Forward Thinking

Geddy Lee led the prog-rock giants Rush from 1968 to 2018. That’s 40 long years. Now that the ultimate power trio have called time, he’s made his mark as an author—but enough about the past… we want to know what his next move might be. Ellen O’Reilly puts the questions to the master

- Ellen O’Reilly

Readers with keen memories will recall that we sat down with the mighty Geddy Lee a few months back to discuss his then-new publication, The Big Beautiful Book Of Bass. In that interview we talked about the journey that the Rush frontman had been on during the creation of the book, but we didn’t have space to fit our entire conversation into that issue—so here’s the rest of the amazing afternoon we spent in conversation with Geddy.

Here, he covers the incredible depth with which he researched the history of the Fender Jazz bass—you’ll know, of course, that he has a signature model of his own—as well as the choices that lie ahead of him. Once you’ve reached the very top of the rock world, shaken hands with your bandmates and walked away, what do you do with the rest of your life? It’s not as easy a decision as you might think...

doesn’t just list a bunch of bass guitars—it’s a journey through a period of history.

You know, it was really fun to learn about that stuff—and it’s a window into other cultures too. The biggest [historical] change that you see in the course of the book, is that in the mid 60s, the Beatles happened. They really changed everything— everybody wanted a bass, or a guitar, or drums. Instrument production and demand was incredible, and all those companies had to change. You can track it with almost every manufacturer. Changes happened fast. Production just exploded.

You write about the specific impact of this on Fender in your book.

Well, some of the stress of the increased production demands was too much for Leo and his partner, and they had talked about getting out, and that’s why he sold to CBS at that time. There were a lot of reasons involved in that. Things changed at Fender, they brought in new people—it’s not quantifiable unless you compare them side by side.