Centennial Hall, London, Ontario, July 25, 1974
Final Show With John Rutsey
"It was weird. I'd actually been friends with John for a long, long time - since we were about eight or nine years old. John was not the easiest person to get along with; he was quite moody at times and I think he expected a lot from his friends. When we got to the point that the decision had to be made, we'd already thought about getting a new drummer for the past year. John was aware of it - he was very sick at the time - but after we tried another drummer, we said to him 'It's not working out. Do you think you can get it together?' We managed to work for another year, but in the end there was no point because we weren't really getting along very well. Musically, Geddy and I wanted to do a lot of different things and he wasn't really into the idea. He wanted to go into more of a straight ahead rock thing, like Bad Company, I guess. When we sat down and talked about it, he decided he was going to leave. We played another six weeks of gigs and, strangely enough, we had the best time we'd ever had playing together." Alex Lifeson, Success Under Pressure, 1985
"Even after our success on Cleveland radio, John still seemed at odds. Our little taste of stateside touring life had excited Alex and me but not him. His commitment felt increasingly half-hearted. We knew that something had to change sooner than later. By that time, we'd done some gigs with our SRO label mates Max Webster, who had a terrific drummer named Paul Kersey. Vic spoke with Paul about jumping ship and joining us, but following some thoughtful consideration and a brief flip-flop, he opted to stick with Max. For us, meanwhile, there was no turning back. In a meeting at SRO, John agreed it would be best for all if he left the band, and that was that. His last show with us would be opening for some American up-and-comer called KISS at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario, on July 25, 1974. The only time he and the band would be together in the same room again was in 1976, when he and Neil were seated at the same table at my wedding! That would of course be a pretty big year for Rush, and I can only guess what was going through his head at the time. I don't know what regrets - if any - he ever had." - Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life
Rush (with John Rutsey) along with Ronnie Legg (between Alex and Geddy) July 25, 1974.
