Why Geddy Lee Didn’t Smile for a Year Before Rush Returned

Geddy Lee said he didn’t smile for over a year before Rush returned to the stage, because he was so focused on making their performances as good as they could be.

But he argued that his approach simply came from trying to be professional and a desire to avoid letting down fans who’d waited 11 years for the Fifty Something reunion tour.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the singer and bassist said: “It’s a tough show. Each night has its own difficulties. But we’re all professionals, and that’s why you do all the work.”

He continued: “My day and my off days are not fun… I have to see my physio person. I have to do a good workout physically. I have a half an hour to catch my baseball scores, and then I have to work out with my vocal coach.

“And that’s gonna happen for the whole tour. And that’s how you remain a professional and you don’t let people down. When they paid good money to come see you play, you have to give them the best you got.”

Lee admitted that both he and Alex Lifeson shared a fear that “you can’t do it anymore, and you’re going to be a compromised version of yourself,” adding: “And I don’t want that. That’s why Neil retired. He retired because he refused to show anything but his very best in public. And so that’s on your mind, and that’s driving you.

“And that’s why, according to my daughter, I didn’t smile for a year and a half before appearing onstage.“

Geddy Lee Says Anika Nilles Didn’t Know What She’d Signed Up For

That changed after the tour began. “My daughter came up to me and she was so happy,” Lee recalled. “She said… ‘I haven’t seen you smile like that in a year and a half.’ I’m like, ‘Really? Am I really a grump?’ But it’s not grump.

“It’s that I had to go into tunnel vision to prepare myself for this job. And so not to let myself down, not to let the public down. And I know Al went through the same thing.”

Lee reported that new recruits Anika Nilles and Loren Gold were forced into the same gruelling approach. “[T]hat was a huge ‘yes,’” he said of the drummed. “When she said ‘yes’ to joining our band, that was a big ‘yes.’ I don’t think she fully understood the magnitude of that ‘yes’ and the amount of work.

“And so all of us, Loren included, worked as hard as we could, took it very seriously, and touch wood, we had a good first week.”