It was presumed that Rush came to an end after the death of their longtime drummer and main lyricist Neil Peart in 2020 at the age of 67 after years battling cancer. However, this year the band’s co-founder, bassist, keyboardist and vocalist Geddy Lee said that the band could comeback, being motivated by Paul McCartney.
Lee and Alex Lifeson talked with the Beatle during the Taylor Hawkins tribute show and McCartney motivated them to do something together again. He recalled that in an interview with Rolling Stone, while he is promoting his autobiography “My Effin Life”.
Geddy Lee recalls what Paul McCartney told him about Rush
“Dave (Grohl) was so sweet. He comes up to us at rehearsal and he goes, ‘Paul McCartney’s up next to rehearse, and he’s outside, and he said to me, ‘Dave, I’ve never met anyone from Rush before.’ And I said, ‘I’ve never met him! Bring him in, please.’ And he came in. He’s just a very lovely man. A very positive person.”
Geddy was then asked if he knew that McCartney knew Rush and he said: “No, but I got the sense he knew who we were and had heard about us. He had never listened to us. So at the show, he was there. He watched the set. I think he was really curious because people probably had mentioned us to him.”
He continued:
“But after the show, he was incredible. He was so warm and embracing and positive. He came and sat and drank with us. We all got plastered together. And he was very emphatic, talking about, ‘You know what Ringo always says: ‘It’s what we do.’ And I said, ‘Talk to Al, because he’s the stubborn one.’ And so he was lecturing Al about how great it is to tour. ‘You have to do it, man. You have to get back out there, man.'”
“And Alex said something like, ‘I’ll do it, if you’ll be our manager’. ‘I’ll manage you, mate!’ It was really fun, really funny, but he had a point. That’s the way he looks at life. He’s ageless because he really, truly believes he was born to do this. That’s what you do. And you just do it. You don’t question it. And I think we all sometimes forget that,” Geddy Lee said.
The final Rush concert happened in 2015 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The band released 19 studio albums during their career and have sold an estimated amount of more than 40 million records worldwide.