Geddy Lee was inundated with messages from drummers offering to join Rush in the wake of Neil Peart’s death, “just so inappropriate”
Lee reflects on the drummers who couldn’t wait to pick up the phone and offer fill in for the late Neil Peart following his sad passing.
Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
While the death of legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart was felt by the entire rock community, Geddy Lee has recently revealed that certain musicians were very quick to wrap up their mourning in the search of a potential job opportunity.
Indeed, in a period where you might be expecting compassionate well-wishes for the loss of a dear friend, Lee has reflected on the insensitive drummers who wasted no time offering up their services to replace Peart in the band back in 2020.
While promoting his new memoir, My Effin’ Life, on Apple Music’s Strombo’s Lit, the Rush frontman opened up about the experience: “Oh, yeah, I heard from all kinds [of people]… That was a very weird moment. My little black book got filled up really quickly.”
“I was, like, ‘Whoa, that’s just so inappropriate right now,'” Lee continued. “Dude, wait two months. At least two months, if ever.’ It still happens, now that the clickbait freaks are out there talking about Alex [Lifeson] and I getting a new drummer and starting Rush again.”
Speaking to The Washington Post last year, Lee explained that, following the Taylor Hawkins’ tribute shows in September 2022, he’d consider working with Lifeson again under the Rush name – a decision spurred on by Sir Paul McCartney, who praised Lee and Lifeson’s performance and said they should head back out on the road.
“It had been a taboo subject, and playing those songs again with a third person was the elephant in the room, and that kind of disappeared,” Lee explained. “It was nice to know that if we decide to go out, Alex and I, whether we went out as part of a new thing, or whether we just wanted to go out and play Rush as Rush, we could do that now.”
Whether Lee and Lifeson decide to revive Rush, or to head out on the road as a new project, one thing is for sure – those drummers that tried to presumptuously offered to sit on Peart’s drumstool back in 2020 are probably not at the top of the list.