Geddy Lee Reveals He Resented Neil Peart

Geddy Lee admitted that he bore a grudge against Rush’s late bandmate Neil Peart following the band’s final concert.

Rush wrapped up their R40 Tour which celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2015. It dubbed their farewell show and Peart needed to be convinced to take part in the trek as he wanted to focus life with his family. During a recent appearance promoting his new memoir, My Effin’ Life, Lee revealed:

“By the time that tour got towards the end, our relationship was strained.
“With every successive gig, he was closer to the end, [Neil] was getting happier, and Alex [Lifeson] and I were getting, uh, less happy.”

The band closed the tour on Aug. 1 2015 in Los Angeles, Lee recalled:

“The last gig was odd. We played our guts out, we played our hearts out in L.A. at that show.
“I asked [Peart], I said, ‘Well, would you come out and take a bow? Maybe it’ll be our last gig.’ He said, ‘No, I don’t do that. No, I don’t cross that invisible line.’ We said, ‘Okay.’ But, he did anyway, because he couldn’t resist it. He snuck out. He gave us a hug, and we took a bow together.”

What Happened After Rush’s Final Bow?

After taking their final bow onstage, Rush’s bandmates still felt weird backstage. Lee said:

“After that show, it was really weird, because we didn’t talk about it.
“He went to sort of his dressing room, which was ebullient and celebratory, and we went to see all our chums, and we pretended we were ebullient and celebratory. But we went home in a very sad frame of mind.”

Lee wanted to keep Rush touring, he revealed:

“I had resentment, I’ll be honest.
“I was resentful because I loved that tour and I wanted to bring it around the world, and [Peart] only had agreed to so many gigs and he wouldn’t bend.”

Months later after the trek, the band reconnected to work on the R40 Live DVD. By that time, Peart told Lee how happy he was with his life away from the road. Lee explained:

“I thought to myself, what kind of a friend am I that would begrudge him this after all he’d been through?
“And so it was healing to have that conversation.”