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TRIBUTE EDITION Rock Candy Magazine June-July 2024 Issue #44 |
Letter from the Editor
What a Rush!
Rush from the Inside: The Andy Curran Interview
Rush Back in Time: The Classic 1981 Interview
The John Petrucci Interview
The Kim Thayil Interview
The Zakk Wylde Interview
The Marty Friedman Interview
The Mike Portnoy Interview
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
THAT WE’VE CHOSEN TO look at Rush in-depth will come as no surprise. There’s something about the Canadian band that
intrigues us all, from dyed-in-the-wool early converts to casual observers. They existed as a unique entity, protected by a
wall of musical complexity and unshakable self-belief. But I met them a couple of times and was amazed by the fact that
they weren’t serious at all, despite having a reputation for being the brainiest musos around. When they’d make a joke it
took a while to sink in that there was humour in the furrowed brows and deadpan glances.
UK journalist Geoff Barton was a vociferous Rush advocate during their early years. But by the time of a 1981 interview
he conducted with Geddy Lee that we’re running in Rock Candy Mag, his appreciation had cooled somewhat. The story
offers a fascinating insight into Geoff’s thinking at the time and the band’s motivation for changing gears toward shorter
and snappier songs. As another part of our Rush special we asked musicians Zakk Wylde, Kim Thayil, Marty Friedman, and
Dream Theater’s John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy to talk about the band. Meanwhile, Coney Hatch singer and bassist Andy
Curran, who worked closely with Rush as their A&R man, gives us invaluable insight into their working methods.
Editor
Derek Oliver – Master Of Mayhem
THIS ISSUE’S BIG QUESTION – SHOULD GEDDY LEE AND ALEX LIFESON WORK
TOGETHER AGAIN AS RUSH, UNDER ANOTHER NAME, OR NOT AT ALL?
WHAT A RUSH!
Over the course of their 47-year career, Canada’s
Rush became a by-word for creatively stimulating
rock delivered with absolute artistic integrity. When
drummer Neil Peart sadly passed at the start of 2020,
guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist/vocalist Geddy
Lee closed the book on Rush with typical dignity.
And yet the band’s fanbase remains every bit as
passionate today as when Rush was a going concern.
As a tribute to this iconic act, we at Rock Candy Mag
have dedicated 24 pages to the band. We bring
you a fascinating assessment of the group’s inner
working from long-time confidant Andy Curran,
who was with Rush’s management and is currently
Alex Lifeson’s musical foil in the band Envy Of None;
a classic 1981 ‘Exit… Stage Left’ era interview with
Geddy Lee by renowned music journalist Geoff
Barton; and interviews with five top musicians about
what Rush means to them. Rush may no longer exist,
but the music lives on forever…
RUSH FROM THE INSIDE: THE ANDY CURRAN INTERVIEWAndy Curran knows Rush better than almost anyone, having played in Coney Hatch when the band was in the Rush management stable, and then having worked as the group’s A&R man. He gives Howard Johnson a highly personal interview about operating in the Rush hemisphere…
ANDY CURRAN IS IN a unique position to offer genuine
insight into the minds of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and
Neil Peart – the three component parts of the Rush
jigsaw. Andy’s relationship with the band goes back to
1982 when his hard rock group, Coney Hatch, was signed
to top Canadian independent label Anthem Records.
The label had been formed in 1977 by Ray Danniels
and his business partner Vic Wilson. Danniels had been
Rush’s manager (and, at first, their booking agent) since
way back in 1971, and Anthem was launched in part to
give Rush more business and artistic control in their
native Canada than their worldwide major label Mercury
Records might allow. Danniels decided that having a
360-degree proposition that included record label,
management, publishing, and even merchandising would
help him attract other emerging Canadian talent, and
Toronto’s Coney Hatch was one of the bands he chose to
work with.
Curran played bass and sang in that band, whose
eponymous 1982 debut album was well received by rock
critics. The group supported Iron Maiden at a number of
shows on the English group’s 1983 World Piece Tour, but
split in 1985 after three albums. Like many other ’80s hard
rock acts, Coney Hatch have reformed sporadically over
the years, and even released another album, ‘Four’, in
2013. By that time, though, Andy was wearing two hats,
continuing as a musician while also working closely with
Ray Danniels as Rush’s A&R man at SRO. His experiences,
both as a musician and as a business associate, gave
Andy a unique position in the Rush camp, and eventually
led to him working alongside Alex Lifeson as a musician
in the post-Rush band Envy Of None, whose debut album
of the same name was released in 2022. It would seem
that there’s no one better qualified to give you Rock
Candy Mag readers a deeply personal insight into the
world of Rush than Andy Curran…
ANDY, WE KNOW JUST HOW CLOSE YOU’VE BEEN TO
RUSH OVER YOUR 40-YEAR-PLUS MUSIC BUSINESS
CAREER. BUT WERE YOU A FAN OF THE BAND IN
YOUR YOUTH?
“I definitely was. The first time I heard Rush would have been in 1975 when I was in high school. I would have
been maybe 15 or 16 and a neighbour played me the first
Rush album. He was a bass player and he introduced
me to another guy who subsequently gave me some
lessons. And guess what
the very first bass line I
ever learnt was? ‘What
You’re Doing’ from that first
Rush album! The first part
of it was pretty easy, but
then it went off into a much
more difficult proggy bit. I
remember thinking, ‘Damn,
this is going to take me a
while to learn!’”
YOU WERE HOOKED ON THE BAND PRETTY EARLY
DOORS, THEN…
“Absolutely. I became a die-hard Rush fan straight after
that and wanted to know everything about them. I
bought the next album, [1975’s] ‘Fly By Night’ and then
‘Caress Of Steel’ [also from 1975], and then by the time
I was fully into the band I was also starting going to
concerts. Probably the pivotal Rush moment for me was
when I saw them at Massey Hall in Toronto in 1976 on
one of the nights when
they recorded the ‘All The
World’s A Stage’ doublelive
album [11-13 June 1976].
Massey Hall is probably
the oldest soft-seat music
venue in Toronto, if not
Canada, because it was
built way back in the 1800s.
It’s one of those gorgeous
wraparound, double-tiered
venues, and I was in the upper balcony for the Rush
show, no doubt wearing skinny jeans and a jean jacket
with a Rush patch sewn on! I remember looking down
on this white shagpile carpeting they’d put on the stage,
and I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It
blew my little mind!”
WITHIN TWO YEARS OF THE DEBUT LP BEING
RELEASED, RUSH HAD ISSUED THREE STUDIO
ALBUMS AND WERE PLAYING SOLD-OUT SHOWS IN
THEIR HOME TOWN OF TORONTO. HOW ON EARTH
DID THE BAND GET TO BE SO POPULAR SO QUICKLY,
GIVEN THAT THE MUSIC WAS A FAIRLY DEMANDING
MIX OF HARD ROCK AND PROG? IT’S NOT EXACTLY
TOP 40 STUFF, IS IT?
“There’s an organisation in Canada called the CRTC [The
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission] which is a regulatory agency for
broadcasting. And this body requires that radio and TV
broadcasters
have to play a
certain amount
of Canadian
content
regardless of
what style of
music it is. Now
obviously, that
was a great
help to a band
like Rush when
they were trying
to establish
themselves.
‘Working Man’
[from the
very first Rush
album] was
definitely on the
radio, and it got
to a point where
you pretty much
couldn’t avoid Rush on the
radio here because the
stations were aware of the
criteria they had to fulfil.
That edict really helped the
Canadian music industry,
because you’d hear all
these Canadian bands like Rush, Max Webster, April
Wine, Santers, Honeymoon Suite, and Killer Dwarfs on
the radio all the time.
“But there was also an early buzz about Rush in
Canada because they were seen as being ‘Big In The
States’. Pretty early on they’d cracked it in Cleveland,
and they’d started to happen in Texas. There’s this weird
thing in Canada where if a Canadian band is accepted
in the US, or if they’re big in the UK, then everyone here
decides they must be good. So Canadian DJs would be
on the radio saying, ‘That was Rush – and by the way,
they’re just playing down in Texas and are selling out
arenas in Detroit and Cleveland.’ So everyone was like,
‘Wow, they must be a big deal.’ That was one of the
attractions for sure.”
WHEN DID YOU HAVE WHAT YOU MIGHT TERM YOUR
FIRST PROFESSIONAL CONTACT WITH RUSH?
“When Coney Hatch signed a record deal with Anthem
and a management deal with Ray Danniels, which I think
was in 1981. My band had a couple of offers, one from
EMI America and one from Anthem. We had a lawyer
helping us out, and he said that one of the advantages
of signing with Anthem was the fact that Ray would then
manage the band as well. He was already managing Rush
and Max Webster and we thought it would be a great
career move for us, so we signed with Anthem.
