1968–1974: Early years and debut album The band was formed in the neighbourhood of
Willowdale in Toronto by guitarist
Alex Lifeson, bassist and frontman
Jeff Jones, and drummer
John Rutsey, in August 1968. Afterward the two stuck together and brought in Jones to form a new group; their first gig was in September at the Coff-Inn, a youth centre in the basement of St. Theodore of Canterbury Anglican Church in Willowdale; they were paid . They had not named themselves at the time of the booking; Rutsey's brother, Bill thought they needed a name that was short and to the point. He suggested Rush, and the group went with it. Due to increasing difficulties in getting to Lifeson's house for practice, Jones suggested that Lifeson get his schoolmate Gary "Geddy" Weinrib to step in on lead vocals and bass. Weinrib replaced Jones as Rush's frontman, adopting the stage name
Geddy Lee. Rush rehearsed a set mainly formed of covers by various rock artists, including
Cream,
Jimi Hendrix, and
John Mayall. The group underwent several configurations to the line-up that included Lindy Young (who was recruited in early 1969) on keyboards and various instruments, and Mitch Bossi on second guitar (later on, in 1971). But after a disastrous gig with Perna, Rutsey invited Lee back in September 1969 and the group resumed as Rush.) and I was, frankly speaking, doing better than they were. Then I got a call from John and he said, 'Can we get together?' Basically, 'Can you come back? We're sorry. but after that, the band stabilized as a trio of Lifeson, Rutsey and Lee. They kept Danniels as their manager, with his business partner and agent Vic Wilson sharing duties. Rush recorded their first single in 1973; their cover of "
Not Fade Away" by
Buddy Holly was chosen as it had become a crowd favourite. "You Can't Fight It", an original song, was put on the
B-side. Released in September, it went to No. 88 on the Canadian
RPM Top Singles chart. Also in September 1973, Rush performed their first major gig, opening for the
New York Dolls in Toronto and finished putting down tracks for their first album. The initial sessions produced undesirable results over the sound quality, so tracks were recut and remixed with a new engineer,
Terry Brown. It went on to peak at No. 86 on the
RPM Top Albums chart. Most critics considered the album to be highly derivative of
Led Zeppelin. In June 1974, Danniels signed Rush to American Talent International (ATI), an American booking agency, and ATI executive Ira Blacker sent a copy of
Rush to
Mercury Records. The record caught the attention of
Cliff Burnstein in
A&R, who signed Rush with a $75,000 advance as part of a $200,000 deal. After a series of Canadian dates, Rutsey played his last gig with the band on July 25. His preference for more straightforward rock was incompatible with the more complex music that Lifeson and Lee had written, and Lee recalled that Rutsey had a general distaste for life as a touring musician. His
Type 1 diabetes caused further complications, as he required frequent hospital visits to have tests and receive insulin. Since October 1973, Rutsey had often been unable to perform due to his health; in the months prior to his departure, Rush temporarily replaced him with drummer Gerry Fielding. They performed their first concert together on August 14 at the
Civic Arena in
Pittsburgh, opening for
Uriah Heep and
Manfred Mann's Earth Band to more than 11,000 people. Despite the new styles, some other songs on the album mirrored the simplistic blues style found on Rush's debut. The album reached No. 9 in Canada, and by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling 1 million copies in the U.S.
