In a new interview with the radio station Q104.3, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson shared that the band was "bombarded" with emails from drummers wanting to audition after longtime drummer Neil Peart's death. Peart died in 2020 after a three-and-a-half-year-long battle with brain cancer.
"After Neil passed, it didn't take more than a few minutes before we started getting emails from all kinds of drummers who wanted to audition for the band, thinking that we were just gonna replace somebody that we played with for 40 years who wrote all the lyrics for our music," Lifeson told the radio station's host Jonathan Clarke. "I don't know what some of these people were thinking."
Lifeson had previously shared that it was "difficult to accept" that the band would never play together again, while bassist Geddy Lee had expressed interest in touring with Lifeson again, maybe not as Rush. Recently, the two artists and best friends performed Gordon Lightfoot's "The Way I Feel" at Toronto's Massey Hall for a Gordon Lightfoot tribute concert.
In the interview with Clarke, Lifeson revealed that he and Lee have discussed making music again "because we can't avoid it." Lifeson added, "But honestly, Ged is my best friend. I talk to him — I must talk to him every day. We get together for dinner, we play tennis, we're doing all this charity work together. He's my best bud, so, yeah, I go over there. He plays bass, I play guitar — yeah, we'll play a little bit. l go over there ostensibly to play with him and we end up just sitting and drinking coffee and laughing the whole day."
Lifeson continued, "It's not just Rush, Rush, Rush, Rush, Rush. I have a deep loving relationship with this man, and it's not all about creating something that we did from the past. You never know what life brings you. Right now I'm super happy doing what I'm doing. I'm engaged with a lot of musical stuff. I love being a musician. I love playing guitar. I love playing guitar so much. It's not just a vehicle for making a living. It's me. It's at the core of my essence."
Lifeson's supergroup Envy of None's sophomore record Stygian Wavz arrives tomorrow (March 14) via KScope.
Watch the full interview below.