“One day I was in the management office staring at all
these Rush gold discs hanging on all the walls, and
in walks Geddy Lee – I almost had a heart attack on the
spot! There was my bass hero standing right in front
of me. But he said, ‘Hey, I’m Geddy. You’re Andy from
Coney Hatch, right? I hear you’re a tennis player.’ He was
right about that, and he asked if I’d like to play with him
sometime: I nearly died and went to heaven.
“So we
organised a
match and
suddenly I was
that 16-year-old
kid at Massey
Hall again
thinking, ‘This
is nuts! Geddy
Lee is serving
a tennis ball to
me.’ So very
early on Geddy
and I struck up a
friendship based
on a mutual
love for tennis.
Funnily enough,
exactly the same
thing happened
with Steve
Harris from Iron
Maiden when
Coney Hatch toured with
them. Even now, 40 years
later, whenever Maiden are
in Toronto Harry and I play
tennis together, sometimes
with Geddy and Alex.”
IS GEDDY ANY GOOD AT TENNIS?
“Geddy’s very annoying to play against because his
strategy is super conservative. He’s rock steady, and you
end up thinking, ‘All he’s doing is hitting the ball back.
When’s he going to go for a winner?’ A couple of years
ago I played a round robin thing with Geddy, Alex, and
Steve Harris. I think it was six games where you switched
partners at the end of every match. Geddy won with
everybody; me, Alex, and Steve. So that should tell you
how bloody annoying he is on a tennis court.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE OPENING A SHOW FOR RUSH
WITH CONEY HATCH?
“Well believe it or not we never played with Rush. The
carrot was always dangled in front of us, but it never
actually happened, and I don’t know why. But after
Coney Hatch came to an end I started my own solo band
that did well in Canada. I had three Top 10 songs and
subsequently I was invited to open for Rush on five or six
Canadian dates on the ‘Roll The Bones’ tour in ’91.”
SO HOW DID YOU END UP WORKING WITH RUSH IN A
BUSINESS CAPACITY?
“It would have been sometime around 2004 when
Ray Danniels asked me to join the management team
as Rush’s A&R man, which was a huge honour. I then
remember getting a call from Geddy going, ‘This is so
amazing that Ray’s hired you. We’re really going to be
able to use your talents and work with you. We’d like you
to take care of Fender and Gibson and all of our musical
endorsements.’ I think the band immediately recognised
that because I was a musician I spoke the same language
as they did. I’ll never forget Pegi Cecconi coming into my
office very early on. She was vice president of Anthem
Records and she said, ‘Hey, Geddy and the band have
invited you up to the studio.’ And I said, ‘Oh, cool.’ But
to be honest, Howard, by that time I’d been in a billion
studios, so to
me it was no
big deal. But
Pegi said, ‘You
don’t seem to
understand.
You’re the first
and only A&R
guy they’ve
ever invited
to the studio.
That means
they trust
you, and that’s
a big deal.’”
TELL US
WHAT IT WAS
LIKE TO BE
THE BAND’S
A&R GUY?
“Well when
it’s Rush you
don’t go in and
say, ‘Hey, let
me listen to your songs. You shouldn’t do this, and you
shouldn’t do that.’ So my first interactions with the guys
in my A&R role were administrative. When I first joined
they were working on the ‘Feedback’ project where they
were recording covers of songs from bands that had
influenced them in their early days. They said, ‘Andy, we
know you know a bunch of people. We want to get a
hold of a bunch of old Vox amplifiers, we want old pedals
and old guitars, vintage this and vintage that,’ So I really
helped them get hold of a bunch of vintage gear to
record those songs.
“When the guys were starting to prepare the ‘Snakes
& Arrows’ album in 2006, I remember being in a
production meeting where they asked me to get in touch
with a bunch of potential producers for the project. The
list included John Paul Jones, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois,
maybe Bob Rock. I remember thinking what an awesome
job I had. So I got up and told the guys I’d find out who
managed all these producers and that I’d get in touch
with them. But they said, ‘No, no, we’re not finished yet.
Dude, sit back down.’ And then they said, ‘Who do you
think we should use?’ I remember thinking, ‘Wow, what
an honour to be asked.’ It blew my mind, because I was
going back to Massey Hall again and thinking, ‘How am I
here?’ But fortunately I’d prepared for this moment, and
I’d done my homework. So immediately I gave the guys a
very short list of some producers, mixers, and engineers
I really loved. And Nick Raskulinecz, who’d already won
a Grammy for his work with Foo Fighters, was on that list. Geddy said to me, ‘What is it exactly that you like
about this guy and why are you recommending him?’
I explained that there were a couple of reasons why I
loved him. His overall production was stellar, especially
his vocal sounds, but I also said that I’d already spoken
to him and that his enthusiasm for Rush was just
incredible. I told the guys that he was a Rush nerd with
an encyclopaedic knowledge of the band, and that he’d
really impressed me when I spoke to him about them. So
Geddy told me to fly him to Toronto to meet with them,
and eventually Nick got the producer’s gig for ‘Snakes
& Arrows’ and then for [the band’s final studio album]
‘Clockwork Angels’. I felt very proud that I was the
person who’d connected everybody.”
IT’S CLEAR
THAT YOU
HAVE A CLOSE
RELATIONSHIP
WITH GEDDY.
HOW WAS IT
WITH ALEX
AND NEIL?
“Geddy was
definitely my
first connection,
and when I
joined the
company
at the start
Ray Danniels
identified that.
He said to me,
‘Andy, if we’re
going to have
a good run
with you and
the band, then
you’ll need to
spend time with the other two guys and get to know
them better.’ So another early project I worked on was
the ‘Replay x 3’ box set of live filmed performances of
‘Exit… Stage Left’, ‘Grace Under Pressure’, and ‘A Show
Of Hands’. The band wanted to remix the audio of ‘Exit…
Stage Left’ and they asked me if there was anybody
out there that I really liked who might be good for the
job. Well I’d heard a mix, or maybe a remix, that Mike
Fraser had done for AC/DC’s ‘Live at Donington’ DVD
that was absolutely crushing. And once the guys heard
it they wanted to work with Mike, who happens to be
a fellow Canadian working out of Warehouse Studios
in Vancouver, which is Bryan Adams’s place. So the
premise was that Alex would fly out there to work with
Mike, and Ray said that it would be a good opportunity
for me and Alex to hang together and get to know each
other. So I went out there with Alex, and we hit it off
immediately. We hung out all the time for two weeks and
became thick as thieves. I’m really glad Ray suggested
that because my relationship with Alex really grew and
blossomed as a result.”
AND NEIL?
“Well you won’t be surprised to hear that Neil was a
tough nut to crack. Not only was he a little intimidating,
but he was super eloquent. He was just so intelligent
and knowledgeable, but also very polite. He didn’t really
know me at first, so it was never like, ‘Hey Andy, come
and have a pint.’ We weren’t buddy buddies. But I’d have a few interactions with him about his endorsement
stuff with DW Drums, and I’d try to make some projects
come to fruition. But the pivotal moment when I finally
cracked this very private guy was in 2009 when Rush
got an offer from a couple of friends of mine at TSN,
The Sports Network, to record ‘The Hockey Theme’
song that introduced their hockey coverage. They said,
‘Will Rush do a new version of this iconic instrumental
song?’ [It’s a song that’s widely recognised as Canada’s
unofficial second national anthem.] So I took the idea to
the band, and they said, ‘It’s not really us.’ Geddy was a
big baseball fan, and Alex is really a golfer. Only Neil was
a major hockey
fan. So I said I’d
get back to TSN
and tell them
no. But just as
I was leaving
the meeting
Neil pulled me
to one side and
said, ‘I think I
should do a big
band version.’
I spoke to the
guys at TSN
about the idea,
and they were
really up for it,
so I ended up
working very
closely with
Neil on that
project. We flew
to Los Angeles
where Neil had a
bunch of friends
play with him and I helped him realise his creative vision.
And after it was done he came to me and said, ‘Andy,
this might be one of my proudest moments.’ I said, ‘Wait
a second. What do you mean? You’re in Rush and you’ve
got all these platinum records.’ And he said, ‘I know, but
this fulfils a childhood dream. My drum kit is now in the
Hockey Hall of Fame!’ So that’s how I cracked it with Neil,
and after that we had many good hangouts. He lived in
California, and so anytime I went to California I’d visit
him. I miss him dearly. He was such a gentleman.”
CAN YOU GIVE US SOME INSIGHT INTO HOW ALEX,
GEDDY, AND NEIL INTERACTED WHEN THEY
WERE TOGETHER?
“You saw it most when the three of them were in the
studio control room, digging each other out with all
these little jokes. When they were together it was almost
as if they were 16 years old, constantly goofing off. It
was great to see them like that because that interaction
showed the unbreakable bond between them that was
born out of the respect they gave each other creatively.
