Ten years after their final show with Neil Peart and five years after the drummer and lyricist’s death, Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee announced that they would reunite as Rush and tour around the world. Their first shows took place this year, and they continue to hit the road, with many dates also scheduled for 2027. In an interview with Rolling Stone, they recalled that it all started at a health clinic in Austria.
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson recall the moment they decided to reunite as Rush
“I had problems with my digestive system. I had a couple of surgeries. They didn’t go particularly well. The first one failed after a few years, and the second one had to cut through all of that failure. And I had terrible nausea for about a year and a half, and really struggled with so many things, eating and (The food was digesting very slowly).”
“Yeah, gastroparesis. Very slow motility. So food hangs around for 10 or 12 hours in my stomach before it starts to move. It just requires a completely different approach to eating and awareness. And a really good friend of ours told us about Vivamayr, which is a clinic in Austria, and Ged decided to come along.”
“They provide such great treatment, particularly for digestive issues. And they really set me straight. (…) I make sure that I work on the treatments daily. We have a therapist that travels with us. We get my hands in shape and all of those things. So you just work through the problems. Everybody has problems. You just work it out and you move forward. Emotionally, it was a little different for me to get excited about touring again.”
He continued:
I really felt like we were done. There were aspects of it that I missed, but there were some that I really didn’t miss. You could feel like a hotel room is prison when you’re in there and you have no place to go or you don’t have the motivation to go and do things, to go for a walk or go to see a museum or do something outside of that space.”
And after a while, you’re tired and you don’t really want to. So you sit there on the edge of your bed with the remote in your hand going back and forth watching CNN or whatever, and that can be a lonely place. And I didn’t know if I really wanted to do that, and I felt that we had a really great legacy and we could live on that.”
Alex Lifeson continued:
“But when Ged and I started talking about doing the tribute for Neil and our history and how much fun it is to be together and to play together, I thought, ‘Maybe there’s a chance. Let’s see.’ And then we started getting serious about it. In fact, when we were at Vivamayr, I set up a little studio in my room, and we practiced there”
Geddy Lee then explained:”When I heard he was going there with this friend of mine, I said, “I’m gonna go with you as moral support.” But boy, it changed my life, too. That was such a great experience for me. It really really helped me,” he said.
Rush next tour dates
September
- 2 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
- 12 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
- 17 – Cleveland, OH – Rocket Arena
- 19 – Cleveland, OH – Rocket Arena
- 23 – San Antonio, TX – Frost Bank Center
October
- 5 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena
- 10 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
- 15 – San Jose, CA – SAP Center
- 25 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena
- 30 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
November
- 5 – Hollywood, FL – Seminole Hard Rock Live
- 9 – Tampa, FL – Benchmark Arena
- 20 – Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center
- 25 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena
December
- 1 – Glendale, AZ – Desert Diamond Arena
- 10 – Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place
- 15 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
January (2027)
- 15 – Buenos Aires, AR – Movistar Arena
- 22 – Curitiba, BR – Arena da Baixada
- 24 – São Paulo, BR – Allianz Parque
- 30 – Rio de Janeiro, BR – Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos (Engenhão)
February
- 1 – Belo Horizonte, BR – Estádio Mineirão
- 4 – Brasília, BR – Arena BRB Mané Garrincha
- 19 – Paris, FR – La Défense Arena
- 21 – Berlin, DE – Uber Arena
- 23 – Amsterdam, NL – Ziggo Dome
- 25 – Munich, DE – Olympiahalle
- 28 – Cologne, DE – LANXESS Arena
March
- 2 – Hamburg, DE – Barclays Arena
- 4 – Stuttgart, DE – Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle
- 8 – Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
- 12 – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live
- 16 – London, UK – O2 Arena
- 18 – London, UK – O2 Arena
- 27 – Kraków, PL – TAURON Arena Kraków
- 30 – Milan, IT – Unipol Dome
April
- 1 – Basel, CH – St. Jakobshalle
- 4 – Copenhagen, DK – Royal Arena
- 6 – Oslo, NO – Unity Arena
- 8 – Stockholm, SE – Avicii Arena
- 10 – Helsinki, FI – Veikkaus Arena