Geddy And Alex On "The Screen Savers"

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson appeared on the Tech Channel's The Screen Savers, (DirectTV's channel 354), Friday February 21st; the episode can now be viewed on the ScreenSavers website.

"Rush's Mystic Rhythms: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of the rock band Rush talk about tech and music. From its 1974 debut album to present day, the hard rocking yet cerebral Canadian band Rush has collected dozens of awards and throngs of loyal fans. Watch Friday's episode of 'The Screen Savers' to learn how these hard rockers use technology in their music and personal lives." - The Screen Savers

Godsmack's "Serenity" Inspired by Peart's "Ghost Rider"

"The song was inspired by a book I read by Neil Peart, Ghost Rider: Travels On The Healing Road, and it's about the tragedies he went through. The poor guy lost his wife and kid within a 10-month period, his dog died, and then his best friend went to prison for dealing weed when he was supposed to go out with him and ride his motorcycle to just clear his head and help comfort him. He had been through so much, he just got on his motorcycle, and within 14 months drove 55,000 miles — from Canada to Alaska, to America, to Belize, Mexico, back to Canada — and basically journaled out this thing about how he tried to heal himself and not put a noose around his neck. It's just an amazing book, and he meaning I got out of it was so inspirational, because I'm thinking, 'God, if a guy can get through that kind of @#%$, why should I @#%$ about anything?' That's pretty heavy duty. So I got this beautiful song, and the cool part to the story is, I got to meet Neil Peart and hand him this song and ask him to play drums on it. Though he had to decline because they were touring and stuff, he wrote me back a letter and signed my book, wished me the best of luck, and kind of gave me his approval on the song, because I was really nervous about it. For one, he's one of my drum heroes, and for two, I didn't want him to feel like I was prying into his life on such a sensitive subject." Godsmack vocalist Sully Erna, Metal Edge, March 2003

Rush Inducted Into Canadian Music Hall of Fame

Rush was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Feb. 27th, 2003. Only the second band to be inducted, the award acknowledges Rush's contributions to the growth of the Canadian Music Industry.

"Rockers Rush and artist manager Bernie Finkelstein will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame next February, Canadian Music Week organizers announced Wednesday. While inductees are traditionally chosen from the business and executive ranks, officials thought the contributions of Rush and Finkelstein to the growth of the industry needed acknowledgment." Jam! Showbiz, October 2, 2002

The Spirit of Radio - Greatest Hits (1974-1987)

Mercury/Universal has issued another compilation album to cash in on the success of Vapor Trails. Like its predecessors, Chronicles and Retrospective I & II, The Spirit of Radio - Greatest Hits (1974-1987) is the third compilation to cover material from the first 12 studio albums.

With a tracklist similar to Chronicles (all songs on this "Greatest Hits" are also on Chronicles), where Chronicles was a 2 disk compilation showcasing at least two songs per album, this single disk compilation has room for an average of only one song per album (making this sort of a "Chronicles Highlights" disk). Unfortunately, although three songs were included from Moving Pictures, and two each from Permanent Waves, Signals and Hold Your Fire, there are no songs from Caress of Steel begging the question, "where's 'Bastille Day'"?

The Japanese release also includes a bonus cd containing two bonus tracks, "A Passage To Bangkok" from Exit Stage Left and "What You're Doing" from All The Worlds A Stage, two live tracks which were omitted from the original cd releases of those albums, also previously included on Chronicles. In this age of Internet downloading, to entice fans to purchase the cd, the first 100,000 produced include a bonus DVD sampler of the Chronicles DVD collection, containing videos of "Tom Sawyer", "Closer to the Heart", "Subdivisions", "Big Money" and "Mystic Rhythms", plus lyrics to all the songs on the album. - Feb. 11, 2003

"...part of a contractual thing with Paul Egram with Mercury Records from our previous deal with them, which expired in 1990. So they have the rights to do a number of greatest hits or packaged records." - Alex Lifeson (AT&T Celebrity Chat, Feb. 10, 2003 [besides the new cd, Alex discusses the Vapor Trails tour, his son's album(!?) Contact, and more]).

"We did not have a lot of input in this. This was mostly a record company project. Our opinions were made known and they were very cooperative about doing good packaging for us." - Geddy Lee (USAToday.com chat, Feb 5, 2003 [Geddy also discusses the upcoming Rio DVD, and the next studio album]).

Rush Drummer Finalist For Literary Award

"Rush drummer Neil Peart was nominated for a Canadian literary award Tuesday for his book on his emotional recovery after the deaths of his wife and daughter. Peart's book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road is one of the nominees in the biography prize category of the second annual Great Literary Awards sponsored by the Writers' Trust of Canada. The awards will be presented March 6 at Toronto's Arts and Letters Club." - CBC Arts News, Feb. 11, 2003

Neil Peart Speaks With Zildjian

"Awhile back my friends at Zildjian asked me if I would contribute something to their magazine or website. Being in the middle of the Vapor Trails tour with RUSH at the time, I asked if maybe they could send me a list of questions in an interview format, and I would try to find time to scribble out some answers. I never got past the first question… 'Who was the first drummer who inspired you to take up the instrument? Who were some of your early drum influences?'" - Neil Peart, Zildjian.com. - January 28, 2003

The "Ghost Rider" featured in Cycle World, February 2003

Neil Peart only gave two interviews during the Vapor Trails  tour, one for "Modern Drummer", the other for "Cycle World".  Neil is  interviewed by the magazine's Executive Editor, Brian Catterson, who is  also a life long Rush fan.  Catterson met up with Neil after the  Albuquerque show of the Vapor Trails tour, and rode with him on a  "Ghost Rider-esque" motorcycle adventure the following two days en  route to Salt Lake City.  Catterson writes upon his trepidation of first meeting Peart:

"as I approached the tour bus door, there was only one Rush lyric on my mind...'I can't pretend a stranger is a long awaited friend'. And so it was with more than a little apprhension that I knocked. An anxious few moments passed, and then Neil himself threw open the door and greeted me with a warm handshake and a smile...Not surprisingly the TV in the bus was tuned to the Weather Channel. Looking at the forecast, I noted that it read, 'Ceiling Unlimited'...'Yes, that's where that came from,' Neil said, smiling. 'You're the first person to make that connection.'" Catterson later tells of dining in Moab, "I could feel myself regressing, the inquisitive journalist replaced by the teenage Rush fan I used to be. A teenage Rush fan sitting across the dinner table from Neil friggin' Peart!" After the Salt Lake show, Catterson was backstage to say goodbye to Neil, "he encouraged me to keep in tourch via e-mail, and then, out of the blue, said, 'Aw, give old Neil a hug.' So much for that whole 'stranger' thing..."

Vapor Trails

Vapor Trails, Rush's 17th studio album, was released May 14, 2002 (May 13th in Europe, May 12th in Japan). Produced by Rush with engineer Paul Northfield, the album's first single, "One Little Victory", debuted Friday, March 29th, and climbed to #22 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart its first week. After the first week, the album climbed to #6 with sales of 111,199, while Soundscan reported it as #3 of the Top 100 albums in sales/#1 among the Top 50 Metal Albums.  For more information visit the Vapor Trails News Archive.