Caress of Steel (1975) followed
Fly by Night. It is a five-track album featuring two extended multi-chapter songs, "The Necromancer" and "The Fountain of Lamneth". Some critics said
Caress of Steel was unfocused and an audacious move for the band because of the placement of two back-to-back protracted songs, as well as a heavier reliance on atmospherics and storytelling, a large deviation from
Fly by Night. Intended to be their breakthrough album,
Caress of Steel sold below expectations. The tour consisted of smaller venues and declining box office receipts, which led to it being nicknamed the Down the Tubes Tour. , first appeared on the back cover of
2112. The logo became a staple of Rush's early live shows, and was featured on the cover of their double live album ''
All the World's a Stage'' (1976). In light of these events, Rush's record label tried to pressure the members into moulding their next album in a more commercially friendly and accessible fashion; the band ignored the requests and developed their next album
2112 (1976) with a 20-minute
title track divided into seven sections. Despite that, the album was the Rush's first taste of significant commercial success as it reached No. 5 in Canada,
1977–1981: Peak progressive era After the conclusion of the
2112 tour, Rush recorded
A Farewell to Kings (1977) and
Hemispheres (1978) at
Rockfield Studios in
Monmouthshire, Wales. The albums had the band members expanding the progressive elements in their music. "As our tastes got more obscure", Lee said in an interview, "we discovered more progressive rock-based bands like Yes,
Van der Graaf Generator, and
King Crimson, and we were very inspired by those bands. They made us want to make our music more interesting and more complex, and we tried to blend that with our own personalities to see what we could come up with that was indisputably us." Increased synthesizer use, lengthy songs, and highly dynamic playing featuring complex
time signature changes became a staple of Rush's compositions. To achieve a broader, more progressive sound, Lifeson began to experiment with
classical and
twelve-string guitars, and Lee added
bass-pedal synthesizers and
Minimoog. Likewise, Peart's percussion became diversified in the form of
triangles,
glockenspiel, wood blocks,
cowbells,
timpani,
gong, and
chimes. Beyond instrument additions, the band kept in stride with progressive rock trends by continuing to compose long, conceptual songs with science fiction and fantasy overtones. As the new decade approached, Rush gradually began to dispose of their older styles of music in favour of shorter and sometimes softer arrangements, due in part to the band's exhaustion from recording
Hemispheres. The lyrics up to this point were heavily influenced by classical poetry, fantasy literature, science fiction, and the writings of novelist
Ayn Rand, as exhibited most prominently by their 1975 song "Anthem" from
Fly By Night and a specifically acknowledged derivation in
2112 (1976). The first single from
A Farewell to Kings, "
Closer to the Heart", was the band's first successful song in the UK, peaking at No. 36, while reaching No. 76 in the US and No. 45 in Canada.
A Farewell to Kings did not sell as well as
2112, but still went platinum in both Canada
Permanent Waves (1980) shifted Rush's style of music with the introduction of
reggae and
new wave elements. Although a hard rock style was still evident, more synthesizers were introduced. Because of the limited airplay Rush's previous extended-length songs received,
Permanent Waves contained shorter, more radio-friendly songs, such as "
The Spirit of Radio" and "
Freewill", which helped the album become Rush's highest-charting album to date. "The Spirit of Radio" became the group's biggest hit single to date, peaking at No. 22 in Canada, No. 51 on the US Billboard Hot 100, Max Webster's lyricist,
Pye Dubois, offered the band lyrics to a song he had written. The band accepted, and after reworking by Peart the song became "
Tom Sawyer". When it was released, it reached No. 24 on the Canadian Top 40 Singles Chart, No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 8 on the new US Album Rock Tracks chart. The second single, "
Limelight", also received a strong response from listeners and radio stations, going to No. 18 in Canada, No. 54 on the Hot 100, and No. 4 on the US Album Rock Tracks Chart.
Moving Pictures was Rush's last album to feature an extended song, the 11-minute "
The Camera Eye". The song contained the band's heaviest usage of synthesizers yet, hinting that Rush's music was shifting direction once more.
Moving Pictures became the band's first album to reach No. 1 on the
Canadian Albums Chart, and also reached No. 3 on the US
Billboard 200 and Music Canada. After the success of
Moving Pictures, Rush released their second live recording,
Exit... Stage Left, in 1981.
1981–1989: Synthesizer-oriented era synthesizer, as used by Geddy Lee on the albums
Moving Pictures and
Signals The band had another stylistic change with the recording of
Signals in 1982. While Lee's synthesizers had been featured instruments since the late 1970s, keyboards were shifted from the background to the melodic front-lines in songs like "
Countdown" and the opening track, "
Subdivisions". Both feature prominent lead synthesizer lines with minimalistic guitar chords and solos. Other previously unused instrument additions were seen in the song "Losing It", featuring collaborator
Ben Mink on
electric violin. The second single, "Subdivisions" reached No. 36 in Canada and No. 5 on the US Album Rock Tracks Chart. Both singles reached the Top 50 in the UK. Ultimately, Rush and Brown parted ways in 1983, and the experimentation with new electronic instruments and varying musical styles would come into further play on their next studio album. The style and production of
Signals were augmented and taken to new heights on
Grace Under Pressure (1984). Peart named the album, as he borrowed the words of
Ernest Hemingway ("Courage is grace under pressure") to describe what the band had to go through after making the decision to leave Brown. Producer
Steve Lillywhite, who gained fame with successful productions of
Simple Minds and
U2, was to produce
Grace Under Pressure. He backed out at the last moment, however, much to the ire of Lee, Lifeson and Peart. Lee said, "Steve Lillywhite is really not a man of his word ... after agreeing to do our record, he got an offer from Simple Minds, changed his mind, blew us off ... so it put us in a horrible position." Rush eventually hired
Peter Henderson to co-produce and engineer the album instead. , beginning with
Grace Under Pressure (1984). Musically, although Lee's use of sequencers and synthesizers remained the band's cornerstone, his focus on new technology was complemented by Peart's adaptation of
Simmons electronic drums and percussion. Lifeson's contributions on the album were decidedly enhanced, in response to the minimalist role he played on
Signals. Still, many of his trademark guitar textures remained intact in the form of open reggae chords and funk and new-wave rhythms.
Grace Under Pressure reached the Top 5 in Canada and the UK and the Top 10 in the US It became the highest charter to that date in Sweden (No. 18), while becoming their first album to chart in Germany (No. 43) and Finland (No. 14). While "Distant Early Warning" was not a success on Top 40 radio, it peaked at No. 5 on the
US Album Rock Tracks chart. With new producer
Peter Collins, the band released
Power Windows (1985) and
Hold Your Fire (1987). The music on the two albums gives far more emphasis and prominence to Lee's multi-layered synthesizer work, and he switched to an English-made
Wal MK1 bass. While fans and critics took notice of Lifeson's diminished guitar work, his presence was still palpable. Lifeson, like many guitarists in the mid to late 1980s, experimented with processors that reduced his instrument to echoey chord bursts and thin leads.
Power Windows went to No. 2 in Canada while peaking at No. 9 and 10 in the UK and US, respectively. The lead track, "
The Big Money" made the Top 50 in Canada, the UK and US, plus No. 4 on the US Mainstream Rock Chart.
Hold Your Fire represents both an extension of the guitar style found on
Power Windows, and, according to AllMusic critic Eduardo Rivadavia, the culmination of this era of Rush.
Hold Your Fire only went gold in the US, whereas the previous five Rush albums had gone platinum, although it managed to peak at No. 13 on the
Billboard 200. and made the Top 10 in Canada, the UK and Finland. Two tracks from
Hold Your Fire, "
Force Ten" and "
Time Stand Still", both peaked at No. 3 on the US
Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Nevertheless,
A Show of Hands reached the gold album mark in the US and the platinum level in Canada. At that point, the group decided to change international record labels from Mercury to
Atlantic. After Rush's departure in 1989, Mercury released a double platinum two-volume compilation of their Rush catalogue,
Chronicles (1990).
