When Geddy Lee got body-slammed by Van Halen’s crew
Most modern prog-rock bands can only hope to cover as much ground as Rush was able to throughout their career. Beginning as the traditional rock and roll outfit in the vein of Led Zeppelin, the Canadian power trio soon developed into the most eclectic group in rock history, going from side-long epics to chart-dominating hits to the squelchiest synth-rock of the 1980s. While Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, and Neil Peart may have pioneered their sound on each album, Van Halen wasn’t far behind in the innovation department.
Even though Van Halen’s music fits squarely into mainstream rock, what Eddie Van Halen was doing on the electric guitar was legendary. Compared to the usual sounds of guitar heroes around this time like Peter Frampton or Jimmy Page, Eddie’s way of incorporating various tapping licks into his sound made for musical ecstasy when tearing through songs like ‘Eruption’.
Rush seemed to be paying attention based on their following album, Permanent Waves. While most of the album plays into the growing trends of reggae in rock and roll, Lifeson’s tone-bending solo in the middle of ‘Freewill’ bears a substantial similarity to the reckless abandon that Eddie had made his signature on the debut Van Halen record.
Although Eddie initially cited Rush as an influence when working on his first handful of projects, things got out of hand when the band recruited Van Halen as a support act in the 1970s. Even though Van Halen’s partying days were the stuff of legend, it all started over a glass of spilt beer at the wrong time.
After ducking into their hotel, Van Halen found out that Rush had rented out the entire bar for their crew to use. Never ones to pass up a free drink, Van Halen invited themselves into the party, with David Lee Roth telling Creem, “We’d come back to the bar, and Rush was staying at the same hotel. And as it turns out later – they’d rented the bar with all the booze in it. And our guys didn’t know that, and they came in and said, ‘What, free booze?! Whoa!!’ And they cleaned the place out, which put their guys on edge a little bit.”
While things stayed cordial between both bands, Eddie got into hot water when accidentally breaking one of the band’s tape recorders at the party. Roth recalls: “Edward was sitting at the table with Geddy Lee, and they’d both been drinking a little bit, and Geddy was playing some Rush tapes on a tape recorder. He said something to Ed, and Ed’s beer got into the tape recorder. Well, that caused a little friction.”
Once the band tried to meet up with their Canadian friends again, though, Roth remembered it being ice-cold, explaining, “Jump ahead one year – Las Vegas 1981. Rush is playing before Van Halen in Las Vegas, and word goes out: nobody from Van Halen is allowed into the show at all. Nobody. No road crew, nobody.”
When Lee tried to talk to the group after the fact, Roth remembered the singer accidentally getting bodyslammed by their security, saying, “Geddy feels one way or another and comes up to say something to Ed, and he puts up his hand to shake hands. Now, one of our security guards didn’t have the vaguest idea in hell who he was, and he came up and body-tackled him. Threw him out of the table, and that’s the last I saw of ’em!”. Although both bands would make amends later in their career, the prog-rock legends kept their hair metal friends at arm’s length for a while.
