In a brand new interview with the A.V. Club, RUSH bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee revealed that he would “definitely” consider making a follow-up to his solo 2000 album “My Favorite Headache”. Lee stated about what it was like writing an album without his longtime RUSH bandmates Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson: “That was a real interesting period for me. It was tough, because I had planned to do some jamming with my dear friend Ben Mink, who is an amazing musician, producer, and songwriter in his own right, and a violinist and guitarist. Because we had been friends for so long, and we had never actually made a record together aside from him playing on the song ‘Losing It’ from our ‘Signals’ album, we had always planned that some time when the band was on a break, we would just get together and start writing together and see what happened. We were planning to do that, and suddenly tragedy struck Neil’s life. His daughter was taken from him in a car accident, and everything got really weird and it was just a horrible period. So I decided after a few months this idea of working with Ben might be a real tonic for me, because I didn’t know really whether there would ever be another RUSH album. I had no idea; it was not something we were focused on, and people get through tragedies in different ways. I was kind of going crazy and needed something to focus on, so this project that was sort of in the back of my mind with Ben suddenly became critical so we started getting together in my home studio in Toronto and I would go to his place in Vancouver and over a series of months we gathered a whole bunch of material together and then we decided to go for it and make the record.”
Lee was recently asked about RUSH’s future plans following this year’s “R40” live dates, which were billed as the band’s last major tour. He said: “Well, it’s a difficult question to answer; it’s always emotional. But at this point, we’re not able to agree on doing more tours. So at this point, it doesn’t look possible for another tour. But I would say that, being an optimist and a patient person, I hope that that will change. I know that we’ve talked about more music as RUSH, and that is certainly something possible. There are other ways of presenting our music to the public, and that’s possible. But we haven’t discussed it since the end of the tour.”
He continued: “The end of the tour was quite emotional for us as well. We didn’t really know what it meant — whether we would be back there looking at all your smiling faces again. I love touring, and I’m ready to go on very short notice. But my life is simpler than my partners’ lives. And Neil [Peart, drums] has a complicated life — he has a young daughter, a new family that he really feels pain to leave, and I understand that. And he has physical issues when you play like a monster for three hours and the body is not cooperating with him, and it’s very hard for him. And he pays a price. Like, there are times when you see him backstage in the middle of a tour and he’s really suffering. So he’s not sure he’s got the fortitude to continue playing like that. But maybe there’s an answer down the road, after some time. And that’s why we’re trying not to be hasty and making any big conclusions. We’ll just let everybody be and everybody find their center and see if we can come together with some plans.”
RUSH released the “R40 Live” concert film on November 20.
RUSH recorded and filmed “R40 Live” over two sold-out shows in the band’s hometown of Toronto at the Air Canada Centre on June 17 and June 19, 2015 in the middle of their “R40 Live” 35-date North American tour.
“R40 Live” had the trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart, performing a career-spanning live retrospective, celebrating their 40-plus years together. The epic live shows by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Famers were captured with 14 cameras to present the band feature-film style.
Source: Blabbermouth