And then I’d see different things when they started
preparing a tour. Geddy would then be the guy who
was front and centre in all the meetings about visuals,
how the stage would look, and how everything would
be set up. And then when it was about mixing, Geddy
and Neil would say, ‘Oh, you should talk to Alex because
that’s Alex’s turf.’ And then artwork was Neil’s domain. I think that’s where the longevity came from. Right out
of the gate there was this respect where each member
had their turf, and they orbited around each other really
successfully. And that respect turned into friendship,
because I never ever saw them having an argument,
never saw anything like a head-to-head.”
GIVEN THAT THE GUYS WERE MORE THAN CAPABLE
OF HAVING FUN, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT NEVER
CAME ACROSS IN RUSH’S MUSIC, WHICH WAS, LET’S
FACE IT, VERY SERIOUS?
“You’re right. If you didn’t know the individuals, you
might say,
‘Man, these
guys are taking
themselves way
too seriously.’
And they did
take the music
seriously.
Watching those
guys perform
every night and
seeing the level
of musicianship
they had was
something
beyond human.
Honestly, if I
took a recording
of ‘Tom Sawyer’
from the
beginning of
any Rush tour
and then put
it into a Pro
Tools system
and lined it up with the same song 20 shows later, they’d
line up identically. It was a Clark Kent/Superman thing.
One minute they’re goofing around, the next they hit the
stage – albeit to The Three Stooges theme – and it’s a
different beast entirely.”
WERE YOU CONVINCED IN 2015 WHEN THE BAND
SAID THEY WOULDN’T TOUR AGAIN?
“I was at the last show at the Los Angeles Forum on
1 August, but how many times have you and I heard a
band say, ‘This is the last time we’re ever going to play’?
At the time I don’t think anybody believed the guys, me
included. Multiple times after that last date, Ray came
to them with some massive offers. But I heard that Neil
said to Ray, ‘What didn’t you guys understand about me
saying that I’m done?’ Then there was this period where
it felt like something might happen. ‘Oh, sounds like the
guys might entertain doing a studio record.’ But it was
always loud and clear that they were not going to tour
again, and as both a fan and a part of the organisation
I was very melancholy and sad about that. Obviously I
can’t speak for Ray, but I did get the feeling that when
Rush called it a day Ray also started wondering whether
it was maybe time for him to take his foot off the gas.
I could feel the air in the balloon coming out. But I also
thought that if that was the end, then well, what a ride!”
BUT NOW YOU’RE IN A BAND, ENVY OF NONE, WITH ALEX LIFESON. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?
“How crazy is that? From the very first day that I started
at SRO Anthem, I told myself that I was never going to
cross the line and try to insert myself or plant seeds, like
‘Hey, why don’t we write together?’ Or ‘Why don’t you
listen to my music?’ I was Rush’s A&R guy at the label,
and I was part of their management team, full stop. But
sometime in 2006, Alex was doing a recording session
with this comedy troupe he’s very friendly with called The
Trailer Park Boys. He was lending a hand on a spoof song
for the soundtrack of a movie they were making, and the
song was called ‘Liquor & Whores’. I was just babysitting
the session. So I’m sitting in the lounge and Alex comes out and says, ‘Andy, get
your ass in here. I need you
to play bass on ‘Liquor &
Whores’.’ Well of course I
thought that was awesome,
but that’s when I think Alex
had a lightbulb moment
and realised that I wasn’t just the A&R guy, but that I was
a musician too. And suddenly Alex was asking me what I
was listening to and what music I was working on.
“Then right around the time of the pandemic I got a
call from Alex, asking if I’d do him a favour and play bass
on a couple of instrumentals he was messing around
with. And my God’s honest response was, ‘Don’t you
know any other bass players, because I’m pretty sure you
have a guy with the initials GL on speed dial?’ And Alex
started laughing. He told me that Geddy had started
work on his memoir and was super busy. I was thrilled,
of course, so I asked Alex to send the files over to my
home studio. And when I heard them I said I’d love to
do it. So when I’d finished my stuff I sent it to Alex, and
he was really happy. He said if he could ever return the
favour then I just had to ask, so I immediately took my
chance because I was already working with this singer
from Portland called Maiah Wynne. So I sent Alex a song called ‘Shadow’ and he loved the tune and wanted to
contribute some more. So Envy of None came out of
that, and it became a little itch for us to scratch, and then
the album came out in 2022.”
DID YOU FEEL THAT IN SOME WAY PLAYING IN ENVY
OF NONE WOULD HELP ALEX DEAL WITH THE DEMISE
OF RUSH BETTER?
“There was a part of me as Alex’s friend that felt it was
going to be cathartic for him. I thought that it might
somehow help to heal wounds, and Alex has since said
that it really did help him through that period. And I
definitely hoped that Envy Of None might in some way encourage Alex and Geddy
to start writing music
again, because as a Rush
fan I want to hear those
guys working together. I’m
keeping my fingers crossed
for that, because wouldn’t
it be amazing if Lee and Lifeson did something new?”
DO YOU IN ANY WAY FEEL LIKE IT’S DOWN TO YOU
TO KEEP AN EYE ON GEDDY AND ALEX TO MAKE
SURE THEY’RE ALRIGHT?
“I’ve always said that it honestly means more to me that
I’m still mates with those guys than it did to be working
with them. So if they said they were going to become
winemakers or golfers then I’d be more than happy for
them. The friendship is the most important part of it for
me, and I do keep an eye out for them. But I think the
friendship happened because they knew I wasn’t ever
trying to milk them for anything. A lot of music industry
people were kind of like that, and I would always bring
stuff to them but tell them if I really wasn’t sure. They’d
see my raised eyebrow and go, ‘Curran’s not buying this.’ I
think I had a good bullsh*t radar and I think at the end of
the day that’s what they really appreciated about me.”
RUSH BACK IN TIME: THE CLASSIC 1981 INTERVIEWIn a fascinating piece of journalistic time travel, we take you back to legendary UK weekly rock paper Sounds issue dated 21 November 1981. Top writer Geoff Barton interviews Rush vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee at a crucial tipping point in the band’s career as they move from conceptual sci-fi rock to a more streamlined and commercially successful sound…
GEDDY LEE AND I are sitting face to face, staring into
each other’s eyes across a flimsy Formica table. We’re
the sole occupants of a clinical cubicle somewhere in
the backstage bowels of the Brighton Centre. The Rush
vocalist, bassist, and keyboard player sips at a foamy
combination of Guinness and lager, waiting patiently
for that first deeply penetrative, incisive, soul-searching,
getting-to-the-heart-of-the-matter Bartonian question.
But instead the journalist, whose fearsome interviewing
technique
has been said
to make a
Gestapo officer
sound about as
vicious as [mild
mannered
British TV
presenter]
Des O’Connor,
is for once
completely
silent.
Fiddling with
the controls
to my tape
recorder,
my mind is
in a turmoil.
It’s spinning
with so many
furious facts
I’m afraid that
if I do try to
speak my
vocal cords
will produce nothing but gobbledegook. Lee raises a
quizzical brow as if to enquire, ‘Well, shall we begin?’
And I realise that there’s nothing to do but swallow
my pride and come straight out with the pathetic
admission that…
“Ulp. Sorry, Geddy. But the problem is, I haven’t got the
faintest idea where to start.”
The original Maple Leaf Mayhem Merchant is
sympathetic. “That’s alright,” he drawls. “I understand.
After all, it has been a hell of a long time since we had
a chat.”
AND THEREIN lies the crux of the matter. By my
reckoning it’s well over three years since we pair
engaged in a serious head-to-head (unearth your copy
of Sounds dated 25 February 1978 if you don’t believe
me). And a whole lot of water has spurted out of the
Fountain Of Lamneth since then.
Why such a massive gap between encounters? Well,
briefly, the story goes like this…
While Rush were going through their sword and
sorcery slanted phase, I was their biggest fan. Up to and
including their ‘transition’ album, ‘A Farewell To Kings’, I’d
been very much in tune with the band, liking best tracks
of the ‘By-Tor And The Snow Dog’ ilk, but generally and
genuinely enthusing about the Torontonians every step
of the way.
However, a turning point came when the group
decided to relinquish their status as the Tolkienesque
titans of the HR genre and move on to pastures new.
And the ‘…Kings’ follow-up ‘Hemispheres’ finally turned
things sour for me. Setting little store by their awesome
musical ability and potential highbrow appeal, I reckoned
that Rush had metamorphosed into nothing less than a
turgid, tortuous techno-rock trio. And my enthusiasm for
the band waned considerably.
So it was that after a garbled and inconclusive
‘Hemispheres’ review I decided to cop out, hand over
the helm to [fellow Sounds journalist] John Gill, jump
ship and
tread water
while Rush
steamed over
the horizon.
Which may
well be fine and
dandy. But at
the same time
I can hear you
ask, ‘If that’s all
true, then why
on Earth are
you talking – or
attempting to
talk – to Geddy
Lee now?
