Today, the band Rush made an announcement their fans thought would never come: There will be another tour, albeit a small one. The band’s drummer and lyricist, Neil Peart, died from glioblastoma in 2020. Their final show was at the L.A. Forum in 2015. With the blessing of Neil’s widow and daughter, Geddy and Alex have welcomed Anika Nilles to play drums for their mini tour. As of right now, they are scheduled to play only eleven shows in seven cities. Five of those cities are in the U.S., a country I’m currently unwilling to travel to, for political reasons. The Toronto show doesn’t fit my schedule, but perhaps I’ll be able to see them in Mexico City. I need to talk to my wife about that.
Since I was fifteen, Rush has been my favorite band. I never imagined I’d become one of the few people to interview all three members.
Despite living in Calgary, in 2010 I became the fitness columnist for the Los Angeles Times. A year later I was getting ready to travel to Vancouver to see Rush for their Time Machine Tour. I mentioned to my editor, Rosie, that I was going to the concert three days hence and thought the drummer would make for a good fitness interview because he was fifty-eight-years old and still played these amazing three-hour shows and had recently been named the world’s “greatest living drummer” by Rolling Stone. Rosie, who I will forever adore for giving me my first big writing break, said to go for it.
At the time I didn’t realize how much of a long shot it was. Neil had long been parsimonious in the granting of interviews.
I did some googling and located the name of a representative at Rush Management and sent her an email. She got back to me the following day saying I hit the “trifecta” needed to get an interview: I was writing for the Los Angeles Times, which is where Neil had made his new home, I was a fellow Canadian, and because I wanted to talk fitness. It turned out that Neil was a big fan of fitness and had been eager to talk about his regimen, and I was the one who asked.
The LA Times made it into a big feature piece that was 1,800 words long and had a big photo spread. I knew going into the interview I had to keep my cool. The Rush documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage covers how Neil hated the hero worship that came with his job, so I made sure I was professional throughout, asking questions and seeking answers so I could write a good piece. It was because we were discussing a topic he was passionate about and was excited to discuss, coupled with me giving no indication of internally geeking out over meeting a music hero, that Neil was friendly and animated in our discussion.
My best friend and I had good seats for the show, but the band representative gave us tickets for the middle of the front row. The feature photo is me, several beers deep, from that show.
The article was a massive hit. I snuck in a lot of Rush lyrics, and I received several grateful emails from fans of the band. Then I got it into my head that I would make it my mission to interview Geddy and Alex as well. It took a bit of time.
I harangued my contact at Rush Management over the ensuing years. During their final R40 tour I was finally able to get ten minutes with Geddy on the phone to talk about his fitness regimen for my column .
Geddy was tired from the long tour and wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic about fitness as Neil was. Geddy told me he worked out lots because he had to, or his body would fall apart. One of the things Geddy said to me about working out, something that didn’t make it into the article, was, “To tell you the truth, I fucking hate it.” That piece ran in the LA Times the same day that Rush performed their very last show, which as I mentioned was in the same city as the newspaper I was writing for.
Note: Before you click this link, a warning. The LA Times has a paywall, and you get one free article per month. My recommendation is that you read the Neil Peart interview linked previously. The Geddy interview is much shorter and in Q&A format. I’ve appended Geddy’s interview at the end of this post. BUT, if you happen to have an account with the LA Times, then here is the link to the Geddy interview.
Alas, Alex Lifeson didn’t really have a fitness story, and I stopped writing for major publications in 2020 when I switched to writing history. I figured I was never going to get all three. And that was a drag, because Alex was always my favorite member of Rush. Guitar has always been the instrument that speaks to me the most and I love the way Alex plays.
Back in 2011, after my interview with Neil, I went on CBC Radio to talk about the interview the day it ran in the Times. One of the things we discussed was not geeking out when interviewing a celebrity we admire. I mentioned that I had a job to do, and besides, I said, “Alex is my favorite member of the band. I might have geeked out if it had been him I was interviewing.”
Despite having done several dozen celebrity interviews since that first one with Neil, and always being professional, I did geek out a bit.
How did the interview finally happen? Since Rush has been so influential to so many bands, I deemed that the day Neil Peart joined the band (July 29, 1974) was worthy of an “On This Day in History Shit Went Down” story. In the spring of 2021, I saw someone mention the name of Donna Halper in a Rush Facebook group, and I decided to follow her on Twitter. Donna, if you don’t know, is credited with having discovered Rush. In 1974 she was a DJ for a rock station in Cleveland, and she started playing their music, leading to the band getting a record deal and a U.S. tour.
Then Donna followed me back.
I sent her a message saying I’d interviewed Neil and sent her the piece. She told me she loved it, and we started chatting back and forth. Donna had gone on to do a PhD and became a media historian in Boston. I sent her a copy of the first volume of my Sh!t Went Down book. She was grateful and replied, “If there is anything I can ever do …” Knowing she remained close friends with Alex and Geddy, I said, “Well, perhaps there is …”
Alex gets people asking for interviews for blogs all the time, and he says no all the time. But I guess being acquaintances with Donna and my actually having a professional writing background with major publications, she talked him into appearing in my lowly Shit Went Down column. I interviewed Alex for it on Bastille Day, which if you’re a Rush fan you’ll understand the significance.
