Rush’s Geddy Lee Back In The Limelight With ‘My Effin’ Life’ Tour, And Maybe More

It might sound easy for an accomplished, tour-hardened musician to go on stage, read from a book and talk to fans – with help from a talented, famous-friend co-host. But things aren’t always so simple.

“It would be the first time I walked out on stage without an instrument in my hand, so that was cause for anxiety right off the bat,” says Geddy Lee, bassist, singer and co-founder of rock titans Rush. He’s speaking from home in Toronto, about to head out on vacation after his “My Effin’ Life In Conversation” tour wrapped Dec. 18 at Barbican Hall in London.

“I sort of got to the Beacon Theater and I walked out on the stage during soundcheck, and the longer I walked on the stage, the more comfortable I felt, the more I started to remember, you know, a 45-year career standing on stages like that,” added Lee. “All of that contributed to just calming me down and making me remember that this had been my life for the majority of my years on the planet. So by the time the curtain came down and Paul Rudd, who generously agreed to be the opening night host, walked out on the stage, I was just in such a fantastic mood, and I think he was, too. It ended up being a wonderful evening and it set the tone for the rest of the tour.”

“My Effin’ Life” is Lee’s memoir, a heartfelt look into his life from the beginning, three years in the making and started during the pandemic. While some rock ‘n’ roll memoirs focus on scandal and excess, Lee’s story is an introspective look at deep themes and emotions, including struggling with feelings of guilt of growing up in suburban Toronto after his parents endured and survived the horrors of the Holocaust in Poland and, at the age of 12, losing his father suddenly.

He also gives behind-the-scenes looks at the formation of the band, the recording process of legendary rock albums and juggling his own marriage, children and personal life while on the road, including what ended up being Rush’s final tour in 2015 before the loss of drummer and close friend Neil Peart in 2020.

Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of drugs, too.

Lee’s story is as remarkable as the band’s, nearly 50 years with the same three members – and his marriage to wife Nancy going back just as far – playing and recording some of the most technically proficient, influential and genre-defining progressive rock to ever come.

While the book can be heavy in places, the “My Effin’ Life” tour ended was mostly a celebration of Lee and the band he formed in the early ‘70s, giving Rush fanatics an intimate environment to listen and even participate in the discussion.

“I was really amazed how well it all came together,” Lee said, explaining the concept for a conversational environment “still in keeping with my attitude towards production, you know. I had to have some bells and whistles for fun.” A component of that was a special (and secret) guest host each night, which meant super fans like Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil, Les Claypool, Matt Stone, Melissa Auf der Maur and still others making for a unique experience each night. Adding to the surprise, Rush co-founder/guitarist Alex Lifeson was the special guest host on the final date in both North America and the UK, much to the delight of fans.

“Most importantly, the second half of the show would be an interchange between myself and fans,” said, Lee, 70, explaining that while he did a more traditional meet-and-greet signing setup to coincide with the release of “Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass” coffee table book in 2019, that environment didn’t offer the best experience for fans or himself in a post-COVID, socially distanced world. He credits “invaluable” manager Meg Symsyk with helping put together the tour, along with his brother Allan Weinrib who has been part of previous Rush projects.

Also noted on the creative team were production manager Chris Fussell and Daniel Richler, who also worked closely with Lee on the book. With the book released in November (and sitting on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction list for eight weeks), 19 dates were organized quickly at theater venues including Moore Theatre in Seattle, The Fillmore Detroit and Massey Hall in Toronto.

Fans were invited to submit questions for consideration to be read during the performance but also allowed a space to share something personal about themselves. Those responses were vetted by the team and shared with Geddy, often to great effect.

“Because of the casual nature of it, I think it ended up feeling like there was more connection with (fans) than I would have at a book signing. We were very aware of each other’s presence, and sometimes the crowd would be laughing a lot, and sometimes a few of them would clearly have had a few too many drinks and were getting emboldened, so I had to learn how to sort of deal with that, which was fun,” he said with a laugh. “And I felt quite comfortable doing so.”

