Music

Rush will probably never tour again

by Richard Howard

Following last summer’s R40 tour, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Neil Peart joining the band, Rush announced it would likely be their last ‘large scale tour.’ However, in a recent Rolling Stone  interview, guitarist Alex Lifeson revealed that it’s quite likely that the band will never tour again – at least not with iconic drummer and lyricist Peart. Lifeson explained the following about the R40 tour:

“Neil was prepared to commit to 30 dates and he told us that right from the very beginning. He didn’t even want to do the tour, to be honest with you. It’s been increasingly difficult for him, but he committed to the tour and we got through it. As far as he was concerned, that was the end of touring.”

Peart alluded to his retirement in December, saying his daughter would introduce him as “a retired drummer,” which was “true to say – funny to hear.” However, fans have been holding out hope that the legendary stickman might consider at least one more jaunt. From Lifeson’s comments though, there seems very little hope of that happening. Peart has spoke of wanting to spend more time with his family on numerous occasions, and Lifeson explained that physical constraints which emerged during the last tour have become a big factor as well.

“His shoulders were hurting, his arms were hurting, his elbows, his feet, everything,” Lifeson says. “He didn’t want to play anything less than 100 percent. He was finding it increasingly difficult to hit that mark on this last tour. So, all those things combined, I get it.”

While the guitarist didn’t rule out the possibility of further recording or one-off shows, he said those prospects are yet to be discussed. However, Lifeson remained optimistic, saying “We took a year off before the last tour and we didn’t discuss anything about the band or work, and everybody had a great time, and we came back from that… we’ll see.”

Unsurprisingly, the suggestion of Rush continuing on full tilt without Peart was met with a a bit of a laugh at the very idea: “Well, we have been saying that every 40 years, we fire our drummer and get a new one.”