A few months ago, legendary Rush drummer Neil Pert was quoted in an interview saying:
“Lately Olivia [ Neil’s daughter] has been introducing me to new friends at school as ‘My dad – he’s a retired drummer.’ True to say, funny to hear."
At the time, frontman Geddy Lee said his quote was taken out of context and that the band still has to talk about it:
“There’s really nothing to say. I think Neil is just explaining his reasons for not wanting to tour, with the toll that it’s taking on his body. That’s all I would care to comment on it.
"We’ll get together eventually and chat about things. But in my view, there is certainly nothing surprising in what he said. Neil just feels that he has to explain with all the thousands of people asking, ‘Why no more tours?’ He needs to explain his side of it.”
Well, I guess the band talked about it, because a new interview with guitarist Alex Lifeson was published by Rolling Stone last night, confirming the retirement, saying that Pert cannot tour anymore:
“He didn’t even want to do the [R40 Tour], to be honest with you,” Lifeson explained. “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,” Lifeson added of Peart. “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. So, all those things combined, I get it. I’m disappointed and I think Geddy [Lee] is very disappointed and we’d love to continue this tour a little bit longer, but we’re off now.”
Lifeson did leave the possibility open of recording new music together or doing one-off shows. But Rush will no longer do full-on touring.