Well it
seemed like
a good idea
at the time.
Y’know, ‘writer
back on the
case after
three album
absence’ or
whatever. But right now, bearing in mind my tongue-tied
state, I’m really not so sure. You see, I’ve so much to say
and no idea which subject to raise first. Except maybe…
‘Hemispheres’ itself?
“Yeah, I remember your review.” Lee pipes up and
I realise I must have uttered the album title under
my breath. And our Ged, true professional that he is,
remembers the gist…
“You couldn’t decide whether the LP was the best or
worst thing we’ve ever done, isn’t that right?”
Yeah…
“That was the most disgusting case of fence-sitting I’ve
ever come across!”
WE BOTH laugh and suddenly, thankfully, with the ice
broken, the words start to flow. I mention that, to me, the
single most disappointing aspect of ‘Hemispheres’ was
the unsatisfying conclusion to ‘Cygnus X-l’. And from
here on in there’s no looking back…
Geddy: “It took a left turn, that tune. We did the first
part on ‘…Kings’ and that was great, but when we sat
down to write the second section we discovered that we
really didn’t know where to take it. But we’d already said,
‘to be continued’, so we knew we had to do something…”
I was expecting some sort of gargantuan Star
Wars epic set to music – not a heap of Greek god guff.
Geddy: “Neil [Peart, Rush drummer] had been working
on this whole Apollo/Dionysus theme for some time. It
wasn’t originally supposed to be part of ‘Cygnus’. But
then after several discussions we thought, ‘Well, maybe we can combine the two ideas and kill two birds with one
stone.’ And in the end we were quite pleased with the
way it went.
“But that album, ‘Hemispheres’, was a real nightmare
to make. We spent three months between Rockfield,
Advision, and Trident putting it together, and that really
took a lot out of us.”
Why was it so difficult to record?
Geddy: “Well, when we came over to write it, we really
didn’t know what we were going to do. It was one of
those ‘OK, let’s go to the studio and get it together’
things. And then we started working on it and what we
initially ended up
with was difficult
for us to even
play! So we had
to go through the
whole process
of composing
it, rehearsing it,
learning it, and
recording it all at
the same time,
and it just took
such a big hunk
out of all of us
that by the end
of it all we didn’t
know what it
was sounding like
any more.
“We knew we
were happy with
it and pleased
with what we’d
done, but we
couldn’t see it
in its proper
perspective – we’d
just spent too
long on it. But, by
the same token, I
think that the LPs
following it were
consequently
much easier to record. We thought, well, we’ve done the
epic thing to death now, it’s time to get our heads clear
of that, just brush it all away. Which is what we did with
the next couple of albums.”
Even as it stands at the moment, you’ve enough
massive works in your repertoire to enable you to play a
12-hour set… If, of course, you wanted to.
Geddy: “It came to a point where we had to make a
major decision. We had to ask ourselves what we wanted
to do. Did we want to become known as a band that
just does epics? Doing a 20-minute tune is good for us
as musicians, it’s a real challenge. And as a songwriter
you really have to pace your material. It’s a lot of work,
and it’s really good to get your technical things and
your craft together. But conceptually, we thought it
was all getting a little bit stale. That’s why we decided
to assimilate all these many, many experiments that we
call albums and see what we could come up with just as
good songwriters. And that’s when I think we found a
happier place to be.”
‘MOVING PICTURES’, Rush’s most recent studio LP, is the
best example of this new, more concise way of thinking. Tracks like ‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Red Barchetta’ clock in
around the ‘mere’ four-to-six-minute mark and yet still
manage to say an enormous amount.
Geddy: “Feel is becoming so much more important
in our music. ‘’Moving Pictures’ is the first LP we’ve
recorded that we can sit back and listen to and say, ‘Hey,
this doesn’t sound forced in any way. It’s just, like, real
natural’. Before, we used to worry about staying on one
groove too long, we used to chop and change things,
add lots of special effects. And before we knew where
we were we had this kind of monster song on our hands.
“Now I think we’re beginning to appreciate staying in
a groove, and
then maybe just
shading that
groove a little
bit… that’s where
we’ve been
concentrating
our energies.
And I like it
myself, I think
doing what we’re
doing makes
for much better
rock songs.”
In the future, is
there any chance
of a return of the
sword and sorcery
number?
Geddy: “It’s
unlikely to be
honest with you,
Geoff. That’s the
difficult thing
about being a fan
of a band – any
band. I’ve done
the same sort
of thing myself.
You sort of tune
into a group
in a particular
moment, you’re
drawn in by the material they were playing at that
particular stage in their career.
“But from our point of view, we can’t stay in that
moment. That’s why so many groups break up. They
figure, ‘well, we’ll keep on doing the same thing.’ But
after a while they become bored and complacent and
stop caring about what they put on record. And their
audience stops caring, too.
“We decided we want to stay together because we
like working with each other. We reckon there are lots
of things we can handle in the musical rock scope,
eventually. So every once in a while we take a turn off
on to a side road or something. Just to keep things
interesting, you know?”
ONE TRACK of particular interest on the ‘Moving
Pictures’ album is ‘Limelight’. Reading Neil Peart’s lyrics,
there seems to be one massive case of stage fright
going on…
Geddy: “I don’t know if it’s so much stage fright.
Playing in a band, you have all these millions of things
expected of you. And you sit there, and you try to
remember why you’re wading through all these interviews and why all these people are demanding part
of your time.
“Finally you go, ‘No, it’s all bullsh*t. The reason I got
into a band was to play, and play for people. And the
trouble is, most of the time you’re in the limelight it
becomes very difficult to keep a hold of and recognise
this fact.
“Neil wrote the words to that song at a time when
we were becoming more and more successful, and we
were finding it increasingly difficult to keep everything
in perspective. And you know how people make you feel
guilty when you start turning down interviews, or you
don’t want to have your picture
taken, or you haven’t got time to
do this or that. I think Neil had
something to say to himself, to
reaffirm to himself that, ‘Yeah, my
priorities are still right. I’m here to
play in a band.’
“So many people get hung up
on the other aspects of being in a
band, in the limelight, which from
our point of view is the garbage
side of the music business. And
because of the kind of band we
are, I’m sure that if we did get
involved in that other side too
much, it’d be detrimental to our
music and affect our psyche,
our wellbeing.
“The basic and most important
thing is that we still enjoy
ourselves, playing with each
other onstage and writing songs.
Sometimes, as with ‘Limelight’,
you have to throw out these little
statements just to get the feelings
out of your system and make
yourself think, ‘OK, I’m still in the
right place and I can continue on.
In a way it is stage fright, but it’s
also fear of getting involved in
something that could harm your
career. This sort of thing affects all
of us, especially Neil, who’s not a
very public person…”
A fact reflected by his current,
almost reclusive reluctance to
pose for photographs.
Geddy: “It’s all part of the same
syndrome. We don’t want to
emphasise our faces, our offstage
personalities. We just want to emphasise the music we
play. Keep it the way it’s always been.”
Aren’t the band taking all this a little too far, though?
The pictures on the inner sleeve to the current live
album ‘Exit… Stage Left’ are unidentifiable as Rush group
members. Guitarist Alex Lifeson’s face is obscured by
his arm, Peart has his back towards the camera and is
almost obscured by assorted timpani, and Lee is just a
murky blue silhouette.
Geddy: “That was sort of accidental, but in the end it
worked out real well. We just picked the photographs
we thought were neat and different. But I take your
point. And after all, it’s a complete departure from our
previous live double, ‘All The World’s A Stage’, where you
opened up the cover and, wow, there were three pages
of pictures of us in action on stage. This time we wanted
to be a little more subtle.”
But the pictures could be of almost anybody.
Geddy: “That’s the beauty of it. Having said that,
there’s no preconceived plan to hide our faces, but by
doing it this way we’ll be around as a band for longer.
Which is what we want.”
CONTINUING ON the subject of the sleeve to ‘Exit…’
for a moment, I couldn’t help but notice your printed
statement that ‘for reasons
beyond our comprehension, we
[Rush] have become increasingly
more popular.’ Surely you can’t
be that baffled by your steadily
growing success.
Geddy: “We are baffled in
some respects. In others we’re
not, because we can see what’s
going on, the wheels turning, the
machinery making you bigger.
“But you know before
the ‘Permanent Waves’ album took
off the way it did we were quite
happy the way we were. However
with ‘…Waves’ it was suddenly a
case of – pow! – and we’re sitting
there going, ‘Why did all this
suddenly happen?’”
Obviously it was something you
were working towards, though…
“I suppose so. But like I said,
before ‘…Waves’ we weren’t exactly
feeling uncomfortable. There was
nothing wrong, we were making
gold records, doing big shows all
over the world… everything was
fine. Then we just abruptly got so
much bigger and, truthfully, we
really couldn’t figure it out.”
