"When I saw my first Rush concert, I spent the whole time watching Geddy's hands," Claypool told Bass Player Magazine. "There were so many things I didn't know; I didn't even know there were such things as roundwound strings. I'd had that Memphis a year and a half without changing the strings, and here I was trying to sound like Geddy Lee and Chris Squire." - Thanks to Matt Kelly for the headsup!
"Rush lead vocalist Geddy Lee is no stranger to Blue Jays fans. He’s been a longtime fan himself, and has attended hundreds of games through the good and not-so-good times. When asked about his fave game, the Toronto native knew right away: 'Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in Atlanta,' Lee said this week, just as the band was leaving Toronto for Tampa to open a tour. 'Sitting with my brother Allan and beside Candy Maldonado's dentist from Puerto Rico and the wives of the Blue Jay coaches...an island of Jays fans in a sea of Braves T-shirts, cheering in the top of the 11th inning as Dave Winfield hit a double off of Charlie Liebrandt to drive in two runs, which would lead to the Blue Jays capturing the Holy Grail, a long-awaited World Series championship. 'Truly the greatest Blue Jay play for me...Even the 1993 championship and Joe Carter's jaw-dropping home run could not compare to that spectacular moment in Atlanta." - TorontoStar, March 31, 2011
"Every week RUSH BACKSTAGE will draw two winners to win a pair of Meet and Greet passes to meet RUSH during the Time Machine 2011 tour. The winners will meet members of the band, before the show. These lucky people will have the opportunity to say hello and have their picture taken with the guys! In order to qualify to win the prize, entrants MUST already have in their possession tickets to a Rush Time Machine concert during the Time Machine 2011 tour. Rush Backstage will not be providing concert tickets to the winners." - Click here to enter
Update: Last August 31st, Heart released their album Red Velvet Car. The album was produced and engineered by Ben Mink and David Leonard respectively, both of whom had the same credits on Geddy Lee's My Favorite Headache."...an inside joke between Ben Mink and Nancy Wilson...Nancy heard some hi pitched thing in 'Death Valley' and Ben said 'it's probably Geddy whistling'. They gave Geddy credit. That's the story." - David Leonard, September 2010.Nancy Wilson recently discussed this in more detail on New Mexico's KZZR radio:
"When Ben was mixing Red Velvet Car, Geddy Lee was around, and he got the voice of Geddy Lee hidden in the beginning of the "Death Valley" song. It's sort of a secret signal from Geddy." - Nancy Wilson, KZZR 94rock.com, March 24, 2011
RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage has won the 2011 Juno for Music DVD of the Year:"RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage, which offers a rare glimpse into the world of the Canadian rock stalwarts, has won Music DVD of the Year at this year's Juno gala dinner and award ceremony held tonight [March 26] in Toronto.The acclaimed documentary - which features the likes of Dave Grohl, Gene Simmons, and Billy Corgan speaking on the influence of the mighty rockers known as Rush - stands as the second consecutive win in this Juno category for filmmakers Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen (the duo of Banger Films walked away victorious last year thanks to 'Iron Maiden: Flight 666')." - Spinner.com, March 26, 2011
"Beating out the Broken Social Scene flick This Movie is Broken - arguably their biggest competitor - Dunn and McFadyen were in high spirits back stage at the press conference following their acceptance speech. 'Everyone kind of came out of the Rush closet,' Dunn said of making the doc. 'The musicians and fans have wanted something like this for a long time'." - Spinner.com, March 26, 2011
In addition, on Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were on hand to present the Album of the Year Juno to Arcade Fire for The Suburbs. Here is an audio clip of Geddy and Alex's presentation speech! - thanks to Shane Stevens for sending this recording!
While on tour last October in Chile, Pixie's drummer David Lovering was seen wearing a Rush Fly By Night tshirt. Currently gearing up for a Canadian tour celebrating their 1989 album Doolittle, in a new interview with the Montreal Gazette, Lovering acknowledged Neil Peart as one of his greatest influences:"...A bigger surprise comes when the subject of their influences is raised. Lovering acknowledged reverence for John Bonham, 'any drummer who played for Steely Dan' and especially Rush's Neil Peart. 'When I first started playing for the Pixies, I was doing a lot of fills, believe me, just like Neil would do. It took a long time and a lot of concentration to keep it toned down,'" - MontrealGazzette.com, March 21, 2011
"We've been working on this for quite some time — a few years, really. The Axcess is a great platform, I think, because it has certain things that the traditional Les Paul doesn't. You know, the light weight, getting the vibrato arm on there, the changes that we made with the piezo pickups, the separate outputs — you know, it's a great utility guitar. I looked at it in terms of, 'What do I need? Instead of switching through 14 or 15 guitars during a show, how can I pare that down, like, where I can get everything — as much as I can — into one guitar?' And this is really what it is." - Alex Lifeson, Gibson.com, February 18, 2011
"We have found, over the past years, that we usually gt a great turnout when our event coincides with an actual Rush concert. It's the perfect way to celebrate this band that we love, with the fans that we cherish. Without a Toronto show this summer, combined with the incredible time we had in Las Vegas last year, we thought it would be best to keep the con around the same time as a concert." - For more information visit RushCon.org
"A highlight for Parton while a student at SCI was the time Rush, the iconic Canadian rock band, performed at the school. Actually, they performed at the school twice. The first time was in September 1970 and then again in April 1971.
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