With his only live concert appearances since 2015 being two Taylor Hawkins tributes in 2022 (at Kia Forum and Wembley Stadium) and a South Park 25th Anniversary concert (Red Rocks), the book tour brought Lee back to the stage to recapture some of that in-person connection with fans.

“I was incredibly blown away by the love that I was getting every night from these fans,” said Lee, who explained that part of not only writing the memoir but sharing it with the world was because he felt fans deserved some closure. “It was really quite a different experience for me. I couldn’t really even compare it to playing in a band. There’s a whole different part of your brain that’s at work. You have to remain calm and allow yourself to speak from the heart without being too aware of your context. At the same time, you want to make sure that it’s an entertaining and edifying evening for whoever has paid their hard-earned cash to come and watch me sit on a couch talking or sit on the stool answering their questions.”

In his book, he shares in detail feelings of disappointment of not going bigger for the 2015 “R40” tour that ended up being the band’s last. Health issues for Peart and Lifeson at the time coupled with the band’s exhausting live shows meant limiting the tour to North America.

“I felt that I owed it to them to have a bit of clarity on how things came to an end,” he said. “There were a lot of those kinds of reasons involved with why I decided to write this book, and I’m very glad I did. It was most certainly a healing road for me. I hope that taking it to these various cities was, in some ways, for Rush fans, healing for them too.”

Those 35 Rush dates grossed $37.8 million as reported to Pollstar, with 442,337 tickets sold to fans fortunate enough to see the power trio still at the height of its powers.

For “My Effin’ Life,” Lee seemed pleased to share that live connection with fans again.

“I know there were a lot of fans that didn’t really know what happened and how the band ended. The last few chapters of that book are really about how I handled what was happening to the band and in our lives, and what Neil was going through,” Lee said. Peart died Jan. 7, 2020, following a very private battle with brain cancer, which Lee writes about in his book.

The relationship with fans is part of Rush’s enduring success, and most of that connection is built on the music, which has long spoken to fans of the cerebral and technical. Inspired by early progressive rock influencers like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson and Yes, as well as British rock royalty like Cream and Led Zeppelin, Rush’s catchy but off-kilter anthems (often in odd time signatures) spawned massive hits that still appear in Hollywood blockbusters and blare through speakers at sporting events, showing a mass appeal.

A true album band, Rush’s epic concept albums, sprawling multi-track arrangements and literary elements made diehards out of music nerds of all stripes, a rare blend of progressive rock that stood alone as its own true sound and has yet to be replicated, although its influence is apparent. They were prolific, too, churning out classic records at a rapid clip well into the ‘90s. With 24 gold records and 14 platinum records, Rush is third behind The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for most consecutive gold or platinum albums by a rock band, as recorded by the RIAA.

“They know their audience better than anybody, and their audience is incredibly loyal,” says Gerry Barad, executive VP of booking at Live Nation Global Touring, who has promoted Rush’s North American tours since the early 2000s. That loyalty was obvious during the “My Effin’ Life” tour. “I was in the lobby at the Beacon Theatre, watching fans say, ‘This is the best day of my life.’ Outside, it’s really cold in New York, and it’s 11:30 at night, the show’s been over an hour. There’s 200 people outside still waiting.” For the book tour, production elements were a little more customized than a usual concert production, which led to some improvisation.

“We weren’t carrying the whole production around with us, and every theater was different,” said Barad. “Some places had video, some didn’t. We carried basically the same furniture for the whole tour, from the same company, so it looked the same every day. All the PA music and the lighting, a lot of thought went into all that.” AEG Presents produced the UK tour leg.

Video introductions were recorded for each performance, with guest hosts signing in on screen before appearing on stage, leading to surprises as well as gags – such as Paul Rudd first writing “Taylor Swift” and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith signing in as Hollywood doppelganger Will Ferrell, a running gag between the two.