Bearing in mind the tedious
‘fascist’ jibes of the past, was it a
conscious decision on your part
to call the live album ‘Exit… Stage
Left’ and not ‘Exit… Stage Right’?
Geddy: “No. Actually the whole
title came from a character in
an American cartoon called
Snagglepuss. He’s a great little
creature, a lion, and every time
there’s trouble he flees, uttering ‘Exit… Stage Left’ or
‘Exit… Stage Right’.
“But the fact of the matter was that the album cover
picture was taken from stage left. And coincidentally
that’s the direction in which Snagglepuss runs most of
the time. I suppose if we’d called it ‘Exit… Stage Right’ it
would have made the [UK music weekly] NME a whole
lot happier.
“And by the way, I’m right-handed. Did you know that?”
WHY THE decision to release a second live album?
Geddy: “It was just that the time felt right. If you
listen to ‘All The World’s A Stage’, we’re just a power trio on there, no other
instruments at all. Since
then we’ve gone through
a whole new development
in our live show that
wasn’t represented on
record. That was the real
motivation behind it.”
If ‘All The World’s A
Stage’ was a milestone to
mark the close of chapter
one in the annals of Rush,
does ‘Exit…’ signify the
end of chapter two?
Geddy: “I’ve been
thinking about that. The
end of chapter one, if
you want to put it in
those terms, was very
preconceived. I don’t
know if I could say if we
even thought about it
that way this time around.
“‘Exit…’ may well mark
the end of another –
ahem – era, but I think
these days we’re letting
things happen more
naturally. Earlier we were
hungrier, a little naive
maybe. We wanted to
beat the world, swim
upstream, that kind of
thing. Now we have a
more relaxed approach,
we just let it flow. The
next studio LP could
mark a radical change…
we just don’t know yet.”
Reggae is just one
new musical influence
creeping into Rush’s
music. Did you believe
that onstage beginning to
‘Working Man’?
Geddy: “That’s just the beginning of, like I was saying
earlier, paying more attention to feel. Listening to reggae
and the funkier new music that’s been coming out
recently, I think at last we’re beginning to appreciate
what the word ‘feel’ really means.
“It’s coming out in reggae because that’s the most
obvious way it can do so right now, but I’m sure there’ll
be other styles coming to light in our music in the future.
And believe it or not Geddy is a big fan of the muchmaligned
‘New Romantic’ movement.
“Spandau Ballet, Visage, Ultravox… there’s some good
music going down. The thing I really like is that the bands
concerned are being highly creative, they’re applying feel
to technology with synthesizers, and it all sounds really
positive. It’s a happy music too, the whole antithesis of the
punk movement which got too angry and hateful for me.”
Not many people in Geddy’s position as (maybe) a
heavy rock mega-hero would have the nerve to say that
kind of thing…
“I don’t know why. There’s nothing wrong with
recognising good music, even if it’s not to your taste all
the time. As a musician it’s my obligation to remain in
tune, in touch with what’s going on. If I want to remain a contemporary musician
– a debatable point to
some people, I suppose –
it’s something I’ve just got
to do.
“You’d have to be
considered a fool to ignore
good music, no matter
where it’s coming from.”
AND RUSH today do play
good music, there’s no
escaping the fact. Earlier
in the evening I’d watched
them play a mammoth
two-hour set – a feast
of hard-hitting hypercomplexity
delivered
with considerable poise,
elegance, and (thankfully)
nary a trace of po-faced
seriousness. A long way
from the band I saw
play their first-ever UK
date at Sheffield way
back in June ’77, to be
sure, but nevertheless
remaining recognisably
Rush through it all, what
with those idiosyncratic
Peart paradiddles,
jangly Lifeson licks, and
squeaky-clean vocals…
characteristics that
will undoubtedly shine
through any musical
form the outfit choose to
involve themselves with in
the future.
But I’d be fooling
myself if I didn’t mention
that I still hanker after
(snow) dog days of yore
and find it difficult to
wholeheartedly embrace
every aspect of this rapidly developing group.
To me, tracks like ‘La Villa Strangiato’ and ‘YYZ’
represent the worst aspects of the current Rush style.
The deadly doodling influence of these songs is at
times overbearing, making for convoluted, calculatedly
impressive instrumental breaks, and causing me to lose
sight of the band on several occasions.
It’s at times like these that Rush become nothing less
than a horrific hark back to the days of the early ’70s,
when cold ‘technique’, finger-flashing ‘expertise’, and
mind-boggling ‘musicianship’ were revered above all else
and for completely the wrong reasons.
But with that out of my system, it’d be doing the band
an injustice not to admit that there is a lot to enjoy in
the current Rush show – in particular, simpler stuff such
as ‘The Trees’, ‘Closer To The Heart’, and ‘The Spirit
Of Radio’, plus of course that compelling, cunningly
constructed ‘Stars On 45’-style greatest hits collection
that closes the performance proper.
All of which means that, yes, after deserting the cruise
liner I’m now back on board. But rather than being down
below, I’m standing on deck holding my nose and with
my life jacket inflated. Just in case…
THE JOHN PETRUCCI INTERVIEWThe Dream Theater guitarist believes that Rush were everything!
JOHN, WHAT FIRST TURNED YOU ON TO RUSH?
“When I was in junior high school all my friends were
huge Rush fans. They also played instruments, and of
course pretty soon I started to cut my teeth as a guitar
player. It was crazy, because in my neighbourhood on
Long Island in New York there were lots of bands and
players, and the common thread was that everyone loved
Rush. Our local rock radio station WBAB played their
songs a lot, so early on I heard ‘Tom Sawyer’, ‘The Spirit
Of Radio’, and ‘Limelight’.”
DID IT TAKE A WHILE FOR YOU TO BECOME A
HARDCORE RUSH FAN?
“After I got turned on to the radio stuff I remember
a buddy playing me ‘The Trees’ from the [1978]
‘Hemispheres’ album. That was the moment when Rush
really hit home. Suddenly I realised, ‘Oh, wow… it’s a lot
deeper than I thought.’ To this day ‘Hemispheres’ is my
favourite Rush album. I was drawn to everything about
it; the sound, the look of the band, the style of music.
‘Hemispheres’ was a huge influence on both me and
Dream Theater.”
WHAT APPEALED SO MUCH ABOUT THE BAND?
“I was very drawn to the fact that Rush was a group that
wasn’t like anyone else. Despite the fact that they were
played on the radio, Rush were making very progressive
music that also included a storytelling element. Neil
Peart’s lyrics and the narrative nature of each song made
me think, ‘This is what music
should be.’ I got sucked into
everything the band stood for
with records like [1976’s] ‘2112’.”
WHAT WAS THE FIRST RUSH
SONG YOU LEARNED TO PLAY
ON GUITAR?
“I went all the way back to the first album [‘Rush’ from
1974], but even that stuff was really challenging. My
buddies and I would jam on songs from that first record,
and I think ‘Working Man’ was the first one I learned.
It was such a great jam number because it was more
rock-oriented, like Led Zeppelin, but even as early as that
Alex Lifeson’s solos were tough to remember. Even so,
it wasn’t long before I dived into the more complicated
stuff, trying to figure out what the hell the chords were
that he was playing.”
IS ALEX’S STYLE APPARENT IN YOUR OWN PLAYING
IN DREAM THEATER?
“Very much so because I’m very influenced by his chord
work. You can hear it all through my playing. If you
think about ‘Tom Sawyer’ [from 1981’s ‘Moving Pictures’
album], Alex uses these open-string figures that make
the strings really ring out, which in turn makes things
sound lusher. I’ve definitely taken some of that from him.
On the earlier stuff like ‘2112’ and ‘Hemispheres’, Alex
would combine rock and suspended chords. The sound
of big power chords with open strings over the top made
for a really three-dimensional sound, and I’ve always
been very into that.”
WHEN DID YOU FIRST SEE RUSH LIVE?
“The first rock concert I ever went to was Rush on
the ‘Signals’ tour at Nassau Coliseum in New York
State back in 1982. I was 15 years old at the time and I
distinctly remember feeling like my head was about to
explode while I was watching them. That night, Alex took
an incredible solo where he built things up perfectly
into a ridiculous crescendo. Even then I was completely
captivated by his phrasing, and the fact that his playing
was musical in a way that was really beautiful, and yet
reckless and raw at the same time. You can hear it in
songs like ‘The Spirit Of Radio’ and ‘By-Tor And The
Snow Dog’. I’ve tried to combine beautiful and raw a lot
in Dream Theater.”
RUSH IS KIND OF PROUDLY NERD ROCK, RIGHT?
“Yes, and I wear that badge with pride myself! I used
to have a denim jacket in middle and high school, and
I remember there was a Rush patch on it. The one
and only time I met Geddy Lee was on a broadcast
called That Metal Show with [famous metal DJ] Eddie
Trunk. I brought the jacket along to show him. All the
way from being a kid growing up on Long Island to
becoming a full-time professional musician, I’ve always
been proud to geek-out on Rush.”