1989–2000: Return to guitar-oriented sound and hiatus Rush started to deviate from its 1980s style with the albums
Presto (1989) and
Roll the Bones (1991). Produced by record engineer and musician
Rupert Hine, these two albums saw Rush shedding much of its keyboard-saturated sound. Beginning with
Presto, the band opted for arrangements notably more guitar-centric than the previous two studio albums. Although synthesizers were still used, they were no longer featured as the centre-piece of Rush's compositions. Continuing this trend,
Roll the Bones extended the use of the standard three-instrument approach with even less focus on synthesizers than its predecessor. While musically these albums do not deviate significantly from a general pop-rock sound, Rush incorporated other musical styles such as
funk and
hip hop in "
Roll the Bones" and jazz in the instrumental track "
Where's My Thing?". "
Show Don't Tell" from
Presto was a No. 1 hit on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart, and while the album reached the Top 10 in Canada, it was less successful in the US (No. 16) and the UK (No. 27). From
Roll the Bones, "
Dreamline" (No. 1) and "
Ghost of a Chance" (No. 2) were successful on US Mainstream Rock Radio stations, marking a resurgence of Rush's album sales in the US (No. 3 and platinum), the UK (No. 10) and some other parts of northern Europe. The transition from synthesizers to more guitar-oriented and organic instrumentation continued with
Counterparts (1993) and its follow-up,
Test for Echo (1996), both produced in collaboration with Peter Collins. Up to this point,
Counterparts "
Stick It Out" from
Counterparts reached the summit of the US Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart, with the album peaking at No. 2 in the US and No. 6 in Canada.
Test for Echo reached the Top 5 in both countries, with the title track again topping the US Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart. In October 1996, in support of
Test For Echo, the band embarked on a North American tour, the band's first without an opening act and dubbed "An Evening with Rush". The tour was broken into two segments, spanning October through December 1996 and May through July 1997. After the conclusion of the
Test for Echo tour in 1997, the band entered a five-year hiatus primarily due to personal tragedies in Peart's life. Peart's daughter Selena died in a car crash in August 1997, and his wife Jacqueline died of cancer in June 1998. Peart went on hiatus to mourn and reflect. During that time, he travelled extensively throughout North America on his BMW motorcycle, covering . In his book
Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, Peart writes of how he had told his bandmates at Selena's funeral, "consider me retired." This left the band's future uncertain, and Lee and Lifeson prepared an archival album,
Different Stages, for release during the hiatus. Mixed by producer
Paul Northfield and engineered by Terry Brown, it is a three-disc live album featuring recorded performances from the band's
Counterparts,
Test For Echo, and
A Farewell to Kings tours, dedicated to the memory of Selena and Jacqueline. After a time of grief and recovery, and while visiting longtime Rush photographer Andrew MacNaughton in
Los Angeles, Peart was introduced to his future wife, photographer
Carrie Nuttall, and they married on September 9, 2000. In 2001, Peart decided to return to Rush.
2001–2009: Comeback, Vapor Trails and Snakes & Arrows In January 2001, Lee, Lifeson, and Peart came together to attempt to reassemble the band. According to Peart, "We laid out no parameters, no goals, no limitations, only that we would take a relaxed, civilized approach to the project." With the help of producer
Paul Northfield, the band produced seventy-four minutes of music for their new album
Vapor Trails, which was written and recorded in Toronto.
Vapor Trails marked the first Rush studio recording to not include any keyboards or synthesizers since
Caress of Steel. According to the band, the album's developmental process was extremely taxing and took approximately 14 months to finish, the longest they had ever spent writing and recording a studio album. The album was supported by the band's first tour in six years, including first-ever concerts in Brazil and Mexico City, where they played to some of the largest crowds of their career. The largest was a capacity crowd of 60,000 in
São Paulo.
