Metallica and Jack Black are fans: Canadian rock band Rush drop milestone 50-song box set
Three-piece Rush last performed in Los Angeles in 2015 and their drummer Neil Peart died in 2020, but their popularity hasn’t diminished
Celine Dion, Leonard Cohen, Justin Bieber, Shania Twain and Bryan Adams are just some of Canada’s many, world-famous musicians. And of course, there’s the unforgettable Rush trio, hailed as one of the most influential rock bands of all.
Among the avowed Rush fans are Metallica and the Foo Fighters, film stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd, US talk show host Stephen Colbert and even South Park creator Matt Stone.
Now to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the band is releasing a career-spanning retrospective.
Rush 50 documents the development of the band, founded in Toronto, with 50 songs on four CDs or seven vinyl LPs.
Rush’s sound has changed again and again from their very first, long unavailable single “Not Fade Away” in 1973 to the live recording of the encore at their last concert in Los Angeles in 2015, What You’re Doing/Working Man/Garden Road.
The line-up of singer, bassist and keyboardist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart, who died in 2020, championed all kinds of genres, as evidenced by nearly 20 albums. In 1974, Peart replaced John Rutsey after the release of the band’s debut album and went on to become Rush’s main lyricist.