Rush has been a revelation to middle-school age rock-loving nerds for decades. But it looks like future awkward 7th-graders will have to be content with album cuts and YouTube bass clips: The legendary rockers are retiring from touring.
Guitarist Alex Lifeson confirmed in a new interview that the band isn’t planning on doing any more tours following their R40 40th anniversary tour last year. The main reason behind the end of touring: legendary drummer Neil Peart’s health.
“We had such a great time on the tour. And it was really nice to go through all the material in reverse chronology, and I think our fans really enjoyed it. I think that no matter how long it would have been, it would have been too short. Neil was prepared to commit to 30 dates and he told us that right from the very beginning. He didn’t even want to do the tour, to be honest with you. It’s been increasingly difficult for him, but he committed to the tour and we got through it. As far as he was concerned, that was the end of touring…his shoulders were hurting, his arms were hurting, his elbows, his feet, everything, He didn’t want to play anything less than 100 percent. He was finding it increasingly difficult to hit that mark on this last tour.”
Lifeson says he’s “disappointed” but understood Peart’s reasoning. He also added that the band may still record new material even if they aren’t planning on touring behind it.
He also remains optimistic that this isn’t the final word, noting that the 40th anniversary tour sprung up out of nowhere.
“We’re getting older and it’s getting tougher, but I don’t know. We’ll see.”
Check out the whole interview over at Rolling Stone.
