Words matter. These are the best Alex Lifeson Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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Rush has never been a spontaneous group. We may be spontaneous in our writing, we may be spontaneous as individuals in our day to day lives… certainly I think am and always have been, but I think when it comes to Rush and our presentation of our music it’s quite controlled.
I think Rush have always had this reputation, particularly to non-fans, of being an ultra-serious and cerebral group when, in fact, the reverse is true. We don’t take ourselves seriously at all. Sure, we take our music seriously, but that’s altogether different.
I don’t know how many times I heard older people, and not just parents but just older people, say, ‘Oh, my God. Your generation is just totally nuts. You have no sense of what it was really like, when it was great.’ And every generation has that same feeling, you know?
The more I got into playing guitar, the more I enjoyed music, and the broader my listening became. The instrument itself became important to me, and I started messing around with classical guitar and took classical lessons.
The Rush fans are pretty crazy everywhere, but they’re particularly wild in South America.
At the same time, I’ve never been afraid of death or the concept of death.
I really consider myself more of a rhythm guitarist than a soloist.
When we signed our deal in 1974, we’d already been together for six years. When they lowered the drinking age in Ontario in 1971 to 18 years, we went from playing two or three high schools in a month to playing clubs two or three times a week.
Of any guitarist, Jimmy Page was my biggest influence. I wanted to look, think and play like him. Zeppelin had a heavy influence on Rush during our early days. Page’s loose style of playing showed an immense confidence, and there are no rules to his playing.
I went to Kalamazoo to get my first Gibsons back in ’76.
I don’t want to be 70 years old jumping around onstage.
People are getting away from the whole album experience, it’s true. I think that’s sad. Maybe I’m just saying that because I’m an old fart. But I can’t help it – albums are what I grew up with, and I still love them.
The Stones were more dangerous than other bands of the Sixties. It looked like they had more fun than the Beatles – like they stayed up later.
Pete Townshend is one of my greatest influences. More than any other guitarist, he taught me how to play rhythm guitar and demonstrated its importance, particularly in a three-piece band.
We’ve managed to have a long career that is still quite vibrant, yet we’ve never had to kow-tow to record companies who said we weren’t commercial enough.
It’s a wonderful thing to be able to see your music going from generation to generation.
It’s hard to stop wars, and it’s hard to stop the abuse of the planet and all of those things. I guess you just do what you can do and voice your concern.
The shock of any trauma, I think changes your life. It’s more acute in the beginning and after a little time you settle back to what you were. However it leaves an indelible mark on your psyche.
My parents got me a $25 Kent steel-string acoustic guitar when I was around 12. The following Christmas, my parents bought me a Conora electric guitar. It looked almost like a Gretsch. It cost $59, and my mom still has it.
I think that’s given inspiration to other musicians. I know, particularly through the 90s, a lot of bands would cite Rush as an influence. I don’t think it was so much our music, but more the way we really stuck to our guns.
I’m not that fluid when it comes to scales and modes. I just pick up the guitar and play. It’s all about exploration: just tune the guitar any way you want and start playing.
With solos, I don’t like to be too prepared going in – I like to surprise myself.
But I think the credit has to go to Geddy… he spent a lot of time in the studio with Paul, I think he needed that kind of focus to be in there to be a part of the whole thing, and for the most part he made all the major decisions.
I dreamed of having a Gibson. I had a cheap Kent – you know, a Japanese guitar – and then a Kanora, a Japanese guitar. I borrowed a friend’s Harmony for years. To have a Gibson was really, really my dream as a kid.
Both Neil and I had done solo projects where we were the boss and I just thought that if he was willing to get into it, it would really be a good experience for him.
Hendrix was a natural genius who played many beautiful styles. Talent as great as his doesn’t come through life very frequently. Hendrix was one in a billion.
I think we’re quite unique in that we do have our own sound and approach and we don’t really care what’s going on elsewhere… we’ve never wanted to be part of another trend or movement.
I’d say we do reach somewhat of a younger audience, but I think for the most part that younger audience is picking our music up from a brother or sister or even parent, who is turning them onto the band.
In September 1968, Rush played for around 20 people at a small hall in a church basement. We played songs like ‘Spoonful,’ ‘Fire’ and ‘Born Under a Bad Sign,’ and got paid $10. Then we went to a nearby deli and ordered Cokes and French fries and started planning our future.
‘Tom Sawyer’ could have been written eight months ago, with the kind of response it still gets.