Rush News

"From Cradle To Stage" by Virginia Hanlon Grohl (featuring Geddy Lee's mum!)

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Congratulations to Stewart Gilray of West Yorkshire who was the first to confirm all the correct answers to my contest questions below.  The answers are: 1) What is a Foo Fighter: an unidentified object (UFO) as reported during WWII; 2) Who played on the Foo Fighter's first album? Dave Grohl played all instruments on their first album with the exception of one guitar part; and 3) Name one artist who made Dave Grohl cry, and briefly tell where/when this happened: Grohl said Neil Peart made him cry when serving him coffee at Rush's Rock Hall Induction.

From Cradle to Stage, the new book by Virginia Hanlon Grohl hits bookstores April 25th. The mother of Grammy-winning rock star Dave Grohl, Virginia retired from a thirty-year teaching career, then jumped on tour buses and planes to travel to rock shows throughout the U.S. and Europe with her son and the Foo Fighters. Her next tour, travelling to meet the mothers of other stars, provided the profiles for her first book, From Cradle to Stage.  As she watched her son's star rise, she often wondered about the other mothers who raised sons and daughters who became rock stars. Were they as surprised as she was about their children's fame? Virginia often wondered about the mystical force that urges some of us to listen, to play, to surround ourselves with music. She wanted to talk about it with the other mothers whose sons and daughters were sharing stages with Dave, and she decided to seek them out wherever they were. So began a two-year odyssey, where she had conversations with such women from all over the world. One of the chapters in the book is dedicated to Geddy Lee; in it Virginia interviews Ged's mother, Mary Weinrib, about what influenced their child to choose a musical career, and the prevalence of music in their family home.  Click to order.

Rush, Sarah McLachlan, Adam Cohen & More Canadian Artists Talk Marijuana Legalization

Yesterday on 4/20 Billboard posted "Rush, Sarah McLachlan, Adam Cohen & More Canadian Artists Talk Marijuana Legalization":
Billboard asked more than two dozen Canadian artists what they thought of Trudeau’s vow to make marijuana legal, and -- if they are all for it -- if they could name a strain, what would it be called and what would it cure or be good for?...Singer/bassist Geddy Lee at first offers Lerxst Kush as their strain name. "That’s him,” he says of guitarist Alex Lifeson. “That’s his nickname.” But then Lifeson comes up with Lerxst Couch instead. “It’s not my forte,” says Lee, “But it is his.” “It is my forte,” says Lifeson. What would Lerxst Couch cure? “It would cure boredom,” says Lifeson. “I was going to say it would cure ambition,” says Lee, laughing. “That’s more appropriate,” Lifeson agrees, laughing too.