According to blabbermouth.net, during an interview with Rolling Stone, Alex Lifeson confirmed that he has been “playing a lot of Rush songs” with his longtime bandmate Geddy Lee in Toronto in recent weeks: “We’re together in a room like we’ve always been,” the guitarist said. “That’s been really good, but there’s no chance that we’re going to get a drummer and go back on the road as the rebirth of Rush or something like that. And if we wanted to write new material, nobody cares about new material anymore. They just want to hear the old stuff from guys like us.”

When the interviewer asserted that fans “would care,” Lifeson replied: “Maybe the feeling is that it’s just really about taking people back to an earlier time in their lives that they have very fond and vivid memories of, and I get it and that’s great. And then you do it for the money. And that’s not what we were ever about or what we would want to do. Offers come in all the time, but I don’t know. I don’t think that’s something that we’re really interested in.”

Elaborating on why he is opposed to the idea of performing Rush music with a new drummer, Lifeson said: “I just don’t know if doing something like that would wreck it. Or wreck the legacy that Rush has left. When it happened, it was disappointing for us. And then Neil Peart got sick and all of that stuff, but our legacy is intact that we went out on a high note. That tour was great. It looked great. We played really well. We bonded even more so with our audience. I’d rather have that and the sadness of not doing it again, than doing it again and sitting on a chair on stage because I can’t stand. I’d rather be remembered for that than something that’s more current.”

This past January, Lifeson did not rule out the possibility of performing with Lee again, telling Greg Prato of Ultimate Guitar: “There’s certainly a lot of interest in us doing something. I think for a lot of Rush fans, they’ve been hoping for… Geddy had his book tour. I went out on a few of those dates with him. I think that’s kind of sparked more interest in us working together.

Photo Credit: Dave Gatson