Geddy Lee has confirmed what some have predicted. During his appearance Saturday (2/21) on VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show," he made it clear that the R40 tour will be the band's last "big" tour.
Noting that "the three guys in this band have very different opinions on this point in our lives," he made it clear that the upcoming R40 40th anniversary tour "is going to be the last big tour that we're going to do for awhile." Lee said that, "We've done a lot of touring for the last 10 years, a lot of writing, a lot of working…So it's clear that we are at a point in our career that we have to slow down — and slow down dramatically."
Lee stopped short of calling R40 a "farewell tour," however. Asked about that, Lee said: "It's very hard to answer that question for a lot of reasons. The three guys in this band have different opinions on this point — everyone's in a different space right now. Neil Peart has a young child at home and he's said numerous times that it's very hard for him to leave his daughter. She needs him. It's clear that we are at a point in our career that we have to slow down — and slow down dramatically. So, I'm not a guy who's in love with the farewell tour idea, but it's clear that this is going to be the last big tour that we're going to do for a while, anyway."
"In terms of 'are we still a band?' Yeah, of course we're still a band. Do we talk about writing? Yes, we talk about writing. Will we do gigs in the future? I don't see why not. But, when you are talking about a tour that's 35 shows, 40 shows, 50 shows, at our age at this point in our lives, I don't know how many of those are still left in us."
Rush plays the United Center on Friday, June 12th.
Meanwhile, Rush has revealed that it will include a special hologram logo of the "2112" album on the upcoming vinyl reissue of the set, which drops on March 17.
-Spencer