Early life Lifeson was born Aleksandar Živojinović (
Serbian: Александар Живојиновић) in
Fernie, British Columbia. His parents, Nenad and Melanija Živojinović, were
Serb immigrants from
Yugoslavia. He was raised in
Toronto. His formal musical education began on the
viola, but he abandoned it in favor of the guitar at the age of 12. Lifeson recalls what inspired him to play guitar in a 2008 interview: {{quote|My brother-in-law played flamenco guitar. He lent his guitar to me and I grew to like it. When you're a kid, you don't want to play an accordion because it would be too boring. But your parents might want you to play one, especially if you're from a Yugoslavian family like me. During his adolescent years, he was influenced primarily by the likes of
Jimi Hendrix,
Pete Townshend,
Tony Iommi,
Jeff Beck,
Ritchie Blackmore,
Hank Marvin,
Eric Clapton,
George Harrison,
Jimmy Page,
Steve Hackett,
Alvin Lee,
Billy Gibbons,
Johnny Winter,
Denny Laine, and
Allan Holdsworth; he explained in 2011 that "Clapton's solos seemed a little easier and more approachable. I remember sitting at my record player and moving the needle back and forth to get the solo in '
Spoonful.' But there was nothing I could do with Hendrix." In 1963, Lifeson met future Rush drummer
John Rutsey in school. Both interested in music, they decided to form a band. Lifeson was primarily a self-taught guitarist with the only formal instruction coming from a high school friend in 1971 who taught classical guitar lessons. This training lasted for roughly a year and a half. When Lifeson was 17, he had an argument with his parents about his future; he wanted to drop out of high school to pursue his dream of becoming a professional guitarist. A video of the argument was part of a 1973 Canadian documentary,
Come On Children, about the struggles of 10 adolescents. The argument was also included in two documentaries about Rush,
Beyond the Lighted Stage (2010) and
Time Stand Still (2016). Lifeson's first girlfriend, Charlene, gave birth to their eldest son, Justin, in October 1970. The couple married in 1975; their second son, Adrian, was born two years later. Adrian is also involved in music, and performed on "At the End" and "The Big Dance" from Lifeson's 1996 solo project,
Victor.
Rush , Ahoy,
Rotterdam, the
Netherlands (27 May 2011). Lifeson's neighbour
John Rutsey began experimenting on a rented drum kit. In 1968, Lifeson and Rutsey formed The Projection, which disbanded a few months later. In August 1968, following the recruitment of original bassist and vocalist
Jeff Jones, Lifeson and Rutsey founded Rush.
Geddy Lee, a
high school friend of Lifeson, assumed Jones's role soon after. Instrumentally, Lifeson is renowned for his signature riffing, electronic effects and processing, unorthodox chord structures, and the copious arsenal of equipment he has used over the years. Rush was on hiatus for several years starting in 1997 owing to
personal tragedies in Neil Peart's life, and Lifeson had not picked up a guitar for at least a year following those events. However, after some work in his home studio and on various side projects, Lifeson returned to the studio with Rush to begin work on 2002's
Vapor Trails.
Vapor Trails is the first Rush album since the 1970s to lack keyboards—as such, Lifeson used over 50 different guitars in what Shawn Hammond of
Guitar Player called "his most rabid and experimental playing ever." Geddy Lee was amenable to leaving keyboards off the album due in part to Lifeson's ongoing concern about their use. Lifeson's approach to the guitar tracks for the album eschewed traditional riffs and solos in favour of "tonality and harmonic quality." In 2006, Lifeson founded the
Big Dirty Band, which he created for the purpose of providing original soundtrack material for
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie. Lifeson
jammed regularly with the Dexters (the Orbit Room house band from 1994 to 2004). Lifeson made a guest appearance on the 2007 album
Fear of a Blank Planet by UK progressive rock band
Porcupine Tree, contributing a solo during the song "Anesthetize". He also appeared on the 2008 album
Fly Paper by Detroit progressive rockers
Tiles. He plays on the track "Sacred and Mundane". Outside band related endeavours, Lifeson composed the theme for the first season of the science-fiction TV series
Andromeda. He also produced three songs from the album
Away from the Sun by
3 Doors Down. He was executive producer and contributor to the 2014 album "Come to Life" by
Keram Malicki-Sanchez - playing guitar on the songs "Mary Magdalene", "Moving Dark Circles" and "The Devil Knows Me Well," and later on Keram's subsequent singles "Artificial Intelligence," (2019), "That Light," (2020) and "Rukh." (2021). Alex Lifeson is featured on
Marco Minnemann's 2017 release
Borrego, on which he played guitars on three songs and co-wrote the track "On That Note". In 2018, he played lead guitar on
Fu Manchu's 18-minute mostly instrumental track "Il Mostro Atomico" from the group's
Clone of the Universe album. In 2019 he was featured on the song "Charmed" from the
Don Felder solo album
American Rock 'n' Roll. On 15 June 2021, Lifeson released two new instrumental songs, "Kabul Blues" and "Spy House" on his website alexlifeson.com. The songs were released as a self titled project.
Andy Curran played bass on both songs, and drums on "Spy House" were done by David Quinton Steinberg.
Envy of None Following Rush's dissolution in 2018 and Neil Peart's death in 2020, Lifeson formed the supergroup
Envy of None with himself on guitar, mandola and banjo, Alfio Annibalini on guitar and keyboards,
Andy Curran on bass, guitar and backing vocals and
Maiah Wynne on lead vocals and keyboards. The first single, "Liar", from Envy of None's debut album was released on 12 January 2022. Envy of None's self-titled debut album, which includes "Liar," "Kabul Blues," and "Spy House," was released on 8 April. Envy of None issued their sophomore effort,
Stygian Wavz, on 28 March 2025.
Television and film appearances Lifeson has made cameos in many TV shows and films, including
Trailer Park Boys media. His debut was as himself, under his birth name, in the 1973 Canadian documentary film
Come on Children. In 2008, Rush played "Tom Sawyer" at the end of an episode of
The Colbert Report. According to Colbert, this was their first appearance on American television as a band in 33 years. ar Rush has a cameo in the 2009 comedy
I Love You, Man. The role of Dr. Funtime in
The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour was originally written with Lifeson in mind, but due to scheduling conflicts the role was given to
Maury Chaykin instead.
Book forewords Lifeson has written forewords to four books:
Behind the Stage Door by Rich Engler in 2013;
Shredders!: The Oral History Of Speed Guitar (And More) by Greg Prato in 2017; ''Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass
by Geddy Lee in 2018; and Domenic Troiano: His Life and Music'' by Mark Doble and Frank Troiano in 2021. ==Guitar equipment==