Geddy Lee Had to ‘Tread Carefully’ When Writing About Neil Peart

This previous November, Geddy Lee launched his memoir, My Effin’ Life, which (clearly) sees him going into nice element about his time with Rush. Throughout a current interview with BBC Radio 6 Music, Lee mirrored on why writing about drummer Neil Peart’s 2020 passing was notably “troublesome” and dangerous.

Chatting with host Craig Charles (of Pink Dwarf fame) final month, Lee admitted that it was difficult to debate Peart’s loss of life within the e-book. About an hour into their chat, Lee defined:

It was very troublesome, and I needed to be discreet however trustworthy about my perspective, you recognize? My perspective is barely mine; it isn’t the attitude of his household, his family members, his daughter, and so forth. That is theirs, so I needed to tread rigorously, however I feel it was useful for me and I feel persons are to know what – what occurred between [Rush’s] last gig in 2015 and . . . Neil’s passing.

So, I did my finest to be trustworthy and respectful of what Neil would have okayed me to speak about and to color the portrait of what a courageous particular person he was by way of all of the difficulties of these previous couple of years and the way he all the time would say, “Mustn’t grumble.” He nonetheless was very a lot a thinker proper as much as the top, so I inform these tales. I share a number of the conversations [and] a number of the e-mails we despatched forwards and backwards to one another throughout a really troubling time.

I hope followers perceive that . . . in a manner, it is my homage to him and, you recognize, the 40-plus years we spent working, laughing and loving collectively, I suppose you may say.

READ MORE: Rush’s Geddy Lee Displays on the Final Time He Noticed Neil Peart

Afterward, Charles wonders if there was “a falling out” following Rush’s final present, or if the band was “simply on a hiatus” earlier than planning to get “again collectively once more.” Candidly, Lee responds:

Nicely, [Neil] retired in 2015, and that was a tough and bitter tablet for Alex [Lifeson] and I to swallow. Though Alex was having well being problems with his personal, he nonetheless wished that final tour to go on, you recognize, longer, as did I. We had been very pleased with the “R40” tour, and I particularly wished to convey it to the U.Okay. ‘trigger we now have so many good followers there, and to Germany and to Holland, the place we now have some actually diehard followers. However, [Neil] had solely agreed to do 30 exhibits, and we needed to honor that settlement ‘trigger he wasn’t gonna do any exhibits earlier than that tour, and he acquiesced.

In fact, we held out hope that he’d change his thoughts and he was having a lot enjoyable that he would say, “Oh, come on. We’ll do one other 20 gigs.” However, it wasn’t meant to be. [Neil] was having just a few well being issues of his personal differently, and I feel that sealed the deal for him. So, on the final gig, we had been fairly divergent in our moods. There was a dressing room that Neil was in that was ebullient and completely happy that he was about to retire and enter this different part of his life along with his spouse and his younger daughter.

Then, you had Alex in my dressing room the place we had been sort of down within the dumps as a result of we knew this could possibly be the very finish of our band. So, it was, um, conflicting feelings throughout that time frame, and . . . it was solely a 12 months later that [Neil] was identified with glioblastoma mind most cancers. In fact, none of that mattered anymore. That was a moot level then.

In reference to Peart, Charles then asks, “Biggest rock and roll drummer that ever have existed, would you say?” Jovially, Lee replies: “Nicely, he’s actually one in every of them. He was my favourite, however I’m biased [Laughs].”

You may hearken to total episode right here.

Final month, Lee informed New York’s Q104.3’s Jonathan “JC” Clarke that taking part in the 2022 Taylor Hawkins Tribute Live shows was “one of many biggest reminiscences of [his] lifetime.” As for if and the way he and Lifeson will write songs collectively once more, Lee says that they do “plan to put in writing some songs collectively, however [they] don’t know in the event that they’ll be any rattling good, so we’ll see what occurs.”