What Rush’s Geddy Lee said about religion

The singer, bassist and keyboardist Geddy Lee was born in North York, Ontario, Canada back in 1953 and when he was still a teenager formed Rush in 1968 alongside his friend and guitarist Alex Lifeson. They ended up becoming one of the most influential groups of all time, with an estimated amount of more than 40 million records sold worldwide.

It is always interesting to know what is the opinion of famous Rock stars, who usually talk in interviews only about music, about other subjects, like religion for example. So Rock and Roll Garage selected what Geddy Lee he said about this subject over the decades.

What Rush’s Geddy Lee said about religion

Although Geddy Lee was raised in a really religious family, he is not a religious person. He told Heeb magazine in 2009 that he a Jewish atheist, since he is really proud of his family origins. His mother Mary Weinrib, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 95, was Jewish and Holocaust survivor.

“I consider myself a Jew as a race, but not so much as a religion. I’m not down with religion at all. I’m a Jewish atheist, if that’s possible… I celebrate the holidays in the sense that my family gets together for the holidays and I like being a part of that. So I observe the ‘getting together’ aspect.” Geddy Lee said.

The musician never was really interested in religion because he was raised in a very strict religious family. That experience “killed any love for religion” that he could have but he believes in the power of good energy. That is what connects him with his spirituality. The musician explained that when answering questions from fans during a Rush Con in the early 2000s (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

He was asked to comment if there was any connection between his spirituality and the music he made in Rush. “Well, I’m not a religious person. I was raised in a very religious family, a very strict religious family. That killed any love for religion that I could possibly have had.”

He continued:

But I am a spiritual person in the sense that I believe in the spirit of positive energy and I don’t profess to have an understanding of things beyond the tangible world as most people. So I just try to promote positive energy, that’s in a way, what that’s all about for me.”

“How it influences music, I don’t know. I think that everything you do as a human being influences everything you come in contact with in some way. So I prefer to take the karmic view of things that the more positive energy you put out into the world, somehow that contributes.” Geddy Lee said.