“One thing that we definitely all have in common, from Geddy on down, is we all take our jobs very seriously but we try to have as much fun as possible, and this tour definitely encompass that,” adds IAG’s Adam Kornfeld, who has represented Rush and Geddy Lee since the early 2000s. “For the people who were lucky enough to see it live, they saw high quality production – the stage looked great, the video looked great, the sound was great. And it was very heartfelt. You left that show feeling like you had learned some stuff about Geddy and the band and you felt touched, you felt moved, you felt definitely closer to him. It was great.” The U.S. tour of 14 dates moved 23,190 tickets and grossed $2,712,896, as shared with Pollstar.

“Working on this book tour I think really brought home to (Lee) and Alex (Lifeson) the adoration – and I don’t think there’s a better way of putting it – of the English fans and the reception that they got on every single show, because they were completely blown away,” said UTA’s Neil Warnock, who called the band as an agent in 1976 interested in booking its first UK gigs. Warnock jokes that he and Kornfeld are referred to as Lee’s “long-suffering agents” for lack of recent concert tours, but says the band never met its full demand worldwide – never making it to markets including Spain and parts of Eastern Europe. Rush finally reached South America in 2002, which Lee recounts in his book as a moving experience, seeing their biggest crowd ever singing to every word.

“They had no concept of how big they were, that they were even bigger in South America than they were, in fact, in North America, at that time,” says Warnock, adding he was constantly “nagging” the band to play the continent, and anywhere else. “I told them there are three big acts in South America – The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Rush – and I had the stadium offers to back it up.”

Warnock says apart from the shows being physically demanding and the band having families and lives to tend to, Rush was always committed to bringing its full production to fans overseas, which meant more time and money involved in producing the shows.
“They had that connection with the fans that if they had more time or the desire, they would have been a stadium band in Europe,” Warnock says. “There was nothing stopping the development of Rush. But what they did was just awesome. They brought in the whole of their North American production into Europe and South America. There was no substitute. They gave each audience the same show worldwide that they gave everybody else.”

Lee has become a more public figure in recent months with the release of the Lee-
narrated and -starring “Are Bass Players Human Too?” miniseries streaming on Paramount+, a fun look at the lives and hobbies of other famous bassists including Les Claypool, Krist Noveselic, Robert Trujillo and Melissa Auf der Maur. That adds to the 2016 documentary “Time Stand Still” chronicling the band’s “R40” tour.

Warnock credits manager Meg Symsyk for “putting her heart and soul” into projects including the “My Effin’ Life” book and tour, a Rush beer line and handling marketing and public relations. The response seems to continually surprise the band, Warnock says, much as it did in 1976 when he first called.

“I think they have realized there’s a huge, huge desire for them to work again if they choose to,” Warnock said.

While many speculate about any upcoming tours involving Rush music or band members, Barad says the band has done more than its part already, although he’s happy to work with them in any continuing capacity.

“I can’t talk, I got to work with one of the greatest bands of all time,” he says, proudly gesturing to a poster of the band’s final gig, Aug. 1, 2015, at the Kia Forum. Asked about the impact of being part of that momentous show, Barad, an avid baseball fan and Canuck like Lee, jokes “There’s no crying in baseball!”

“Maybe my only regret is that I didn’t go to more of their shows,” he adds.

However, the occasion of “R50” – 50 years since Neil Peart joined Rush, in time for the band’s second album, Fly By Night – does not go unnoticed.

“When the band is ready to share what they would like to do to celebrate R50, they will let everyone know,” Symsyk says.

Lee himself says he is eager to work on new music, although what that means appears to still be taking shape.

“Right now, I’m sort of trying to figure out what the next steps for me are. I’m not sure that I want to do more of these things,” he says, referring to the speaking engagements. “They were fascinating and I enjoyed every minute of it, but talking about my life as a career? I’m not so sure I want to do that.

“I have some big decisions to make and I’m pondering,” he adds. “I would like to get back to writing music and see where that takes me. I would like to do some things in music before I shut the door on that option. So I just need some time now. I spent almost three years working on this book and the last two months were fairly intense traveling every day and being in all these different cities and talking so much. I just need a period where I’m not talking so much, and doing more thinking than talking.”