Rush's Alex Lifeson on new music with Geddy Lee: "We're both eager to get back together"

After admitting he didn't “feel inspired and motivated” to play guitar following the passing of Rush bandmate and drummer Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson's zest for music appears to have been reinvigorated.

In a new interview with Make Weird Music (reported by Consequence of Sound), Lifeson reveals that he and bassist Geddy Lee are “both eager to get back together and kind of get back into that thing that we've done since we were 14 years old”.

“After we finished the last tour in 2015, I started just writing on my own and doing some stuff,” Lifeson recalls. “Geddy was working on his book. We talked about getting together and doing some stuff together, but it got very, very busy for him, even after he finished writing the book – taking it on the road. 

“So we never got a chance to sit down and start working or just having some fun together. We still talk about it, and I’m sure we will.

“Of course, now with the pandemic,” he continues, ”it’s kind of wrecked things for a bit. But we’re both eager to get back together and kind of get back into that thing that we’ve done since we were 14 years old that we love to do. And we work really, really well together, so we’ll see what happens with that.”

Lifeson goes on to elaborate on how he dealt with Peart's death. “As you can imagine, we were very, very close. You lose anybody that’s close, it’s a profound thing. 

“And I think both Geddy and I expected to be better with it. Neil was sick for three-and-a-half years, and no-one really knew about it. Well, lots of people knew about it, but it wasn’t public, the information. So we thought that we would be prepared for the end when it came, and we weren’t. We both really struggled with it.

“For me, that first year of grieving is the milestone, and once you get past that, I think you, I don’t know, it’s an anniversary that you process, and it becomes a little easier to handle. 

“With Neil, I’m always seeing pictures, and I’m always reminded of him, and all that stuff, and that was difficult, but now that it’s [been] a year, I find that I think of the good times that we had together more than the sadness.”