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When Neil Peart died in 2020, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson made it clear they didn't intend for Rush to continue without its beloved drummer; however, their tune seems to have changed. Or at least, the frontman's has.
In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Lee admitted that performing Rush songs with Lifeson at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts last year gave him some new perspective. “It had been a taboo subject,” he said. “And playing those songs again with a third person was the elephant in the room, and that kind of disappeared.”
During the London and Los Angeles shows, they played with a list of iconic drummers including Dave Grohl, TOOL‘s Danny Carey, Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith and Omar Hakim. “It was nice to know that if we decide to go out, Alex and I, whether we went out as part of a new thing, or whether we just wanted to go out and play Rush as Rush, we could do that now,” he added.
This sentiment is a lot different than 2021, when Lee told Rolling Stone “That’s finished, right? That’s over,” when referring to Rush. “I still am very proud of what we did. I don’t know what I will do again in music. And I’m sure Al doesn’t, whether its together, apart, or whatever. But the music of Rush is always part of us. And I would never hesitate to play one of those songs in the right context. But at the same time, you have to give respect to what the three of us with Neil did together.”
In July of 2021, Lifeson shared a similar sentiment, saying: “I know Rush fans are a unique bunch, and I love them. It was a really good two-way relationship. But I think, really, Rush ended in 2015. There’s no way Rush will ever exist again because Neil’s not here to be a part of it.”