SO YOU GOT TO MEET GEDDY. HOW ABOUT ALEX
AND NEIL?
“Sadly, I never met Neil, but I did get to meet Alex once,
and he was great. It would have been amazing to get
to know all the guys from Rush, especially while they
were still touring, but for some reason I never got the
opportunity to do that. Not being able to meet Neil is
a big regret, because he was a tremendous influence
on me as a lyricist, and still is. The phrases he came up
with are etched into my brain
forever like a kid scratching his
name on a school desk. I can
quote all of his stuff.”
FANS LOVE THE FACT THAT
RUSH’S SOUND CHANGED A
LOT OVER THE DECADES. IS THERE A PERIOD YOU
CONNECT WITH MOST?
“The period from the late ’70s into the early ’80s will
always be special, because that was when I first got into
the band. ‘Hemispheres’ is the Rush album for me, but
I also listened to albums like ‘Permanent Waves’ [from
1980] and ‘Moving Pictures’ religiously. I’d go to see Rush
live every time they came to town during that period.”
YOU SAY YOU SAW THE BAND LIVE A LOT, SO DO YOU
HAVE A FAVOURITE RUSH LIVE ALBUM?
“They put out a lot of live albums, but it’s the two earliest
ones, ‘All The World’s A Stage’ [from 1976] and ‘Exit…
Stage Left’ [from 1981], that I always go back to. That’s
probably because my buddies and I always listened to
them when we were growing up. We geeked-out like
crazy on those records.”
CAN YOU EXPLAIN EXACTLY WHAT RUSH MEANS
TO YOU?
“That band means an awful lot to me and always has.
When I’ve made decisions with Dream Theater, both in
terms of business and creativity, I’ve often asked myself,
‘What would Rush do?’ They always seemed to make
good decisions, and they did everything with such class.
It was easy to be led by their example.”
HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED WHAT YOUR LIFE
MIGHT BE WITHOUT RUSH?
“There’s no doubt about the fact that I wouldn’t be the
musician or guitarist I am without Rush’s influence. Their
impact on me has been huge.”
THE KIM THAYIL INTERVIEWThe Soundgarden guitarist on why Rush’s constant quest for change inspired him…
KIM, WHAT ARE YOUR EARLY MEMORIES OF RUSH?
“I was maybe 14 or 15 and growing up in Seattle and
hadn’t heard much Rush on the radio because I was
mainly exposed to Top 40 stuff. But it was the ’70s, and
cultural transitions were on the rise with what would
become known as ‘classic rock’. When I learned about
AOR programming on the radio and what went beyond
pop singles, that’s when I got into Rush.”
WAS THE CONNECTION IMMEDIATE?
“I had friends who were listening to rock records, smoking
pot and drinking beer that their big brothers had got
them. They were in school bands and Rush was a big part
of that. Even though I wasn’t a big stoner it was natural
that Rush’s music became meaningful to me. They always
seemed to be a band that was for people who were a bit
more knowledgeable, that whole subculture thing.”
WHAT WAS THE FIRST RUSH RECORD YOU GOT INTO?
“‘2112’. It was this big opus with several different themes,
something a band like Yes might do. But there were
moments of heavy rock guitar that appealed to me and
that I understood. At the same time there was something
deeper in there than a lot of music that was coming out
at the time. I’m a big record collector and that geeky side
of the band really appealed, especially because they were
still kind of heavy. But the first Rush album I got deeply
into was the ‘All The World’s A Stage’ live album.”
WHAT WAS IT ABOUT ‘ALL
THE WORLD’S A STAGE’ THAT
RESONATED WITH YOU?
“I saved my lunch money for
weeks to pay for it, and it pretty
much followed a pattern I’d
established with Kiss where
you’d get the live record first, and then the live record
made you want to go back and listen to the early stuff.”
SINCE YOU’RE A GUITAR PLAYER, ONE WOULD
ASSUME THAT YOU WERE IMMEDIATELY DRAWN TO
WHAT ALEX LIFESON WAS DOING…
“I hadn’t fully picked up on the guitar at that point, so it
was the band’s overall sound that did it for me initially. But
there was something about Alex’s playing that I liked, just
like there was something about Sabbath, Kiss, and Ted
Nugent that I liked. There was a heaviness and a rhythmic
groove with distortion that took me some time to
understand. But once I got it I thought it was really cool.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY ALEX LIFESON INFLUENCE IN
THE WAY YOU APPROACH GUITAR?
“Alex’s guitar solos are weird and ornate. A lot of the time
you’re wondering exactly what he’s doing. I was drawn
to his cool riffs, but I never really got into learning any of
Alex’s stuff. It took me a long time to understand what his
approach to the guitar was, but yes, there are definitely
some of his playing nuances present in my style.”
WHAT WAS YOUR VIEW OF GEDDY LEE’S VOCALS?
“It took me a bit of time to get into Geddy’s singing, but it
was the same for me with Led Zeppelin. I had a hard time
adjusting to high-pitched stuff. I was more into singers
like Gene Simmons, who had voices that sounded like
grown-up men. I liked the idea of heavier vocals paired
with distorted, loud guitars. When I first heard Geddy, the
vocals didn’t sound heavy. It took me time to get used to
that not-so-subtle side of his singing style.”
WHAT WAS THE FIRST RUSH RIFF YOU LEARNED?
“Probably ‘Working Man’. But once I learned how to play
I gravitated more toward punk rock because I wanted
something I couldn’t find on conventional radio. I still
had a strong affection for hard rock, but I’d gotten past a
certain caveman mentality. I wanted to expand outward.”
DID YOU SEE RUSH LIVE?
“When many of my high school friends – friends I’d end up
in Soundgarden with – were going to see Rush in the early
’80s, I was out watching groups like the Ramones and
the Dead Boys. I finally got to see them maybe around
10 years ago, and ended up hanging out with the guys
afterwards. It was a wonderful evening.”
YOU EMCEED A FEW OF GEDDY’S BOOK TOUR EVENTS
LAST YEAR. I ASSUME YOU BECAME GOOD FRIENDS…
“When I first saw Rush all those years back I got to hang
with Geddy and Alex, and we ended up drinking a bunch
of wine. It was wonderful because there was something
civilised and witty about them. They’re so grown up and
so smart, but at the same time they’re like playful kids.
We all love wine, baseball, the same television shows,
literature; it’s amazing. They’re great guys and such good
people. They’ve never been afraid to reinvent themselves,
and I really respect that. They’re very authentic people.”
IT APPEARS YOU’RE UNAFRAID TO FLY THE RUSH
NERD FLAG WITH PRIDE!
“There’s a little long-haired,
burnout kid in me who’s forever
a nerd. I’m a rock guitarist, but
I’m also the son of immigrants
and a child of divorce. So maybe
that’s why Rush appealed
to me during my youthful
misadventures. And as I’ve got older and gone through
different stages of life, their fearlessness about changing
their sound, look, and vibe has always inspired me”
SOUNDGARDEN WAS A BAND THAT DEVELOPED
AND CHANGED TOO…
“Definitely. We always felt we should play for ourselves
just like Rush did. It’s important to make music you like
and want to hear. We always felt our audience should feel
the same, which is something you see with Rush fans. We
never tried to be someone else or be a different type of
band. We did exactly what we wanted to.”
ARE THERE ANY ELEMENTS OF SOUNDGARDEN
THAT YOU THINK COMPARE WITH RUSH?
“A big aspect of our band was having a strong drummer
in Matt Cameron, and he was certainly influenced by Neil
Peart. All great drummers look to Neil. Rush always played
a huge part in the Soundgarden conversation, not least
because they inspired us to be a great guitar band.”
IS THERE A SPECIFIC ERA OF RUSH THAT APPEALS?
“Some say Rush made a few missteps in the ’80s, but
they were taking risks, which I think is cool. They weren’t
looking to appeal to a broader audience. They were
challenging themselves. A lot of bands make sh*t music
where they’re pandering to a particular thing. Some people
didn’t like Rush’s more keyboard-oriented direction, but
I liked the risk-taking in the songwriting, the way they
incorporated different elements. They went back to guitar
rock in the end, but it was nothing to do with Spandex and
Aqua Net. Rush always had their own vision.”
THE ZAKK WYLDE INTERVIEWThe much-respected Black Label Society guitarist and vocalist explains why Rush is still on his radar…
ZAKK, WHAT FIRST DREW YOU TO RUSH?
“My guitar teacher when I was first learning to play.
When I was in school there were two Rush albums –
‘Permanent Waves’ and ‘Moving Pictures’ – that were just
massive with everyone who was into music. Two songs in
particular, ‘The Spirit Of Radio’ and ‘Tom Sawyer’, were
everywhere. As is often the way, once I’d got into those
two records I went backwards and listened to all the
older stuff. By the time I got to the first album [‘Rush’] I
was definitely a hardcore fan.
