Since Neil Peart’s passing in 2020, there has been a lot of questions as to if Rush will ever continue on without him. In recent interviews, both Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee have made it clear that they have no interest in reviving the band, saying that Rush is defined as all three of them on stage and that without Peart it can never be “Rush.” That hasn’t stopped Lifeson and Lee from getting together to play music, however, revealing last year that the two of them often get together for jam sessions.
After Lifeson and Lee took part in the 2022 Taylor Hawkins Tribute concerts in honor of the late Foo Fighters drummer (where they performed live for the first time since Peart’s death, with Dave Grohl, Chad Smith, Danny Carey, and Omar Hakim subbing in on drums), they began to have an urge to play again.
In a new interview with Classic Rock, the two musicians discussed their ongoing jam sessions, saying that playing together is doing them a lot of good.
“It’s good to jam with friends as you get older. I need to play. Once a week I go to Ged’s – it’s in the calendar – to keep my fingers moving, play Rush stuff, new jams. We do record it, but I couldn’t even begin to tell you where it’ll go,” Lifeson said.
Lee then chimed in, attempting to play down those sessions, but didn’t deny that they may eventually turn into something bigger:
“Al and I are lifelong friends. We jam together once in a while, it’s true. That’s all I want to say about that right now.”
In January 2024, Lifeson spoke to Ultimate Guitar about the possibility of performing with Lee again:
“Maybe soon we’ll find the time to sit down and see what happens. Maybe nothing happens. Maybe it’s not there anymore. Maybe it’s gonna be amazing. I don’t know. We’ll see. Honestly, it’s not a priority for us. We’re happy in our lives, so it’s not like we need to go back to something.”
“That’s my fear, that would be the expectation – this is like, ‘Rush II.’ But by necessity, it has to be something different. And it can never be Rush. Without Neil, it can never be Rush. That’s it, it’s over. But you know, you never know what can happen. So, we’ll see.”
