Rush's upcoming 'R40' shows celebrate 40 years of rock 'n' roll glory -- and they may also serve as the band's farewell to full-scale touring.

"These not-to-be-missed concerts will highlight four decades of the band’s music," said the band in a press release, adding that the three-month run of dates "will most likely be their last major tour of this magnitude."

While that can't be happy news for Rush fans, it doesn't exactly come as a surprise, given how long the band members seemed to hem and haw over whether they'd return to the road in celebration of this milestone. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson toyed with the idea in an interview last fall, but admitted that while they were open to it, they hadn't spoken to Neil Peart -- who later allowed that he was "of two minds" about spending a lot of time on tour with young kids at home.

Of course, we've seen plenty of other bands threaten to scale down (or completely walk away from) their touring in the past, and it often ends up being a broken promise -- happily for the ticket buyers eager to keep turning out to share memories with their fellow fans. We'll see what happens with Rush in the future, but either way, it looks like the 'R40' shows are your first can't-miss dates of 2015.

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