Whereas talking to “Out Of The Field” host Jonathan Clarke on Q104.3, Alex Lifeson revealed that instantly following the demise of Rush’s longtime drummer Neil Peart in January 2020, he and bandmate Geddy Lee had been flooded with emails from drummers who wished to audition to interchange Peart.
The revelation got here after Lifeson was requested by Clarke about whether or not he and Lee have ever had a “informal dialog” about discovering a brand new drummer.
“Oh, properly, yeah, in fact, as a result of we’re bombarded by it on a regular basis,” Lifeson replied. “After Neil handed, it didn’t take various minutes earlier than we began getting emails from all types of drummers who wished to audition for the band, pondering that we had been simply gonna substitute someone that we performed with for 40 years who wrote all of the lyrics for our music. I don’t know what a few of these individuals had been pondering.”
“So, yeah, we’ve had the dialog, as a result of we are able to’t keep away from it,” he admitted. “However truthfully, Ged is my greatest pal. I speak to him — I have to speak to him each day. We get collectively for dinner, we play tennis, we’re doing all this charity work collectively. He’s my greatest bud, so, yeah, I’m going over there. He performs bass, I play guitar — yeah, we’ll play just a little bit. I’m going over there ostensibly to play with him and we find yourself simply sitting and consuming espresso and laughing the entire day.
“So it’s not simply Rush, Rush, Rush, Rush, Rush. I’ve a deep loving relationship with this man, and it’s not all about creating one thing that we did from the previous. You by no means know what life brings you. Proper now I’m tremendous joyful doing what I’m doing. I’m engaged with a variety of musical stuff. I really like being a musician. I really like taking part in guitar. I really like taking part in guitar a lot. It’s not only a car for making a residing. It’s me. It’s on the core of my essence. So it doesn’t need to be about Rush or Envy of None. I imply, I do what I do.”
Regardless of many followers hoping for a Rush reunion, in a number of latest interviews Lifeson and Lee have each insisted they haven’t any plans to ever reunite the band, saying that it doesn’t really feel proper with out Peart.
