Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Alex Lifeson revealed that he has been jamming Rush songs with Geddy Lee as of late. According to him, they “sound like a really, really bad Rush tribute band.”

Lifeson said the following:

“We decided that we would play some Rush songs. Because, you know, we haven’t played these songs in 10 years. We started that a couple of weeks ago. We get together one day a week over at his place. We just picked some Rush songs and we started playing them and we sound like a really, really bad Rush tribute band.

Trying to figure out the songs, I’m thinking, ‘Why did we write that so difficult? Why is this so hard to play?.’ “After about three run-throughs of all of these songs, muscle memory kicks in and your hand just goes to where it goes. You sort of get out of the way and you play and you go, ‘Thank God, I did make this simpler than it felt.’

By the way, Rush songs are hard! So our fingers are getting limber and our calluses are building up again.”

Despite this, he also added that the band are not planning to tour again:

“I’m 70. It’s not as easy to get my fingers to do what my brain tells me to do. They’re much lazier than they used to be and they have a poor memory. Doing this really helps a lot, and it’s fun. That’s it. The whole thing was that in the beginning, it was just fun. We’re having a riot together doing that. There’s no rhyme or reason. We’re not planning on going back on the road, finding a new drummer or anything like that. It’s just fun to do it.”