Bassist Geddy Lee is preparing for the Nov. 14 release of his first solo album. But he also comes bearing news that will hearten fans of the band--a new Rush album is in the offing as well.
The Canadian trio went on hiatus during 1997, the year drummer Neil Peart lost both his wife and his daughter. "When all the bad things started happening, we put everything on the back burner," says Lee. "We didn't want to discuss it, really; there was really nothing to discuss--it became so trivial in the context of what was going on. I think quietly we all knew that there's no timetable for dealing with something like this. You can't get together and do music when your spirits are not positive. We all accepted there was this hiatus."
With Peart recently remarried, Rush's period of healing is coming to an end. Lee reports that he, Peart, and guitarist Alex Lifeson have "talked about getting together in the new year to begin a kind of writing session and see how that goes, kind of like the first step." He says the group is approaching things "gingerly," but even though it's too early to predict what the next Rush album might sound like, he's confident there will, in fact, be an album on the horizon.
"If all goes well when we sit down to write, before too long there'll be another Rush record," Lee says. "Truthfully, I can't imagine it not happening."