Geddy Lee recently spoke to Rolling Stone’s Ryan Reed about the new reissue of Rush’s 1978 LP Hemispheres, and at the end he casually mentioned that the band may find a way to continue on after Neil Peart’s retirement. “I would say there’s no chance of seeing Rush on tour again as Alex, Geddy, Neil,” he said. “But would you see one of us or two of us or three of us? That’s possible.”
For full context, Rush have been completely inactive ever since their R40 Live Tour wrapped up three years ago. Peart says that playing concerts at his age causes too much painful wear and tear on his body and he’d rather be at home with his wife and young daughter. For all practical purposes, he is now retired. That puts Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson in a difficult situation. They are eager to continue playing music on the road, but they haven’t performed without Peart since he joined the band in 1974. They’d previously said that they wouldn’t do anything without Peart, but they are clearly softening on that position. Here are three ways they could move forward.