Vapor Trails peaked at No. 3 in Canada and No. 6 in the US, while selling disappointingly in the UK, where it peaked at No. 38. A live album and DVD,
Rush in Rio, was released in October 2003, featuring the last performance of the band's Vapor Trails Tour on November 23, 2002, at
Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To celebrate the band's 30th anniversary, June 2004 saw the release of
Feedback, an
extended play work recorded in suburban Toronto featuring eight
covers of artists including Cream, The Who and
The Yardbirds, bands the members of Rush cite as being their inspiration around the time of their inception. Helping to support
Feedback and continue celebrating their 30th anniversary as a band, Rush launched the 30th Anniversary Tour in the summer of 2004, playing dates in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. On September 24, 2004, the concert at The
Festhalle in
Frankfurt, Germany was filmed for a DVD titled
R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour, which was released on November 22, 2005. The release omitted eight songs also included on
Rush in Rio; the complete concert was released on
Blu-ray on December 8, 2009. During promotional interviews for the
R30 DVD, the band members revealed their intention to begin writing new material in early 2006. While in Toronto, Lifeson and Lee began writing songs in January 2006. During that time, Peart assumed the role of lyric writing while living in
Southern California. In September 2007, Rush hired American producer
Nick Raskulinecz to co-produce the album. The band went to
Allaire Studios in
Shokan, New York in November 2006 to record the bulk of the material. Taking five weeks to record, the sessions ended in December. On February 14, 2007, an announcement was made on the official Rush website that the title of the new album would be
Snakes & Arrows. The first single, "
Far Cry", was released to North American radio stations on March 12, 2007, and reached No. 2 on the
Mediabase Mainstream and Radio and Records Charts. The Rush website, newly redesigned on March 12, 2007, to support the new album, also announced that the band would embark on a tour to begin in the summer.
Snakes & Arrows was released on May 1, 2007, in North America, where it debuted at No. 3 on the
Billboard 200 with approximately 93,000 units sold in its first week. It peaked at No. 3 in Canada and No. 13 in the UK, selling an estimated 611,000 copies worldwide. Coinciding with the beginning of Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, "Spindrift" was released as the official second radio single on June 1, 2007, while "
The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)" came out as a single on June 25, 2007. "The Larger Bowl" peaked within the top 20 of both the
Billboard Mainstream Rock and Mediabase Mainstream charts, but "Spindrift" failed to appear on any commercial chart. The planned intercontinental
tour in support of
Snakes & Arrows began on June 13, 2007, in
Atlanta, coming to a close on October 29, 2007, at
Hartwall Arena in
Helsinki, Finland. The 2008 portion of the
Snakes & Arrows tour began on April 11, 2008, in
San Juan, Puerto Rico, at
José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum, and concluded on July 24, 2008, in
Noblesville, Indiana at the Verizon Wireless Music Center. As Rush neared the conclusion of the
Snakes & Arrows tour, they announced their first appearance on American television in over 30 years. They appeared on
The Colbert Report on July 16, 2008 and were interviewed by
Stephen Colbert; they performed "Tom Sawyer". Riding what film critic
Manohla Dargis called a "pop cultural wave", the band appeared as themselves in the 2009 comedy film
I Love You, Man.
2009–2013: Time Machine Tour and Clockwork Angels On February 16, 2009, Lifeson remarked that the band might begin working on a new album in the fall of 2009, with Nick Raskulinecz again producing. In November 2009, Lee, Lifeson and Peart were awarded the International Achievement Award at the annual
SOCAN Awards in Toronto. On March 19, 2010, the CBC posted a video interview with Lee and Lifeson in which they discussed Rush's induction into the
Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on March 28, 2010, at the
Toronto Centre for the Arts' George Weston Recital Hall. The band was recognized for the songs "Limelight", "
Closer to the Heart", "The Spirit of Radio", "Tom Sawyer" and "Subdivisions". In addition to discussing their induction, Lee and Lifeson touched on future material, with Lee saying, "Just about a month and a half ago we had no songs. And now we've been writing, and now we've got about 6 songs that we just love..." On March 26, 2010, in an interview with
The Globe and Mail, Lifeson remarked that there was even the potential for two supporting tours. Soon afterwards, Peart confirmed that Raskulinecz had returned as co-producer. In April 2010, Rush recorded "
Caravan" and "BU2B", two new songs to be featured on the band's then-upcoming studio album
Clockwork Angels, at Blackbird Studios in
Nashville with Raskulinecz. "Caravan" and "BU2B" were released together on June 1, 2010, and made available for digital download. The
Time Machine Tour's first leg began on June 29 in
Albuquerque, New Mexico and finished on October 17 in
Santiago, Chile, at the
National Stadium. It featured the album
Moving Pictures played in its entirety, as well as "Caravan" and "BU2B". It was suggested that Rush would return to the studio after the completion of the Time Machine Tour with plans to release
Clockwork Angels in 2011. However, Rush announced on November 19, 2010, that they would be extending the Time Machine Tour. The second leg began on March 30, 2011, in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida and ended on July 2, 2011, in
Seattle, Washington. The second single, "Headlong Flight", was released on April 19, 2012. Peart and author
Kevin J. Anderson collaborated on a novelization of
Clockwork Angels which was released in September 2012.