I’VE READ THAT ‘THE SPIRIT OF RADIO’ WAS THE
FIRST PROPER RIFF YOU LEARNED ON GUITAR
“It was. I’d been trying to work out other stuff, but that
was the first real lick I learned in full, from top to bottom.
That was like a major breakthrough for me as I’d been
listening to and trying to play stuff more like ‘Back In
Black’ by AC/DC, easier, riff-oriented things. When I
finally managed to nail ‘The Spirit Of Radio’, that was
when I realised what an amazing guitar player Alex
Lifeson was.”
DID IT TAKE A LOT OF TIME FOR YOU TO FULLY
UNDERSTAND RUSH?
“It was all about the guitars for me at first. That was
always what drove me to check out any band, no
matter what their level of technical ability was. But
what Rush showed me was that nothing else truly
matters if the music itself doesn’t move you. It was
obvious to everybody with
ears to hear that the guys in
Rush were great players, but
it was the music they made
that really touched me. Great
musicianship is awesome,
and I’m always excited by a
technically excellent player. But
if the music’s a mess, then who
really cares?”
WHAT WAS IT ABOUT ALEX’S STYLE THAT INITIALLY
CAUGHT YOUR EAR?
“At first I loved guys like Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin,
and on early Rush records you can definitely hear some
Page influences in Alex’s playing. So that’s what drew
me to him initially. But I soon realised that Alex had
pretty quickly managed to develop great technique and
phrasing that was all his own. I’ve also always loved his
chord voicings, because as soon as you hear them, you
just know it’s Alex Lifeson. To me that’s a hallmark of
a genuinely great player. They have their own distinct
sound. Alex’s style is pretty different from mine, but his
influence is there in what I do, no doubt about it.”
DID YOU GET OBSESSIVE ABOUT RUSH?
“Definitely. Music fans are often like sports fanatics who
pore over stats. We notice the smallest details and keep
track of them all. When you’re into a band you learn all
the historical stuff and you go deep. I can remember
when I was young that there would be kids arguing
about which version of ‘YYZ’ was better, or which Rush
show was more awesome, New York or Philly. The nerd
factor was very real with Rush, but maybe that’s a part of
liking any progressive band.”
WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF RUSH IN CONCERT?
“I’m sad to say that for some unfathomable reason I
never got to see Rush live. I wish I had, but it just never
happened. I loved the ‘Exit… Stage Left’ and ‘All The
World’s A Stage’ live albums, though. I listened to both
records a ton while I was in high school, imagining
what it would be like to be in a concert hall somewhere
watching Rush in the flesh. ‘Exit… Stage Left’ came out
while I was in school, and it was a huge record for anyone
who liked their music heavy. I’d be hanging out with my
friends listening to it all the time, and it was like what
I imagine Kiss’s ‘Alive!’ or Peter Frampton’s ‘Frampton
Comes Alive!’ was for kids in the ’70s. We listened
to ‘Exit… Stage Left’ and ‘Moving Pictures’ constantly.
Those albums were massive for me.”
RUSH’S MUSIC CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY FROM
DECADE TO DECADE. DO YOU HAVE A PERIOD YOU
CONNECT WITH THE MOST?
“When the ‘Signals’ album came out [in 1982] to be
totally honest I thought that was the end for Rush
because it was so different from ‘Moving Pictures’
and ‘Permanent Waves’. I loved the band’s earlier stuff
but figured that the massive success would be over after
that. They didn’t even stay in the same zip code as those
records as the ‘80s unfolded, and that really threw me
off. But in the end I came to hugely appreciate what
they were doing, and looking back I think making those
changes was awesome. I feel close to ‘Permanent Waves’
and ‘Moving Pictures’, but I stuck with Rush for their
whole career. The keyboard stuff was cool and showed
that it was OK to evolve. There aren’t too many rock
bands out there that had the
guts to follow their instincts
the way Rush did. They seemed
to have an unshakeable
faith that their audience was
sophisticated enough to
embrace change and to trust
the band’s instincts. The great
thing is that they were proved
right in their assessment over a
number of decades. That impressed me.”
DID YOU MEET ANY OF THE GUYS IN RUSH?
“I never got to meet Neil Peart and to date I’ve never met
Geddy Lee. But I did get to meet Alex Lifeson one time.
It was at some sort of award show, and he was hanging
out upstairs in the office area. I had to go up there to do
an interview and it was very cool that Alex was in the
same space. We chatted for a bit, and he was super cool
with me. I’ve lucked out big time in that whenever I’ve
met any of my heroes, people who’ve heavily impacted
my life, they’ve all been incredibly cool people. I’ve never
had a bad experience, which is great because I suspect
that if you do, then you can’t listen to that person’s music
anymore. Alex was super sweet, an awesome guy.”
WHAT DOES RUSH’S MUSIC MEAN TO YOU NOW?
“Just like with Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Cream,
I honestly wouldn’t be doing what I do without Rush.
Those guys created a truly legendary band, and their
music made a huge impact on my life. I play metal
music, which Rush didn’t really do after the first album.
But all the same Rush’s combination of heavy rock with
all of those incredibly progressive elements was really
important to me. Their music is stellar and the reason I
say that is because pretty much all of Rush’s catalogue
of work is still really interesting to listen to after all this
time. I’ll always love that special soup that Alex, Geddy,
and Neil found. I loved those ingredients.”
THE MARTY FRIEDMAN INTERVIEWThe top-level shredder offers a different take on the band
MARTY, WHEN DID RUSH FIRST COME INTO YOUR
MUSICAL WORLD?
“The first song I ever learned on guitar was by Rush, and
Rush is not usually the type of band that most beginner
guitar players start off playing. But there was a song
off ‘Caress Of Steel’ – ‘Bacchus Plateau’ [part of ‘The
Fountain Of Lamneth’ suite] – that only had three or four
chords in it, and my friend could play it. I was like, ‘If he
can play it, then I can probably play it too.’ So my friend
showed me the song, and suddenly I had my first threechord
song. But it wasn’t the Ramones; it was Rush.”
THE MUSIC MUST HAVE HAD A BIG IMPACT ON YOU
IF IT WAS THE FIRST THING YOU LEARNED
“That’s not true, actually. Rush is a perfect example of
the type of band I respect immensely and admire greatly
but have a close-to-zero interest in in terms of the music
I make myself. They’re absolutely everything I love about
musicians, bands, and artists in terms of how they conduct
themselves and their talent. I admire everything about
that, but they’re not really my type of music.”
THAT’S INTERESTING. CAN YOU EXPLAIN YOUR
RESPECT FOR THEM A LITTLE MORE?
“Well, Rush’s accomplishments are fantastic. They’ve
brought intelligence to the Joe Sixpacks out there. They
have normal people listening to really deep, intelligent
music, and I find that extremely inspiring. They’re fantastic
role models, musicians, and artists.”
SURELY ALEX LIFESON’S
PLAYING HAD AN
INFLUENCE ON YOU…
“Alex is a fantastic guitarist
who’s done incredible things
with the instrument over the
course of an amazing career, but I don’t see much of his
style in my playing. I like some of the band’s early stuff
like ‘Bastille Day’ and ‘Anthem’, and who hasn’t played
the ‘2112’ album in its entirety? But I couldn’t even tell you
what that first song I learned sounds like now.”
WHAT WAS IT EXACTLY THAT YOU DIDN’T WARM TO
WITH RUSH?
“What might have turned me off in the early days was the
fact that I was big into boogie rock, bands like Kiss and
Foghat. Rush did have a song called ‘In The Mood’ [from
the 1974 debut album ‘Rush’] that was right up my alley as
a kid. But what drove me crazy about Rush after that first
album was the fact that I felt Neil Peart was overplaying
on the drums, and it made me angry! I was like, ‘This dude
is ruining these great rock’n’roll songs.’ I felt that if you’d
had Roger Earl from Foghat playing their songs, I might
well have turned into a big Rush fan at the age of 15.”
WELL THAT’S A STRONG CONCEPT, GIVEN THAT
NEIL PEART IS RECOGNISED AS ONE OF THE ALLTIME
GREAT ROCK DRUMMERS…
“Of course I totally accept that Neil Peart was a fantastic
and influential drummer! Maybe I was just too young to
understand his technique. All I knew at the time was that
he was playing what I thought were the wrong beats! But
this is not a Rush-bashing session. I know that Neil Peart
influenced every drummer I admire”
SO IT WAS MORE A CASE OF NOT UNDERSTANDING
WHAT YOU WERE HEARING…
“Maybe so, and it’s really a matter of taste. For me, Neil
Peart came into his own once Rush stopped the hard
rock thing and went more into progressive pop. That’s
when Rush broke into the mainstream and really hit their
stride. But that’s only my opinion. I would have preferred
a straight-ahead rock drummer on the earlier albums,
but people go through growing pains and then go on to
become absolute legends. But what you do have to say
about Rush is that the drumming and the vocals made
for a truly original sound, and the band has my ultimate
respect for that.”
