As Rush’s R40 tour careered towards its, and the group’s, final date in 2015, the band knew their time in the live arena was nearly up. The R40 tour name referred to drummer and chief lyricist Neil Peart’s four decades in the band, and he was the man calling time, at least on touring.
Now, in an in-depth retrospective interview with Classic Rock, the surviving members of the prog power trio - Peart passed away in 2020 - discuss, amongst many other things including early days and future plans, that final live outing.
There was certainly some controlled but understandable tension between the band members at this stage, as two of the three were still enjoying their live work. Says guitarist Alex Lifeson, “We were playing well, the show was so much fun for us and our audience, and we had good energy despite playing three-hour shows in our sixties.”
“Ged and I were disappointed that Neil demanded playing only a limited number of dates… I think a dozen or so more dates would have made us a bit more accepting.
And it seems that at one point, with shows going well, Peart may even have considered extending the run, but, reveals Lifeson, “then he got this painful infection in one of his feet. I mean, he could barely walk to the stage at one point. They got him a golf cart to drive him to the stage.
"And he played a three-hour show, at the intensity he played every single show.
"That was amazing, but I think that was the point where he decided that the tour was only going to go on until that final show in LA.”
At that final outing, hosted by the forum, a venue the band were familiar with and fond of, Geddy Lee recalls the moment, captured by a fan in the video below, when Peart embraced his bandmates at the show’s finale: “The first time in forty years he’d done that, it was a beautiful moment.”
Lifeson also recalls his own emotions as a multi-decade jaunt around the world’s stages ground to a halt: “It was a weird feeling knowing that was likely the last time we’d play any of those songs together.
"I tried to soak in every moment and object at that last gig. I counted down the minutes on the giant clock they have there, you can see it from the stage.
“And I stared at all these faces, people that I didn’t know personally, yet happily greeted when I saw them return to so many of our shows over so many years.
"I looked at my bandmates and missed them already and I felt sad to see such joy in Neil’s face when we were down to the last few bars of our last song played together, as we finally finished our set.”
In December of that year, 2015, Peart told Drumhead magazine “Lately Olivia has been introducing me to new friends at school as ‘My dad — He’s a retired drummer.’ And it does not pain me to realize that, like all athletes, there comes a time to… take yourself out of the game.”
But it wasn’t until 2018 that Rush officially disbanded. Now, Lifeson and Geddy are in introspective, and retrospective mode, and were talking around and ahead of the release of R50, a suitably lavish boxset which collates material from their entire 50 year career.
For much more detail on R50 and the band’s entire career, see the full interview in Classic Rock, and stay tuned to Rush.com for further announcements.
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