Clockwork Angels was released in the U.S. and Canada on June 12, 2012, reaching No. 1 in Canada, No. 2 in the US, No. 21 in the UK and entering the Top 10 in most of Rush's traditional northern European markets. The supporting
Clockwork Angels Tour began on September 7, 2012, with performances on November 25 in
Phoenix and November 28 in
Dallas, recorded to make a live CD/DVD/Blu-ray which was released on November 19, 2013. During Rush's European leg of the
Clockwork Angels Tour, the June 8, 2013, show at the
Sweden Rock Festival was the group's first festival appearance in 30 years. On August 31, 2011, Rush switched their American distribution from
Atlantic Records to the
Warner Brothers majority-owned metal label
Roadrunner Records. Roadrunner handled American distribution of
Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland and
Clockwork Angels. Anthem/Universal Music would continue to release their music in Canada. On April 18, 2013, Rush were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
2013–2020: R40 Tour, disbandment and Peart's death On November 18, 2013, Lifeson said that the band would take a year off after the completion of the world tour in support of
Clockwork Angels. "We've committed to taking about a year off", Lifeson said. "We all agreed when we finished this [
Clockwork Angels] tour [in early August], we were going to take this time off and we weren't going to talk about band stuff or make any plans. We committed to a year, so that's going to take us through to the end of next summer, for sure. That's the minimum. We haven't stopped or quit. Right now we're just relaxing. We're taking it easy and just enjoying our current employment." In September 2014, the
Rush R40 box set was announced to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of the band's self-titled debut album. It included five previously released live video albums, and various previously unreleased footage from across the band's career. On January 22, 2015, the band announced the Rush
R40 Tour, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Peart's membership in the band. The tour started on May 8 in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, and wrapped up on August 1 in Los Angeles. On April 29, 2015, Lifeson said in an interview that R40 might be the final large-scale Rush tour due to his
psoriatic arthritis and Peart's chronic
tendinitis. He noted that it did not necessarily mean an end to the band, suggesting the possibility of smaller tours and limited performances. He said that he wanted to work on soundtracks with Lee. On December 7, 2015, Peart stated in an interview that he was retiring. The following day, Lee insisted that Peart's remarks had been taken out of context, and suggested he was "simply taking a break". Lifeson confirmed in 2016 that the R40 tour was the band's last large-scale tour. A documentary,
Time Stand Still, was announced in November 2016. On January 16, 2018, Lifeson told
The Globe and Mail that it was unlikely that Rush would play any more shows or record new material. He said, "We have no plans to tour or record anymore. We're basically done. After 41 years, we felt it was enough." In October 2018,
Rolling Stone published an interview with Lee, who said: On January 7, 2020, Peart died at the age of 67 after a 3½-year battle with
glioblastoma, a type of
brain cancer. In 2021, Lee confirmed to
Rolling Stone that Rush was "over" and expressed the impossibility of the band continuing without Peart: "That's finished, right? That's over. I still am very proud of what we did. I don't know what I will do again in music... I'm sure Al doesn't, whether its together, apart, or whatever. But the music of Rush is always part of us... I would never hesitate to play one of those songs in the right context. But at the same time, you have to give respect to what the three of us with Neil did together."
