Rush's Geddy Lee Recalls Starstruck Meeting With Pete Townshend
By Chad Childers, UltimateClassicRock.com, June 5, 2012
Who gets Geddy Lee giddy?! Exactly! The Rush vocalist may be a legend in the music industry but even he has his moments of being a fan boy, and his most recent instance came when meeting a member of the Who.
The singer tells Classic Rock magazine that the last instance occurred just recently. He recalls in a video interview (about :52 seconds in), "I was in Ottawa, Canada, the capital of Canada, and we were receiving what's called the Governor General of Arts Award. It was a wonderful event and it was this gala and one of the surprise guests that night was Pete Townshend, who had come to perform with Dez McAnuff, who also won an arts award that evening."
When the show was over, Lee received an invite to meet Townshend and jumped at the opportunity: "I'd never met him and Pete Townshend is one of my real, real heroes. I can honestly say I wouldn't be here talking to you if he hadn't written those great songs for the Who. They just inspired me to be the best writer I could be."
Lee admits he was a bit awestruck at the experience, but Townshend was great and easy to talk to. With a bit of a smile, Lee says, "In the back of my mind, I was going 'Holy crap! I'm meeting Pete Townshend.'"
While that meeting was something memorable, Rush has more pressing matters at the moment. The group's first studio album in five years, 'Clockwork Angels,' arrives next Tuesday (June 12).