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Geddy Lee’s opinion on the Stones’ bassist Bill Wyman
Rush is one of the most influential Canadian bands of all time and the bassist, singer and keyboardist Geddy Lee was a crucial part of the band’s sound, alongside guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer/lyricist Neil Peart.
But the first instrument he was truly passionate about was the bass guitar and he is an avid collector. Over the decades, he has spoken about many famous bass guitarists, including the original Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman.
What is Geddy Lee’s opinion on the Stones’ bassist Bill Wyman
Geddy Lee is a huge fan of Bill Wyman’s playing and in fact it was a Rolling Stones song that made him join the first good band when he was a young kid. The musician recalled that in an interview with Q Tom Power in 2019, when he was promoting his “Big Beautiful Book of Bass”. Lee had the chance to interview Wyman for it and see how interesting the musician was.
“(Wyman) invented the first fretless electric bass. He is what I call a stay-at-home bass player, you know. He shows the flourishes and guys like me, he takes a little dig at me at the end, he does, about being a busy bass player (play faster and more notes). I can take it, it’s fine. (Bill) was a fascinating chap (to interview) from so many perspectives. First of all, the very first part I had to play to get a gig in a band was ‘2120 South Michigan Avenue’ (Stones song).”
“In my little neighborhood, if you could play that bass part you were cool. So I learned that bass part, got to be able to play with real other players of equal unprofessional status. So that stayed with me, that’s sort of where it all began for me.”
Geddy Lee continued:
“(…) When you sit with Bill to talk, he wants to talk about anything else other than bases. So I had to keep bringing him back to the electric bass because he’s such a fascinating character. He has written numerous books, he invented his own metal detector, (he is) an amateur archaeologist, a butterfly photographer and a novelist. He is one of the only musicians who ever threw a hat trick (playing Cricket), he loves to talk about that,” Geddy Lee said.
The instrumental track mentioned by Geddy was featured on The Rolling Stones 1964 EP “Five By Five”. Curiously the song is credited to Nanker Pheige, which was the name used by the band whenever the track would be credited to all of the members. It was Wyman who started the song, since he showed the group the bass riff and the others followed him.
Geddy listed that song a few years ago when Amazon Music asked him to reveal which were the tracks that inspired his bass playing consciously or subconsciously. Bill Wyman was The Rolling Stones bassist from 1962 until 1993 when he decided to leave the group. He played with them afterwards a few times in 2011, 2012 and 2023.
Rush was The Rolling Stones opening act once and Geddy Lee had the chance to meet them
Curiously, Rush was the opening act of The Rolling Stones in Toronto, Canada at the “Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto”, which was a SARS Benefit concert. The trio had the chance to meet the band members. The video about the show made by the British band, shows the late Charlie Watts meeting Neil, Geddy and Alex.
Geddy talked about the opportunity at the time, saying: (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) “When I first started playing, they had a song called ‘2120 South Michigan Avenue’. If you didn’t know how to play it then you weren’t really very good. So in the early days for sure, their early material really influenced me a lot. I haven’t seen them since the ‘Steel Wheels’ tour.”
“So it’s been quite a few years and will be fun to watch them tonight. My hats off to them, for them to come over here and get the ball rolling for this event. To bring awareness to the fact that Toronto is a fine city to visit and not beset with disease. I think they are doing a terrific job for our town, because I live here, I appreciate it a lot. So I thank them very much,” Geddy Lee said.
The bands’ guitarist and co-founder Alex Lifeson also talked about the Stones. He said they were from where Rush’s roots came from.
He continued:
“There were all these bands like The Searchers, The Dave Clark Five, The Beatles, that were all very nice, sweet, kind of cute bands. The Stones were dirty and their music had lots of reverb. You know, that was something really cool about them.”
“Brian Jones had such an excellent haircut, so they represented the whole other side of Rock. The dirtier, tougher, kind of side of Rock music, being Blues based at the time. I mean, that’s really where our roots are from,” Alex Lifeson said.
