No surprise then that Lifeson, perhaps more so than any other rock guitarist of his era and stature, has a style and sound that's been constantly evolving and impossible to pigeonhole. And in what is a lesson the music industry marketing machine hopefully takes to heart, the less easily categorized the band became, the more their popularity grew. The replacement of Rutsey with drummer/ lyricist Neil Peart in 1974 heralded a more progressive, experimental direction for the band and, excepting a brief hiatus around the turn of the century due to personal tragedies in Peart's family, the fabled troika has endured, constantly changing, broadening, and redefining its sound. When bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Geddy Lee joined the fold, his wailing operatic singing and formidable 4-string skills solidified a heavy rock sound in the Grand Funk Railroad and Cactus paradigm. Not to mention a whole generation of game-changing guitarists-Kirk Hammett, Larry LaLonde, Paul Gilbert, Billy Corgan, and John Petrucci, to name a few-who cite Lifeson as a prime mover.īorn Aleksandar Zivojinovic and reared in Toronto, Lifeson founded Rush with skin-pounding schoolmate John Rutsey in 1968. In my 25 years as a music student, educator, journalist, and performer, I am consistently amazed by how many of my peers found their initial inspiration, validation, and identification in the music of Rush. Okay, so I'm going a little fan-boy here, but I'll bet that if you're reading this, you have a similar tale to tell. That first surge of rapturous musical discovery all but determined what I'd be doing with the rest of my life. Hell-bent on rock stardom, I ordered a Rush Anthology songbook, hijacked my brother's Giannini nylon-string, and deciphered the G, D, and A 7 chord diagrams needed to strum 'Closer to the Heart,' the simplest song in the book.

I owned every album, sported a complete wardrobe of concert shirts and pins, and was a card-carrying member of the Rush Backstage Club. Factor in Lifeson's innate coolness-his long locks and Gibson doubleneck cutting an impressive figure-and I had my first guitar hero. Something about the Canadian trio's ability to fuse heavy metal's visceral force with prog's intricacies, their Samurai-class chops, and lyrics that dared address topics outside the usual sex, drugs, and rock and roll dictum resonated with me in a way no previous band had. 10 Things You Gotta Do To Play Like Alex Lifeson By Vinnie Demasi, Guitar Player, January 2011, transcribed by pwrwindowsĪs a pre-teen discovering rock music in the early '80s, ax-wielding role models were plentiful but it was Alex Lifeson-and his band Rush-who motivated me to pick up a guitar.

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