HOW DO YOU MEASURE RUSH’S OVERALL
IMPORTANCE IN MUSIC?
“It can’t be understated. Rush was the entry point for the
majority of musicians now playing progressive, difficult,
interesting and… I’m trying to think of the right word here,
because ‘technical’ is too broad a term. What I’m saying is
that for people who are doing stuff that’s instrumentally
mind-boggling, chances are that Rush was a big part
of their early musical experience. All this very fancy
progressive music that you have today, all of it comes
from that. Rush was the first band to introduce odd time
signatures, polyrhythms, and interesting motifs that just
didn’t exist in rock music before. If there were no Rush,
there’d be no Dream Theater, that’s for sure. None of that
stuff where people are doing advanced musical things
would be here.”
RUSH IS SEEN AS A KIND OF INTELLECTUAL ROCK
BAND, ISN’T IT?
“And Rush really allowed
average guys to up their
intelligence as listeners. There
was a time in my early teens
when Rush was being played
on mainstream radio, and even
my girlfriend liked Rush! She wasn’t a rock fan but she
was listening to this progressive music, so that speaks
volumes. It’s a huge accomplishment. I don’t know many
other bands playing that type of music that could reach
people in that way. Rush never dumbed anything down.
They raised the intelligence level for normal listeners.”
IS IT REALLY HARD TO PLAY RUSH STUFF?
“Yes and no. Take a song like ‘The Spirit Of Radio’. It starts
off with a guitar lick that sounds impressive to beginners,
but it’s really no big deal. But then what is impressive is
the drum fill that comes in right after that lick. At that
point you’re thinking, ‘What the f*ck is going on?’ That
was the most insane polyrhythmic drum motif, and the
song is being played on totally normal FM and AM radio
stations. That’s the magic of Rush. All of us musicians are
trying to reach as many people as we possibly can. To do
that with music that you want to make, without selling out
to fit a trend, is just amazing.”
FINALLY, WHAT HAS RUSH’S CAREER AND MUSIC
TAUGHT YOU?
“That you should never underestimate the intelligence
of the people who listen to music. Music industry people
really believe that dumbing down is the only way to reach
the mainstream. Rush proved that not to be the case.
They showed that there was a way to get people into their
music by being real, and by being high quality. Regardless
of how progressive my music might be, Rush remind me
that if I truly believe in it, then there’s never a reason to
dumb things down. There will never be another band like
them, and I respect them tons.”
THE MIKE PORTNOY INTERVIEWThe drumming legend on his love for the band and his cherished friendship with Neil Peart…
MIKE, WHEN DID YOU GET TURNED ON TO RUSH?
“I came to the band fairly late, right after ‘Moving Pictures’
in 1981. I’d previously heard songs like ‘The Spirit Of
Radio’, ‘Freewill’ and ‘Closer To The Heart’ on FM radio
on Long Island where I was growing up, but I never really
went for the band. I heard Geddy Lee’s singing and
immediately wrote Rush off as an AOR act like Styx or
Supertramp. But after ‘Moving Pictures’ came out I heard
the instrumental ‘YYZ’, and that song made me zoom in
on the band’s musicianship. It blew my mind and at that
point I fell for Rush big time.”
WHY DO YOU THINK ‘YYZ’ HAD SUCH AN EFFECT
ON YOU?
“Once the vocals had been stripped away I could focus on
the bass, the drumming, and the guitar playing. Suddenly
I was aware that these guys were literally the best at their
instruments. Neil Peart was the most proficient drummer
I’d ever heard, and Geddy’s bass playing was incredible.
‘YYZ’ spoke to me because right around the time when
I first heard it I was starting to get serious about playing
drums. Rush was the right band at the right time.”
DID HEARING RUSH CHANGE YOUR APPROACH AS A
YOUNG DRUMMER?
“Neil’s drumming was a total game-changer for me. Up to
that point I’d been listening to classic rock, and my drum
heroes were Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, and John Bonham.
When I heard Neil, a new way of playing opened up to me.
I fell in love with progressive
music and never looked back.
That period was probably the
most influential time of my
entire life. Neil became my
biggest drum hero, and in my
high school yearbook one time
I said that I wanted to become
the next Neil Peart! When we formed Dream Theater in
1985, Rush and Neil Peart were really the blueprint.”
DID YOU GET TO GRIPS WITH RUSH SONGS WHEN
YOU WERE FIRST STARTING TO PLAY?
“Between 1981 and 1986 I was obsessed. I literally learned
every Rush song inside out. I was fanatical about learning
every last nuance, which was challenging to say the least.
I started off learning songs like ‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘YYZ’.
Then I got to ‘Xanadu’ and ‘Cygnus X-1’, stuff like that,
and eventually, I undertook the challenge of learning all of
‘2112’, which was like an Olympic event!”
DID YOU GET TO SEE THE BAND LIVE DURING THIS
FORMATIVE PERIOD?
“I first saw Rush in December of 1982 on the ‘Signals’ tour
at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island and I snuck my
tape recorder in to make sure I got my own live recording.
The show felt like a religious experience. When Neil played
his solo it captivated the entire arena. Typically, drum
solos acted as a cue for people to go to the bathroom or
visit the merch stand. But when Neil played, everybody
stood there with their mouths open watching every move.
As a young drummer I was inspired to see someone who
could get that kind of attention at a big arena show.”
WHICH PERIOD OF THE BAND’S CAREER IS YOUR
GO-TO ERA?
“I always go back to the time between ‘A Farewell To
Kings’ and ‘Signals’, so 1977 to 1982 is my sweet spot.
Those were my formative years when I really had my
ear to the ground, and luckily for me that was when
Rush were making great records. I love what the band
did before then too, of course, and once I was on board
I stayed with them all the way through to the end. I’d
always pick up the new Rush record when it came out.”
SO WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE RUSH ALBUM?
“‘Permanent Waves’. For me it’s the perfect middle
ground between ‘Hemispheres’ and ‘Moving Pictures’. It
has incredible prog elements, but it also offers a taste
of the kind of streamlined, song-based stuff we’d get
to see more clearly on ‘Moving Pictures’. I’m a huge fan
of both ‘Freewill’ and ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ from ‘Permanent
Waves’, but I’m really into the ‘Exit… Stage Left’ live record
precisely because it covers my four favourite Rush albums
– ‘A Farewell To Kings’, ‘Hemispheres’, ‘Permanent Waves’,
and ‘Moving Pictures’.”
IS IT FAIR TO SAY THAT YOU’RE A HEAVIER
DRUMMER THAN NEIL?
“Dream Theater is certainly heavier, but there are also lots
of similarities between us and Rush because we’ve always
had prog elements in our music. I’ve always felt that
Dream Theater was a cross between Metallica and Rush.
My drumming is different from Neil’s because he didn’t
have those heavier elements, but there’s no denying that
I’ve made use of everything he ever did. Throughout my
entire career Neil’s been right there with me.”
IT’S BEEN WELLDOCUMENTED
THAT YOU
BECAME CLOSE WITH NEIL
PEART BEFORE HE PASSED
IN 2020. WHAT DID THAT
MEAN TO YOU?
“I was blessed and honoured to
develop a friendship with Neil
for the last 15 years of his life. I met him in the mid-2000s
when I interviewed him for a drum magazine from the
UK. I was able to geek-out and ask all the stuff I’d always
wanted to know. In the following years, Neil and I became
friends and wrote each other some nice emails. It was one
of the greatest honours of my life to have a friendship
with Neil and to be in his inner circle. It’s something I’ll
cherish for the rest of my days.”
HOW DO YOU MEASURE NEIL’S IMPORTANCE, NOT
JUST TO YOU BUT ALSO TO MUSIC OVERALL?
“It’s unanimous in the drumming community that Neil is
one of the most influential players ever. John Bonham is
probably the only other drummer who attracts that level
of universal respect, and that tells you everything you
need to know.”
FINALLY MIKE, CAN YOU SUM UP WHAT RUSH
MEANS TO YOU?
“I’ll always be in The Rush Club, and they will always be
an incredibly special band to me. I honestly don’t know
if I would have had the career I’ve had if I hadn’t been
influenced by Rush. They were absolutely vital in bringing
Dream Theater together. I can’t overstate the impact
Rush has had on my life, from when I first heard them
as a teenager right through to today. I’ve been doing
this for almost 40 years now, and no matter how many
awards I win or how many times I’m on the cover of music
magazines, I know that deep down inside I’ll always be the
same Rush fan who was in the audience air-drumming to
‘YYZ’ back in 1982.”
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