Geddy Lee wrapped up the North American leg of his My Effin' Life spoken word book tour last Thursday night at Toronto's Massey Hall with his BFF Alex Lifeson as guest interviewer, with video available here and here (audio only). After taking a few days off, Ged then kicked off the UK leg of the tour this past Sunday in Wolverhampton with Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers. He then hit Sheffield and Glasgow the past 2 evenings with Melissa Auf der Maur (Hole, The Smashing Pumpkins) and comedian Phill Jupitus respectively. Music journalist Philip Wilding conducted the Q&A portion of the show for all 3 UK dates thus far. Geddy will be heading to Portsmouth on Sunday, and then he'll wrap up the tour this coming Monday at London's Barbican. You can get all the details and learn how to get tickets at Rush.com. All the shows thus far - both in the US and UK - have followed essentially the same format. Those in attendance all receive a hardback edition of My Effin' Life along with a 16-page program. There is also a merch table set up where fans can purchase souvenirs t-shirts, posters and more. Rush has set up an online form where attendees can submit questions for Geddy prior to the show at this link. Each show thus far has featured a wide variety of surprise guest interviewers, ranging from famous actors and musicians, to not-so-famous music writers, to radio DJs, and more. Some of the bigger names included Paul Rudd in NYC, actor Eric McCormack at both the Washington D.C. and Boston appearances, actor Jay Baruchel in Montreal, Krist Novoselic in Seattle, drummer Matt Cameron in San Franciso, Matt Stone in Denver, Jack Black in LA, Soundgarden's Kim Thayil in Chicago, drummer Chad Smith in Detroit, and bassist Melissa Auf der Maur in Sheffield. Other interviewers included showrunner/producer Brian Koppelman (Philly), DJ Pierre Robert (Philly), singer/songwriter Jann Arden, journalist Geoff Edgers (Boston), journalist Rob Tannenbaum (Cleveland), Donna Halper (Cleveland), Jann Arden (Vancouver), Strombo (Toronto), musician Nicky Wire (Wolverhampton), comedian Phill Jupitus (Glasgow) and journalist Philip Wilding (all 3 UK shows). The show begins with a 15-minute slideshow before the secret guest interviewer is revealed. Ged is then interviewed for about 40-5 minutes, before closing out the 1st part by reading a book excerpt. The trailer for Geddy's docu-series on Paramount Plus Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? is shown before the intermission, and Ged then returns and reads another book excerpt before the fan Q&A. Several of the shows thus far have featured another, different guest running the Q&A session. Otherwise, the original interviewer also runs this portion. After the Q&A, Ged has been taking audience selfies that are then made available for download after the show at Rush.com. The entire program lasts about 2 hours. Also of note, the 2 new, unreleased tracks from the My Favorite Headache sessions that Geddy released with the audiobook and for streaming last week (Gone and I Am ... You Are) are played during the intermission and at the end of the show. John at Cygnus-X1.net has transcribed the lyrics for both songs and made them available here. A few new My Effin' Life interviews with Geddy surfaced over the past week, including this one with BBC's Sounds (Geddy comes in at the 1hr 36min mark), this print interview in the lead-up to Ged's upcoming show in Portsmouth, and just yesterday Geddy was interviewed for PBS News Hour, with video available here. The PBS News Hour also posted this bonus video (thanks RushFanForever) where Ged answers 8 rapid-fire questions.

As mentioned above, Geddy Lee included 2 new, unreleased songs as part of the My Effin' Life audio book release, and the tracks were also made available for streaming last week on all major streaming platforms as The Lost Demos. The two songs are titled Gone and I Am ... You Are, and you can listen to them on YouTube and other major streaming services. The tracks were unreleased demos from the recording of Geddy Lee's 2000 solo album My Favorite Headache which he co-wrote with Ben Mink. Mink was a recent guest on the Rushfans YouTube channel's latest Deep Dive video for an extensive interview to discuss unearthing the tracks with Geddy during the process of his writing of My Effin' Life. FANTOONS' David Calcano also takes part in the discussion, describing the story behind the cover artwork that his studio created for The Lost Demos. And as an extra bonus, Deep Dive regular Donna Halper joins in to break down the songs and tell stories about her time with Geddy on his book tour. You can listen to the entire interview below or on YouTube.

Geddy Lee's new docuseries Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? premiered last week on Paramount Plus and all episodes are currently available to stream for subscribers. The four-part series features in-depth conversations between Geddy Lee and Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, Metallica's Rob Trujillo, Primus' Les Claypool, and Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, as seen in the show's trailer and this video clip with Les Claypool. The show has been generally well-received by fans and critics alike. Ultimate Classic Rock posted this article where they list off 10 Things We Learned From Geddy Lee's New TV Show, including this little nugget (or chip):

Geddy Lee and Les Claypool eventually find themselves on a peaceful fishing outing where reminisce about the time Rush and Primus toured together in 1992. Not only were the two fishing buddies on the road, but their bands also bonded over their pre-show jam sessions. "I remember once watching Alex play guitar backstage using a tortilla chip as a pick," Claypool says referencing Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson.

Show director/producer Sam Dunn of Banger Films was interviewed for Forbes magazine this past week for a behind-the-scenes look at the program, which was originally pitched as a TV show based on Geddy's Big Beautiful Book of Bass:

... we started to talk with Geddy about basing a show around the bass. ... He wanted to do the show, but not strictly based on that book. He wanted to do something a little bit different. So where it landed was a show about the bass that's not about the bass at all. Really, it's a catalyst for a conversation and a relationship with a legendary bass player to talk about everything else that they do in their spare time. So really, the genesis is in the Big Beautiful Book of Bass, kind of, but that was really more of like a springboard to talk about the funnest and funniest kind of show you could make using that book as a springboard. ...

There was yet another Rush reference on the popular American quiz show Jeopardy! this past week. On this past Monday's episode, the $1000 clue in The Music of Canada category was as follows:

This "Fly By Night" power trio formed in Toronto in 1968; Neil Peart joined in '74 (Cue the drum solo)

And the question was ... you guessed it - What is Rush! The contestant answered correctly as well. Jeopardy! seems to have a love affair with Rush, and have used the band in MANY clues over the last several years. Here's a short video tweet of the clue/answer:

Another Rush response on Jeopardy tonight @rushtheband pic.twitter.com/V6mMlpWoJu

- Mikey Likey (@That_Man_Is_Me) December 12, 2023

Absolute Radio's John Thomson will be hosting a 12 Drummers Drumming show this Christmas - a new four-part show celebrating a dozen of the greatest drummers from the worlds of rock, pop, jazz and rhythm and blues. Starting December 26th at 9PM, the first show will shine the spotlight on three fabled rock drummers - Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, Rush's Neil Peart and Cream's Ginger Baker. Over the next three nights, John will focus on nine influential pop, jazz and R-n-B drummers including Stewart Copeland, Buddy Rich, and Phil Collins.

DFW Rock Show and The Genesis Museum have teamed up for a new hi-def scan and dubbed/synced audio of their Rush 8mm film from January 10, 1977 at the Dallas Convention Center Theater. You can check out the 4-minute video below or on YouTube.

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!!