Rush Has No Love For Jann Wenner

With the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony having taken place a little over a month ago, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart of Rush have had a little time to reflect on that special night.

Geddy says, “It was quite an emotional evening to feel the amount of love from so many different and unexpected places. When you have guys from Public Enemy turning around and patting you on the back — jeez, even Spike Lee was so nice and giving us respect — you kind of pinch yourself and wonder: where the hell am I?”

And, it turned out to be a nice birthday present for Geddy’s wife. "I was feeling bad that she had spent it playing second fiddle to the band once again. But so many iconic acts — such as Jackson Browne and Carole King — appeared that brought back moments of our life. My wife turned to me in the middle of the show and said there was probably no more suitable place to spend her birthday because we'd been living our lives through all these songs. It was a perfect moment for her to reflect and that's what it felt like for all of us."

Neil Peart writes about the induction on his website and in particular talks about the rehearsals when Jann Wenner, the Hall’s co-founder and vice-chairman, suggested he slow the tempo of “Crossroads,” which was the last song of the ceremony’s annual jam session. Peart writes that he did not know it was Wenner, who he writes is “The world’s most powerful Rush-hater, rumored to have personally kept us out of the Hall of Fame all these years! Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins told me later that at that moment he had to walk away so he wouldn’t hit him — and when I wrote about it to another mutual friend and fellow drummer, Stewart Copeland of The Police, he wrote back that he wished he had been there so he could head-butt the guy! Nice to have the support of my drum-brothers, but I didn’t see it as an insult, but a challenge. I am Canadian, and ‘We aim to please.’”