Cult band
Rush: Moving autobiography by frontman Geddy Lee
Rush frontman Geddy Lee stands in his studio, bass guitars hanging on the wall. photo
© HarperCollins
The rock trio released albums and toured tirelessly for four decades. Now frontman Geddy Lee has published his autobiography. It’s also about his youth in Canada as a child of Polish Holocaust survivors.
Rock stars like the Foo Fighters or the Smashing Pumpkins, actor and musician Jack Black and the creators of the animated cult series “South Park” have something in common: They are all fans of the Canadian rock band Rush. The frontman of the trio, which is famous for songs like “Spirit Of The Radio”, “Tom Sawyer” and the 20-minute progressive rock epic “2112”, is Geddy Lee. The 70-year-old has now published his autobiography.
In “My Effin’ Life” the singer, bassist and keyboardist from Rush not only looks back on his long career. He also deals intensively with his Jewish roots, which he temporarily denied as a teenager. “It took me a long time to realize that my origins are something I can be proud of,” says the singer in an interview with the German Press Agency London. He now appreciates Jewish culture without being really religious. “I definitely make a distinction between culture and God.”
Lee was born in Toronto as the son of Polish emigrants under the name Gershon Eliezer Weinrib. The trauma of his parents, who survived the Holocaust, also shaped his life. The musician devotes a moving chapter to her dramatic story in his book. “Because I feel like we live in a time that seems to have forgotten what can and will happen when fascism rears its head,” he writes. He also talks about a visit with his mother to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on the 50th anniversary of the liberation in 1995. That was healing.
Of course, “My Effin’ Life” is all about the music. Geddy Lee talks about the beginnings in a student band that played at bar mitzvahs, up to Rush’s ceremonial induction into the “Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame” and the last concert to date a few years ago. “We felt lucky that we were able to do that,” he says of his heavy workload with the group. In the first ten years, Rush released an average of one album a year and toured constantly.
Managers driven to desperation
With their complex and not exactly radio-friendly songs, the musicians, who are considered idiosyncratic, have driven many a manager and producer to despair. “They didn’t understand what we were doing,” jokes the singer, bassist and keyboardist. But the success of Rush finally calmed those responsible at the record companies. “They said, ‘We don’t understand it, but it seems to work. So we’ll just let them do it.””
Lee writes emotionally about the death of drummer Neil Peart, who died of a brain tumor in January 2020. This seemed to be the end of the Rush chapter. But for two concerts in honor of the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins last year, Geddy Lee and Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson performed together.
Lee, who has been very close friends with Lifeson since childhood, would like to continue this. “I don’t know if we would call it rush,” he says. “I think Alex and I both really want to write songs together again and see what happens. That would be the first step.” After the emotional review, the musician gives his fans hope with a promising outlook.
Incidentally, Lee has a positive relationship with Germany, despite his family’s traumatic past. “I always look forward to coming to Germany,” he says. “I’ve met so many great people there over the years.” He and his wife Nancy, with whom he has been together since he was a teenager, have also discovered a new passion. The Canadian couple watches German crime films – with English subtitles. Her favorite: “A series called “Tatort”,” enthuses Geddy Lee. “We particularly like Bourne.”