During an April 1 appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson was asked if he would follow his bandmate Geddy Lee’s example and write a memoir. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I think [Geddy is] on his fourth book now. So he’s got the bug, and he loves doing it. But he warned me. He said you’ve gotta be careful because you devote all this time and effort to research and write and really think about what you’re doing, especially for [Geddy’s book] ‘My Effin’ Life’ — that’s his life story — but you’re torn apart by publishers with editing and their fears of being sued and all of this stuff. And it just sounded like — I don’t know if it’s worth it to me to spend my time to do something like that.”He continued: “If I was to write a book, I think I would write a book — like my wife says, ‘You should write a book about road stories because you tell those road stories when people are here for dinner and everybody’s just crying with laughter. Why don’t you just put all of those in a book? It doesn’t have to be very long, but just a lot of fun stories about those 40 years on the road.’ And I thought, ‘Yeah, you know what? That’s not a bad idea.’ And then I kind of forget. [Laughs]”RUSH drummer Neil Peart died in January 2020 after a three-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 67 years old.RUSH waited three days to announce Peart’s passing, setting off shockwaves and an outpouring of grief from fans and musicians all over the world.Since Peart’s death, Lifeson and Lee have not recorded any new music or performed live under the RUSH name, although both of them confirmed that several drummers reached out to them in the days after the legendary drummer’s passing about the possibility of stepping in for Neil.Lifeson made his mark on the music industry over 50 years ago, redefining the boundaries of progressive rock guitar. His signature riffing, copious use of effects processing and unorthodox chord structures befitted him the title by his RUSH bandmates as “The Musical Scientist.” While the bulk of Lifeson’s work in music has been with RUSH, he has contributed to a body of work outside of the band as a guitarist, producer and with the release of his 1996 solo album “Victor”. Lifeson ranks third overall in the Guitar World readers’ poll of “100 Greatest Guitarists” and is also included in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time.”ENVY OF NONE, the band featuring Lifeson, Andy Curran (CONEY HATCH),Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne, released its second album, “Stygian Wavz”, on March 14 via Kscope.Photo credit: Richard Sibbald (courtesy of Kscope)