2021–2025: Post-Rush activities In a January 2021 interview with Make Weird Music, Lifeson revealed that he and Lee were talking of working together on new music, "We're both eager to get back together and kind of get back into that thing that we've done since we were 14 years old that we love to do... we work really, really well together. So we'll see what happens with that." Lifeson reiterated the status of Rush and the possibility of continuing to work with Lee in a June 2021 interview with
Eddie Trunk: In August 2022, Lee and Lifeson returned to the stage at the
South Park 25th anniversary concert at
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, with
South Parks co-creator
Matt Stone on drums to perform "
Closer to the Heart" alongside the members of
Primus, their first performance since the death of Peart. In September 2022, Lee and Lifeson performed at the London
Taylor Hawkins tribute concert with
Dave Grohl and
Omar Hakim on drums. They performed "
2112: Overture", "
Working Man", and "
YYZ", the latter of which was Hawkins' favourite Rush song. Later in September 2022, Lee and Lifeson played the same set at the second Taylor Hawkins Tribute show in Los Angeles. Grohl was the drummer again on "2112",
Chad Smith of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers joined them for "
Working Man", and
Danny Carey from
Tool played drums for "YYZ". Those appearances fuelled speculation over a possible Rush reunion, with
Paul McCartney (who attended the Hawkins tribute shows) urging Lee and Lifeson to tour again, and Smith commenting, "Those guys are so happy to be playing again... They were part of the show. They loved it and enjoyed the hell out of it. Those guys miss playing. They couldn't play anymore, Neil couldn't do it anymore, but they still want to play." Lee told
The Washington Post in November 2023 that he would not rule out performing with Lifeson again as Rush, saying, "It was nice to know that if we decide to go out, Alex and I, whether we went out as part of a new thing, or whether we just wanted to go out and play Rush as Rush, we could do that now." Lifeson later said in a January 2024 interview that he was no longer interested in touring, citing arthritis and expressing doubt that he could perform as he did years ago. In May 2024, Lifeson said that he and Lee were playing songs together, but continued to rule out the possibility of ever going back on tour. He declared that he was "proud of the fact" that Rush "was over when it was over." Also in May 2024, Lee and Lifeson appeared together onstage at a
Gordon Lightfoot tribute concert at
Massey Hall in Toronto, where they joined
Blue Rodeo performing Lightfoot's "The Way I Feel". An anthology box set, titled
Rush 50 was released on March 21, 2025. In addition to tracks from all of their studio albums, the box set contains live tracks dating back to 1974 through the band's final show in 2015, and also marked the first time that their 1973 debut single "Not Fade Away" and its B-side "You Can't Fight It" were made available on any other format. Upon the release of
Rush 50, concerns emerged over the authenticity and artistic value of the artwork, as Rush fans widely speculated art director
Hugh Syme may have created the
Rush 50 artwork using
generative artificial intelligence tools.
2025–present: Reunion with new line-up On October 6, 2025, Lee and Lifeson announced that they were reforming Rush for a tour called
Fifty Something which is scheduled from June to December 2026, with
Anika Nilles on drums. Lee suggested that the tour will include up to two more musicians, including a backing keyboardist. Lee and Lifeson also stated that 35 songs will be performed on the tour, with the intention of varying their setlist at each show. Lee said that he and Lifeson began thinking more seriously about a reunion tour after they travelled to a health spa in Austria. Two years prior, Lifeson had undergone a surgery that left him with
gastroparesis. Lee said when they returned home, both felt willing and able to consider a small number of tour dates in limited North American cities. On February 23, 2026, Rush announced that their first tour outside of North America is set to take place from January to April 2027, starting with their first live dates in South America in seventeen years, followed by the band's first tour in Europe in fourteen years. Rush added
Loren Gold on keyboards in late February 2026. In January 2026, Lee revealed in an interview with
Music Radar that there was a possibility of new music from Rush upon completion of the tour, saying, "Who knows what'll happen, but I suspect some music will eventually come out", and added, "It would be fun to see what [Nilles] can do in a creative situation. Like, that would be fun. But it's all speculation until it isn't." On March 29, 2026, Rush gave a surprise performance at the
2026 Juno Awards, performing "Finding My Way" with their new line-up. ==Musical style and influences==