Understanding the passive-aggressive fight between Rush and Aerosmith
To this day, there still aren’t that many rock and roll outfits that could compete with the musicianship of Rush. Even by prog-rock standards, the Canadian power trio were among the most accomplished players in the industry, playing long stretched-out songs that felt like an endurance test for any average musician. Although Rush could play like no one else in the scene, it became an issue out on the road.
During their initial run as an opening act, Rush played to their first massive crowds when opening for Kiss. Despite having little to nothing in common musically, Geddy Lee talked about having a healthy respect for what Kiss did, saying in Beyond the Lighted Stage: “Say what you want to about Kiss, musically or otherwise, but there was no one else willing to put on a spectacular show and give people their money’s worth than Kiss”.
While the band headlined with the shock rockers, Rush was still playing fairly rudimentary rock songs in the vein of Led Zeppelin. Once the band started to do their drawn-out exercises, things started to turn a corner once going out on tour.
Looking back on the band’s evolution, avid fan and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde noticed how quickly things started progressing, recalling, “If you look back at the early records, the riffs were simpler. Then there were songs where it got more and more complex. There would be times when the boys would be like, ‘We did write this, didn’t we? What part of the song are we in’”.
Even though Rush could dish it out on the road, their superior musicianship didn’t sit well with the members of Aerosmith. When taking them out on tour in the late ‘70s, Lee remembers not getting treated well by their headliners, never given a soundcheck and being turned down during their set to mask their playing.
Regardless of the hazing from the opening slot, Rush didn’t have to worry about being the opening act for much longer. With the release of albums like Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures, the band started to perform at massive venues and got their prog rock masterpieces on the radio, with ‘Tom Sawyer’ quickly becoming a rock staple.
Around the time they were headlining, Rush found themselves bringing out a very special guest on tour: The Joe Perry Project. After just leaving the group, the former Aerosmith guitarist was playing the lower tier circuit with the Canadian icons as the headliner.
While Lee always kept things cordial by giving Perry a soundcheck, he passive-aggressively gave the guitarist a taste of his own medicine, telling Rolling Stone, “I asked him backstage if he was being treated well. When he said yes, I said, ‘Good because I would never want anyone to feel the way I felt when we opened for you’”.
Once the air was cleared, Perry would later apologise to the band publicly, telling Louder, “I want to thank them for treating the Project so good and taking the time to ask if everything was okay. I hope I had the presence of mind back then to apologise”.
Very little in the world of rock and roll is fair, but Rush knew how to kindly kill their rivals.
