Rush lead singer Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson discussed their late bandmate Neil Peart‘s legacy and his final years in an interview with Rolling Stone.
Both Lee and Lifeson said that they lost motivation to play music following Peart’s death.
“I thought, you know, ‘One day, when I’m just sitting around sh*tting my pants, I’ll still want to play guitar.’ And that’s kind of gone now,” Lifeson said. “After he died, it just didn’t seem important.
But I think it’ll come back.”
The progressive rock band’s drummer Peart died after fighting glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, on January 7, 2020.
Lee recalled Peart sending an email to his bandmates breaking the news, “I have a brain tumor. I’m not joking.”
Peart, who lived more than three years after his diagnosis, handled his illness with heroic strength, the bandmates say.
“He was a tough man,” said Lee. “He was nothing if not stoic, that man. … He was pissed off, obviously. But he had to accept so much horrible sh*t. He got very good at accepting sh*tty news. And he was OK with it.”
“He was going to do his best to stick around as long as he could, for the sake of his family. And he did unbelievably well. … He accepted his fate, certainly more gracefully than I would,” Lee added.
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