In a new Q&A; with Rolling Stone's Andy Greene, RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson discusses the band's upcoming tour setlist and Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame prospects. An excerpt follows:

Q: You guys have done a ton of concerts over the past 10 years, and they've all been very well received. That has to infuse you with a lot of energy.

A: "A new energy and confidence, more than anything. We just feel really good about where we're at. The show that we're working on now, the production stage has been kind of crazy trying to get it ready in time for September, and then the rehearsals starting in July. It's all a little much, but I know in a couple of weeks when we start to get into that schedule, we'll start to groove and feel very good and there's something about that confidence that comes – maybe with maturity, maybe because for the last 10 years we've been playing as much as we've been playing. We really feel like we put it together really well these days."

Q: It's got to be tough to make a setlist when you have so much history to draw from.

A: "Yeah, it is. It's very difficult. We want to play the new material. We sort of go back and forth. 'Should we play the whole thing? Or should we play most of it, or some of it, and mix it up?' It's always very difficult, and having come off a tour where we featured an album in its entirety, it makes the idea of featuring the whole of Clockwork Angels that much more appealing. I think for the first leg of the tour, at the very least, we'll do most of the record – not all of it, but we'll do most of it. The material that's coming up amongst the three of us in the e-mails that we're sharing is the older material. There's a lot of stuff in there that we haven't played before, and we haven't played in a long time so it's got a freshness to it this time around. We'll always have to play that handful of songs that we've had the most commercial success with, but mixing it up with some other material that we haven't played in a long time is really great. It's shaping up to be a pretty good set."

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Lifeson will be joining ALICE COOPER on his radio program, Nights with Alice Cooper, this Thursday, June 21st. Full details can be found at this location.

According to Billboard.com , Rush's first studio album in five years, Clockwork Angels, could enter the Billboard Top 200 at #2, moving around 90,000 copies in the US alone. What's holding Rush back from #1? Canada's beloved trio are up against USHER's Looking 4 Myself which should sell around 120,000 to 130,000 copies by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, June 17th, according to industry sources. That will be enough to secure the star his fourth No. 1 album.

Clockwork Angels may end up the being Rush's highest charting release since 1993's Counterparts debuted and peaked at No. 2. The act - which has been charting since the 1970s - has yet to claim a No. 1 in the US. Rush's last studio album, 2007's Snakes & Arrows, entered at No. 3 with 93,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Clockwork Angels is out now as a regular CD, digital download and deluxe double-vinyl version.