Looking Back at His Milestone Birthdays

Guitarist Alex Lifeson was grinding out the life depicted in Rush’s tune “Working Man” lengthy earlier than they ever put out an album. By the time the long run Canadian rock legends received to the center a part of 1972, they have been gigging steadily, enjoying 5 to 6 nights every week.

But each band has to begin someplace. As detailed in Wandering the Face of the Earth, the indispensable official ebook which paperwork Rush’s complete touring historical past, that “somewhere” started on Sept. 6, 1968.

That was the day that Rush performed their first paying gig — for 25 {dollars} — in entrance of 30 individuals at the Coff-In, a dingy venue situated within the basement of a church in Toronto. The group featured Lifeson on guitar, bassist and vocalist Jeff Jones and drummer John Rutsey. Performing a mixture of covers, together with songs by Jimi Hendrix and Cream, the lineup would not final past that preliminary efficiency.

When they performed that very same church basement every week later, the band had a brand new bassist and vocalist, one Geddy Lee, who had are available contact with Lifeson two years earlier. “We were aliens in a class of conformity and we became best friends,” the guitarist remembered many years later.

Once drummer and lyricist Neil Peart entered the image on July 29, 1974, changing Rutsey, a brotherhood was formally solidified. It lasted for 19 studio albums in a profession spanning greater than 4 many years, till Peart’s tragic passing at the start of 2020. Each bandmate made time for their very own particular person pursuits — with Lifeson finally making his first solo report, launched below the banner of Victor in 1996 — however largely, it was simply Rush.

So it is sensible that when the guitarist discovered himself considerably unexpectedly at the tip of his touring days with Rush, he wasn’t anxious to renew. “After 40 years of touring at that level, not to mention the six years before that of spending weeks in small bars and small towns, I’m not in a big hurry to go back on the road,” Lifeson advised UCR in 2021.

Instead, he is discovered nice pleasure in exploring his personal initiatives — together with a brand new band, Envy of None. A standard thread stays, nevertheless: his unmistakable guitar tone and the lifetime of innovation he is created utilizing his instrument — on Rush information and past. The music Lifeson is making as of late proves that he hasn’t misplaced his curiosity for creating new sounds or his love of experimentation.

As the guitarist turns 70 on Aug. 27, 2023, we’re looking again at what was occurring in his profession at different milestone birthdays.

1973: In the Beginning

By the time Lifeson’s twentieth birthday arrived on Aug, 27, 1973, Rush have been already almost 5 years into their touring profession. Two days earlier, the band carried out at Toronto’s Picadilly Tube, their newest gig in what was changing into one other busy 12 months. Although their self-titled debut album would not arrive till 1974, the band performed over 100 reveals in 1973, together with a memorable October 27 spot opening for the New York Dolls in entrance of 1,200 followers. “It was an old burlesque theater, pretty run-down and crappy,” Lifeson recalled in 2015. “But to us it might as well have been Wembley.”

1978: New Hemispheres

Lifeson’s twenty fifth birthday got here as Rush was finalizing their sixth studio album, Hemispheres, which might be launched that October. Recording and highway work had been symbiotically relentless, however it was all paying off. They wrapped up their newest tour on May 28, sharing the stage with openers Sweet and Uriah Heep in entrance of over 20,000 individuals at the Wisconsin-area Alpine Valley Music Theatre, setting a brand new home report. They spent June and July recording the album and after a well-deserved break, have been again out on the highway almost two weeks previous to the October 28 launch of Hemispheres.

Listen to ‘The Trees’ From ‘Hemispheres’

1983: Sending Signals Under Pressure

Lifeson turned 30 because the band was nearing the final a part of the touring cycle for 1982’s Signals. A run of tour dates ended on May 25 in Scotland they usually used the summer season of 1983 to work on songs for the forthcoming Grace Under Pressure album. Fans witnessed 5 particular reveals that September because the members mounted a residency at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. With Marillion supporting, the group previewed three songs from the upcoming report stay for the primary time. It supplied an embryonic look at what was on the horizon for Grace Under Pressure, which was launched in April of 1984.

1988: A Show of Hands

The guitarist’s thirty fifth birthday got here near the tip of what had been an unbelievable decade for Rush, led by the success of 1981’s Moving Pictures. Four extra albums adopted, with the band persevering with to embrace a extra keyboard-heavy course. They experimented with expertise on the live performance stage too, with their 78 date run for 1987’s Hold Your Fire that includes a quadraphonic PA system. They commemorated the trek by recording their April 1988 performances in Birmingham, England for the A Show of Hands stay launch, which got here out in January of 1989.

1993: Back within the Forefront

Celebrating his fortieth birthday, Lifeson was having fun with a renewed wave of recognition with Rush. The band had been rejuvenated by the success of 1991’s Roll the Bones, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard album charts. More than 100 reveals adopted on the following tour, which wrapped up in mid-1992. They spent a hefty chunk of 1993 recording the eventual Counterparts album, which arrived that October. Lifeson noticed the second as an necessary shift for the group. “I think Counterparts was that record where we still combined all of those keyboards and all of that stuff that we were going through at the time,” he advised UCR in 2021. “But with the guitar back in the forefront, sort of leading it.”

Listen to ‘Nobody’s Hero’ From ‘Counterparts’

1998: Different Stages

The guitarist turned 45 in 1998 with the twenty fifth anniversary of Rush approaching in 1999. It was a troublesome time for the group, as Peart confronted two tragedies: the 1997 loss of life of his 19-year-old daughter, Selena Taylor, who died in a automobile accident and the following cancer-related passing of his spouse, Jackie Taylor, the next June. Understandably, the band started an prolonged hiatus. They launched Different Stages, a 3 CD stay album, in November of 1998. Lee mirrored on the pending quarter-century milestone at that point. “It’s kind of a miracle in a way,” he shared throughout an interview for Canadian press. “It’s based on a solid relationship, a great respect for each other and a desire to focus on the music and nothing else — not to allow financial matters or personality disorders to get in the way. That’s hard, but we’ve been able to do it.”

2003: 50 Years Strong

As he turned 50, the guitarist noticed his flagship group persevering with to evolve. Rush had come again sturdy fro their lengthy break with 2002’s Vapor Trails. Though they toured extensively that 12 months, the band solely performed one live performance in 2003 — however it was a excessive profile gig in assist of the then-current SARS epidemic. Rush and AC/DC have been direct assist to the Rolling Stones on July 30 in entrance of a crowd within the Toronto space which stretched near 500 thousand attendees. They returned to the highway the next May for the R30 world tour celebrating their thirtieth anniversary, whereas additionally delivering the Feedback covers EP, which arrived in June.

2008: Modern Day Warrior

Lifeson’s fifty fifth birthday got here within the midst of one other busy 12 months for Rush. They’d spent 2007 touring in assist of that 12 months’s Snakes and Arrows album. As had turn into custom, it was time for an additional stay LP, 2008’s Snakes and Arrows Live. But this time, additionally they scheduled 49 extra live shows from April via late July to have a good time the brand new stay set they usually additionally had some enjoyable selling the report. Lifeson, Lee and Peart made an look on The Colbert Report, enjoying “Tom Sawyer” on the Rock Band online game, scoring an unimpressive 31%. “I’m just starting to get a feel for it,” the guitarist quipped. It was their first stay tv look in over 30 years. Earlier that 12 months, additionally they discovered time to movie a cameo within the Jason Segal / Paul Rudd comedy, I Love You, Man.

Watch Rush Play ‘Tom Sawyer’ on ‘Rock Band’

2013: Blah, Blah, Blah…

Lifeson celebrated his sixtieth birthday a number of weeks after wrapping up the Clockwork Angels tour at the start of August. It had been a milestone 12 months for the band, who lastly have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April. Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins dealt with the induction honors, with Lifeson delivering an immediately memorable speech, the place he mentioned “blah, blah, blah” to the gang (yep, that’s it) again and again for 2 minutes. The shut of the Clockwork Angels tour introduced a much-needed break, which the guitarist advised Billboard would final for a “minimum” of a 12 months. “Right now we’re just relaxing,” he mentioned in late November. “We’re taking it easy and just enjoying our current employment.”

2018: These Things Can Happen

Lifeson’s sixty fifth birthday discovered him beginning to get pleasure from life away from the highway. Rush had performed the final live performance of their fortieth anniversary tour on Aug. 1, 2015. He successfully confirmed the tip of Rush in an article printed in January of 2018 within the Globe and Mail. “It’s been a little over two years since Rush last toured,” he defined. “We have no plans to tour or record any more. We’re basically done. After 41 years, we felt it was enough.” Lifeson discovered loads of methods to maintain busy, nevertheless, describing that he had been “writing on four or five different little projects.” He was additionally having fun with branching out, difficult himself with tv work and writing a month-to-month newspaper column. “It’s fun to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation,” he shared. “If you have a little bit of confidence and you just get out of your way, these things can happen.”

2023: That Was Then, This is Now

As he enters his seventh decade, Lifeson remains to be making new music, although it’s not with Rush. He started writing songs a 12 months after the Canadian rock legends completed 2015’s R40 tour. “I do that just to keep myself in tune and keep my fingers working,” he advised UCR. “[But] once I start doing it, it grows into this other thing.” In this occasion, the songwriting led to Envy of None, Lifeson’s present band, which additionally options collaborator Andy Curran (Coney Hatch) and vocalist Maiah Wynne. To date, they’ve launched an album and EP in 2021 and 2023 respectively. He additionally reunited along with his longtime Rush cohort Lee in 2022. The pair first got here collectively that August for a visitor look at a live performance celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of the animated South Park sequence, performing the Rush basic, “Closer to the Heart.”

They teamed up once more lower than a month later to play further Rush favorites at the London and Los Angeles memorial live shows for Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. Lifeson additionally continues to play on different individuals’s albums — together with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, who tapped the guitarist to play on his 2021 solo album alongside Metallica’s Kirk Hammett. As for a future collaboration with Lee? You gained’t discover Lifeson ruling out the likelihood. “We’re still very close. We talk to each other, probably every other day,” he shared with UCR in 2021. “He’s my absolute best friend and always was. That’s not going to change.”

Watch Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee Perform ‘Closer to the Heart’