Rush guitarist remember’s Neil Peart’s final days
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson recently reflected on the time he spent with Neil Peart before the drummer’s death, noting that one of those evenings inspired him to write a song in honor of his late bandmate.
In 2015, Rush concluded its groundbreaking, nearly five-decade-long career with a triumphant final show at The Forum in Los Angeles. This performance marked the culmination of their farewell R40 tour, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of Neil Peart’s arrival in the band.
Tragically, five years later, Peart lost his battle with brain cancer, bringing an end to one of the most brilliant careers in rock drumming and extinguishing any hopes of seeing Rush perform again.
Alex Lifeson opens up on Neil Peart’s illness
Given the nature of their relationship, Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee were aware of their bandmate’s condition. Lifeson recently shared in an interview with Guitar Player that he spent afternoons at Peart’s home in Santa Monica during that time.
Following Peart’s passing, Lifeson couldn’t bring himself to play music for a year. However, after he made his first tentative steps with Envy of None, he decided to dedicate a song titled “Western Sunset” to those afternoons he had spent with Peart during the drummer’s final days:
“That song came about around the time we all found out that Neil was ill,” Lifeson reflected.
“I was visiting with him and I was sitting on his balcony in Santa Monica. He had a little balcony off his office and he’d go out there every so often and have a smoke. There were times in the afternoon where the sun was setting, and there was this particular time when the sun was setting through the trees, filtering through the branches and the leaves, and far off we could see the ocean and the hills of Malibu.”
Alex Lifeson describes closure of a sunset for Neil Peart
Lifeson discussed the closure of a sunset, and how it encapsulates life and death:
“It really struck me that there’s this closure in a sunset. It’s the end of a day, and sure, tomorrow a new day begins. But the sunset marks the end of one day, and that day is not going to be there anymore.”
“That thought occupied me for some time. And I just thought it was such a serene, peaceful moment, at a time when we were dealing with something that was very painful and difficult. That really stayed with me.”
“When I started working on the song, I thought about the whole idea of a western sunset, being there in California with Neil and watching the sun set. I wanted to try to re-create the serenity, calmness, and peace that I felt in that moment. As the song developed, that was the key thing in my mind.”
Lifeson also recorded the song with a custom PRS Angelus acoustic, of which he said:
“They made me a few with different woods and various depths and body styles. I miked it with, I believe, an Earthworks SR25 microphone, which is great, and that went through a Neve 1073 preamp/EQ into the Universal Audio 1176, and from there into my Universal Audio Apollo x4 interface, and into Apple Logic Pro, which is my main recording platform.”
