“I might never be in Indiana again!” I thought I was on thin ice as a touring musician, and these would be the keepsakes I’d look at later, when I was working in a delicatessen.įor Subscribers The unmasking of the narcissistic, conspiracy-spreading baby-boomer rock starĮric Clapton supports Robert F. I kept every hotel room key from the first Rush tour. I call myself a collector, but it’s a disguise for being a hoarder. Once I got into it, I found it cathartic, and a helpful way of sorting out things from my past. I was driven by a fear of forgetting things, the way my mother was forgetting. One was watching my mom slowly disappear into dementia. How can you read a book about what makes me tick without understanding the legacy I inherited from my parents? Any time I was asked to write a memoir, I said, “Come back when I’m really old.” I fell into writing it for a number of reasons. “You probably know me as Geddy Lee, but my birthname was Gershon Eliezer Weinrib after my maternal grandfather who was murdered in the Holocaust.” Why did you choose that as the first sentence in your book? Over a two-hour conversation and a lunch of smoked trout benedict at the diner, where he often ate with his mother, Lee, dressed in black, discussed keeping all his hotel room keys from the first Rush tour, the “fiesta of grief” he experienced in 20, and whether or not there could ever be another effin’ Rush show. They met at Auschwitz, were sent to separate camps, and after the war ended in 1945, were reunited in a displaced persons camp, and emigrated to Halifax, Canada, where they adopted the names Morris and Mary. His parents, Moishe and Manya, were Polish Jews sent by the Nazis to concentration camps. In his first sentence, Lee mentions his birth name, Gershon Weinrib, and the Holocaust. Lee felt adrift, and during the COVID lockdown wrote a memoir that’s due for publication this week, called “ My Effin’ Life.” (His book tour brings him to L.A.’s Orpheum Theatre on Nov. Rush, formed with Lee’s childhood friend, guitarist Alex Lifeson, ended in January 2020, when Neil Peart, widely heralded as the most skilled drummer in rock, died from an aggressive form of brain cancer. Once Rush embraced brevity, it even had hits, including “ The Spirit of Radio,” “ Limelight,” “ Tom Sawyer” and the new wave-ish “New World Man.”Īfter three decades of mockery (and Dungeons & Dragons jokes), Rush was celebrated in the 2009 comedy “I Love You, Man,” and the next year, was profiled in a charming documentary, “Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage.” Its 2013 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Dave Grohl as its avid champion, symbolized hard rock’s growing acceptance among gatekeepers. The group was Led Zeppelin for Dungeons & Dragons fans, but more than that, it kept alive the hard rock era of the late ‘60s. From its 1974 debut album to 2015, when the band played a farewell show at the Forum, Rush was the standard-bearer for elaborate, multi-part songs full of falsetto hollers, time signature changes and drum solos. “You’re a Canadian classic!” he exclaims.Īs the singer and bassist for Rush, the Canadian power trio, Lee, 70, is a hometown hero, but he’s also largely responsible for spreading heavy progressive rock around the world. A scruffy line cook stops by the table for a second time and looks at Lee. “I have so many memories through the years, but probably the most special was the last time I saw him,” Portnoy continued.The service at the Rosedale Diner is friendly, but Geddy Lee gets extra attention. Peart also ranked Number Four on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time. In 2004, Portnoy became the second-youngest person to enter the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame Peart remains the youngest-ever inducted, receiving the honor in 1983. Always inviting me to come to soundcheck and spend some time before the show whenever Rush was passing through.”Ī co-founder of prog-rock act Dream Theater, Portnoy has long proclaimed that Peart was his biggest drumming influence. “But beyond that, over the past 15 years or so, he’s become a friend…always such a gentleman and a gracious host. “Neil Peart will always be a mentor and a hero to me and his influence on me as a drummer for the past 40 years is absolutely impossible to measure,” Portnoy wrote. Former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy paid tribute to Neil Peart, “one of my greatest heroes of all time,” following news of the Rush drummer’s death Friday.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |