RUSH Guitarist Alex Lifeson On Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction - "For Our Fans It Was Much More Of A Bigger Deal; They Felt Slighted That We'd Been Eligible For A Decade-And-A-Half"
May 23, 2013, 11 years ago
Guitarist Alex Lifeson of Canadian rock legends RUSH is featured in a new interview with Metal Express Radio. An excerpt is available below:
MER: Congratulations on your recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It`s been a long time coming. Did you think that induction would never happen?
Lifeson: "We didn`t really care one way or the other. It seemed like a nice idea, but if it didn`t happen then it wouldn`t change anything for us. For our fans, however, it was much more of a bigger deal. They felt slighted by the fact that we`d been eligible for a decade and a half before we were inducted. I was indifferent at first, but on the night when we felt all of the love in the room from all of these musicians who we admired, but who looked upon US as inspiration to their careers. That was really a terrific feeling."
MER: The induction ceremony looked like an absolute blast with the FOO FIGHTERS in full Rush 2112 era kimonos, moustaches and hair. Did you know beforehand they were going to reprise your 1976 look?
Lifeson: "We rehearsed with them the night before because we wanted to make the transition of them playing to us playing, but that was so sweet of them to even think of doing a tribute like that for us."
MER: You play for almost 3 hours each night. Most bands can only manage half of that. How do you pace yourself during the show?
Lifeson: "We`re much more conservative on our days off than we used to be, not that we were crazy wild party guys. We now work one day on and one day off -- we don`t work consecutive gigs anymore. Those off days are truly recovery days, especially for Geddy and Neil. Geddy tends to get up at 1:00 and doesn`t talk so he can rest his voice. We`ll go for dinner together. It`s pretty subdued with a nice meal and a glass of wine. We have a chef who cooks organically and both Geddy and I hit the gym. We`re very conscious of keeping our energy levels up so we can play a three hour set. We`re going to be 60 this year so we have to look out after ourselves."
Go to this location for the complete interview.
On Thursday, April 18th, in Los Angeles at the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE, RUSH led the inductees into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Rush issued the following official statement: "We are honored to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The three of us are especially appreciative of our loyal fans whose support and dedication has gone a long way to making this possible. P.S. And special thanks to our Moms for voting 6,000 times!"
As mentioned, the Foo Fighters had the honour of inducting Rush into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
In tribute to the legendary prog-rock trio, performed Rush's classic '2112 Overture' in their vintage garb! Prior to the show Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins and Rush producer Nick Raskulinecz rehearsed in front of Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart!
Video footage courtesy of Foo Fighters roadie Joe Beebe can be viewed below:
Fan-filmed footage of the show performance can be viewed below:
Fan-filmed video of the Grohl/Hawkins' induction speech for Rush can be viewed below as well: