Alex Lifeson Gets Kicked Out Of Guitar Store Every Week

He Continued To Go There Though

In a video released announcing the new Alex Lifeson Epiphone Les Paul Standard Axcess electric guitar, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson recalled how his lifelong fondness for Gibson guitars began. At the time, he couldn’t afford the one he wanted and so he kept on going back to his local music store.

“The first guitar I got was an acoustic guitar, it was a cheap Japanese guitar, it was $10, and I got it for Christmas in 1966,” he explained. “I played that guitar that whole year, as painful as it was – the action on it was terrible.”

“I begged for another guitar and I got an electric the following Christmas,” he continued, “and it was also a Japanese guitar Canora that I think cost my parents $59. I played it as much as I could but I always dreamt about having a Gibson. They just seemed so beautiful and so out of reach.”

And that’s when he went on weekly trips to Long & McQuade, a music store in Toronto.

“I’d spend a Saturday sitting on an amp and pulling down a 335, or maybe a Les Paul, or an SG,” he continued. “I would play for about an hour until the salesman came by and said, ‘OK, get lost, kid.'”

He still came back every weekend and the salesman let him play for an hour before he kicked him out.

He said, “But that’s the dream that we all have, right? Always a Gibson.”