lifeson said. "He [Peart] hadn't played drums for a long time and he needed the time to just build up his chops again. And for us, Geddy and I hadn't worked writing together in a while and because we'd been doing such diverse things we needed some time to get used to each other again."

After a marathon 14 months in the studio, the band's 17th album, "Vapor Trails," was born. It debuted May 14 to positive reviews. The following week, the album entered Billboard's 200 album chart at No. 6.

'One Little Victory'
In spite of their five years apart, or perhaps because of it, Lee said the friends have returned with a fresh, vibrant -- even joyful -- sound.

"A lot of these songs were born out of, I think, a desire to almost state to each other proof that we still have a great feeling and intensity for what we do," he said. "And, in a way, it is kind of a celebration of a return of spirit -- which, of course, was a huge question mark for quite a while."

Many questions about the band seem to have been answered by the immediate success of the album's first track and single, "One Little Victory." The song rocketed into the top 10 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart just weeks after its release -- yet another little victory in the history of Rush and the story of three old friends.

Lee and Lifeson pointed to "One Little Victory" as the first and only choice to lead off the album, noting that it makes a powerful statement about Rush's return -- both personally and musically.

"We went back and forth on the running order quite a few times and the one thing that we never questioned was the opening of the album with 'One Little Victory,' " Lee said. "It always seemed natural to me to start the album off with the most positive spirit."

Lifeson added, "With 'One Little Victory,' I love the idea that Neil is the one who starts the record and he starts it with such a fury and it just says, 'We're back.' And the whole sentiment of that song about being aware of those little successes -- the daily little things that really count -- that we so often take for granted."

'Endlessly Rocking'
Lyrically, the album has a depth of emotion that is decidedly atypical for Rush, which has usually taken on abstract, unemotional themes.

While "Vapor Trails" is undeniably autobiographical, Lifeson said it is also a universal lesson about the human spirit's ability to rebound -- even in the face of terrible tragedy.

"The album is about hope and recovery and optimism and looking forward to a future," he said. "And there are moments that are very moving on this record...It seems to be something that people kind of need these days with everything that happened in September, particularly here in New York. I sense that people like survivors. It gives them hope in the future and that's a good thing."

Rush's immediate future includes a North American tour, which kicks off in Hartford, Connecticut, at the end of June. Beyond that, Lee would not speculate on the band's future plans.

"I think from here on in it's going to be one step at a time for us," he said. "We did this record and we made a commitment to it and we're really happy with it. And our happiness from this process made it easy to go into a live tour decision and then we'll sit back after that tour is over and see how we feel about continuing."

Rush fans hoping to see more of the band may take comfort from the album's final song. "Out of the Cradle," ends on a hopeful note with triumphant lyrics inspired by Walt Whitman, "Here we come out of the cradle / Endlessly rocking."

With 30 years of music behind them, it is hard to imagine Rush doing anything but. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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