I want to talk about geeking out for a moment, and the problem with it.
It was critical I not do so with Neil as he was known to end interviews abruptly if that happens. Ever since, I’ve prided myself on keeping my composure no matter who I was interviewing, even Cameron Diaz. I remember being at a press conference in L.A. when the 300 sequel came out. Lena Headey and Eva Green were at the front, and all these other writers in the room were blathering about how awesome they were and not actually asking any questions. It was an absolute shitshow and I was embarrassed for them. At one point, Lena got pissed and said, “Is there a question here?” I finally got my chance and pointedly asked a real question of the director, and afterward he came up and put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Thanks for that.” We exchanged a knowing glance, because no more needed to be said. We both understood how the celebrity worship was out of control.
When I interviewed Alex, on the phone, I did my job. It took me about ten minutes to get the quotes I needed, and then we were done. But being that this was the entertainer I admire more than any other, and probably my last celebrity interview ever, I permitted myself a moment of effusiveness.
“I just want to say that your solo on ‘Between the Wheels’ is probably the greatest piece of music I’ve ever heard,” I said. He replied with, “Thanks. I like that one too.” I think maybe he felt a little weird about it. Oh, well.
And then the interview was over. It took ten years, but I finally got all three. Go me.
The story was first self-published in Volume II of On This Day Sh!t Went Down, but then I got a big two-book deal with Bantam Books and we reworked Volume I, which was published in 2023. I knew I wanted the story to be in that first volume, so I swapped it in. You can read the story of Neil’s audition for Rush, as told to me by Alex, here.
Of course, I’d really love it if you bought both volumes. You can find links to buy here.
And don’t forget to:
Here is the promised Geddy Lee interview:
For Rush’s Geddy Lee, Touring Means Training
Saturday night at the Forum, Canadian rock trio Rush takes its Los Angeles fans on a trip back through time. It’s often said that the band makes a big sound for having only three members, and for more than four decades 62-year-old lead singer and bassist Geddy Lee’s double duties have been straining the limits of machine and man.
Lee never wanted to show his age on the lighted stage, and the only way to make one’s body similarly reverse the flow of time is to move it. The rocker has long been a fan of fitness, but more for the results than the workouts. To keep his body from becoming an old machine, Geddy must regularly fire up the willing engine.
How did fitness start out for you?
I was a pretty bookish kid, mostly a couch-potato loner. I wasn’t an athlete but got turned on to tennis in my early teens and became quite fanatical about it. Alex (Lifeson, Rush guitarist) and I played a lot; it was handy because we were on the road together, and we would always bring our tennis gear.
But I found that when I’m prepping for a tour and working out and playing tennis, it puts undue stress on my elbow. Two tours ago I started getting tendinitis and decided the one thing I could give up when touring is tennis, so I stopped playing and everything is fine now.
I understand tendinitis wasn’t the only tennis misadventure you’ve experienced.
It was the day after a tour about six years ago and I called my buddies to play some doubles, and I tore my meniscus in my knee within 20 minutes. I had surgery that repaired it, and the rehab went well and the knee is fine now. I was due to have some surgery on my other knee, but I opted instead to fix it through training. I have a great relationship with my trainer, and we worked hard to strengthen my lower body and the rest of my leg.
How was it that you started working with a trainer?
I began working with a trainer about 20 years ago because I started having back problems on tour. I have to balance on my left leg while playing pedals with my right foot and holding a heavy bass and crooking my neck to sing. So I was putting undue stress on one side of my back, and my trainer determined there was an uneven level of strength, so we started working on that to even things out.
Can you describe your regimen for me?
I train quite hard four times a week. I have an elaborate stretch routine that I begin every session with, doing 30 minutes of stretching and mat work and foam rolling to get ready. Then it’s 30 minutes of upper body one day and 30 minutes lower body another day. I lift weights and use my own body weight. Also, one day a week I do Pilates, and it’s been good for my core. When I started Pilates I was getting pains in areas I didn’t know I had muscles.
I have to say I don’t enjoy training. For me it’s a necessary evil because I’m an active person whether I’m preparing for a tour or not. My wife and I do a lot of travel and walking and biking, and I refuse to give into the ravages of time.
What effect has this training had on your performances?
It’s been night and day for the stage performances. Working out has been such a benefit to my life in general, but on stage I have much more energy and flexibility to do the activity I like to do on stage. And, more importantly, at the end of a show I’m not completely done in like I used to be.
Again, please by my sweary On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down books, and also:
There is much excitement in my household about this!
This is a sensational story. Rush is my favorite band, and I devoured every word. Great work James! And they're coming to my hometown, Fort Worth, next June!