Rush bassist and singer Geddy Lee recently shared a new story about his earliest days with guitarist Alex Lifeson, recalling how an off-hours hang turned into an unexpectedly chaotic rehearsal once marijuana entered the picture.
Speaking with Louder Sound, Lee said his first joint came from Lifeson while the pair were hanging out ahead of a rehearsal for another band, and he described becoming extremely intoxicated before realising he still had to show up and play.
According to Lee, Lifeson accompanied him across a park “walking in slow motion” as they made their way to the rehearsal space. When they arrived, the drummer immediately noticed Lee’s eyes and reacted sharply, leaving Lee uncomfortable and eager to leave rather than try to push through the session.
“[Lifeson] was the one who introduced me to it,” Lee said. “I was playing in this other band whose drummer was a Who freak – he dreamed of being in The Who. Me and Al were hanging out… and he gave me my first joint. I got so f**king stoned.”
“Suddenly I went, ‘Sh*t, I have to go to rehearsal!’ Al came with me, and we were walking in slow motion across the park,” he continued. “I got to the guy’s house, and he looked at me and went: ‘Look at your eyes, man. Are you stoned?’ He was freaking out like you’d expect your parents to freak out.”
Lee added that he asked Lifeson how to come down from the high, and Lifeson advised him to drink Coca-Cola. The two later laughed about the episode, with Lee saying it became part of how they bonded early on.
Lee explained how the situation became uncomfortable and how Lifeson tried to help him come down from the high.
“I was like, ‘This is a bummer, man! Al, this guy’s a drag!’ I said, ‘I gotta go home. How do I come down from this stuff?’ And [Lifeson] went, ‘You gotta drink Coca Cola. It brings you down,’” Lee recalled. “So, yeah, we kind of bonded over marijuana.”
The anecdote sits alongside other memories from their long partnership, including the period when Rush were blunt about how rough a reunion rehearsal sounded while revisiting material years later.
Lee and Lifeson first met as teenagers in Willowdale, a Toronto suburb, and their friendship became the foundation for Rush’s five-decade run. While Lee’s new recollection is lighthearted, it underlines how far back their personal rapport goes—and how those early, messy moments helped cement one of rock’s most enduring creative partnerships.
