“Worked so hard”: Geddy Lee on the band that taught Rush how to be rockstars
One of the most endearing things about Rush was that they weren’t like other rock bands of their stature. While each of the trio, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and the late Neil Peart, rank among the very finest that have ever picked up their respective instruments, and their creations are as musically and thematically substantial as anything anyone of their generation produced, they were never ones for typical rockstar behaviour.
Despite the claims from The Runaways that the three nerdy Canadians were so immature when they were on tour together back in the day that one of Rush’s pranks could have seriously injured singer Cherie Currie, this seems about the measure of the band back then. You’d be hard-pressed to find them locked in cocaine-fuelled orgies, much preferring a stoned session watching The Twilight Zone after a show. While they might have been annoying goofballs when on tour with The Runaways, Rush has always eschewed the rockstar stereotype, with the members famously down to earth and preferring to live life outside the limelight, no pun intended.
Another aspect that makes Rush stand out from their peers is their open deference to the musicians who made them. While others might try to claim that their music is completely original or play down questions regarding influences, a part of being humble is that the trio pay their dues to the array of acts that helped them establish their prog sound.
Although Yes and The Beatles were two groups that had an impact, another that played a key role was Led Zeppelin. Their expansive, often fantasy-focused music provided the foundation for Rush’s sonic character and that of prog in general. That fateful gig in Toronto at the Rockpile is a storied moment in the band’s lore, as Led Zeppelin tore it up and changed how the early iteration of Rush viewed music forever.
In a testament to their scope and the way they appealed to so many, Rush didn’t just have musical influences. One band Geddy Lee credits for teaching them pivotal lessons in professionalism was Kiss. Although musically and personally, both acts couldn’t be much more distinct, when Rush ventured south of the border in 1974 and 1975, they opened many shows for the masked New York outfit, who were making waves with their anthemic hard rock grooves, intriguing alter egos and bombastic live shows.
When speaking to CBC in 2023, Lee reflected on how much of an impact the industrious Kiss made on his wide-eyed gang of stoners as they toured the US. Put it this way, during that run, Rush were still using empty Coca-Cola crates to carry their cabling. They were highly raw and had a lot to discover about professionalism and the industry, but watching Kiss every night from the side of the stage was transformative.
Kiss were “really impressive”, Lee recalled, and it was not only because both the band and crew were supportive of Rush, it was that they “worked so hard”. He said: “They were putting on this literally explosive pyrotechnic display, and they worked so hard every night, and everything had to be choreographed, and everything was split-second timing, and so there was a lot to learn, there was a lot to take in.”
Unsurprisingly, Lee admitted that the lessons were never musical from Kiss, as they were mostly indifferent to their music. Still, how they conducted their business offered them the key to the world-famous success they would obtain at the end of the decade.
