Rush's Fifty Something tour will kick off in Los Angeles in just a little over 4 months from now on June 7th, and finish up towards the end of the year on December 17th in Vancouver. Although that's likely not the end of the story, as additional legs outside of North America are rumored to be in the works. The band is currently busy prepping for the tour, but Geddy Lee took a short break last week to chat with Music Radar for an interview (that has since been taken down) and was asked about the possibility of fans hearing any new Rush music on the tour:

... "My intent, before we got into this celebration of Rush's history, was to put some music together ... Now, I assumed I would be doing that on my own, not with Alex, but when we started jamming, I started seeing the possibility of doing something with Alex - but all of that went on hold now because there's too much work. There's too much work to do for this tour to even think about that. But if we manage to survive the tour, and go back to Canada and have a rest, who knows what'll happen, but I suspect some music will eventually come out. ...

He also did not rule out involving new drummer Anika Nilles:

... Yeah, especially if Anika can still stand us! [Laughs] It would be fun to see what she can do in a creative situation," says Lee. "Like, that would be fun. But it's all speculation until it isn't, so ...

When the tour was first announced, there was a quick mention that the band planned to donate a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales to funding the Neil Peart Memorial at Lakeside Park in Neil's hometown of St. Catharines. This past week, the city of St. Catharines Council made it official, announcing that the planned donations from Rush's tour are expected to get the project to its goal of $1 million (to date the task force has raised just over $200,000). Plans for the memorial include two bronze statues of Peart from sculptor Morgan MacDonald that will be connected by an interactive pathway. You can learn more about the Memorial and how to make a donation of your own at this location.

Last week Rush announced the release of their long-anticipated 40th anniversary Grace Under Pressure box set. The set will feature a brand-new Terry Brown album mix commissioned by Rush, the first-ever release of the complete concert film and album of the September 21, 1984 Maple Leaf Gardens show, and liner notes from Geddy Lee reflecting on the album over 40 years after its release. Physical editions of the set will be available as a Super Deluxe version only, either with 4-CDs or 5 LPs. In addition, a Super Deluxe Digital Edition and a Dolby Atmos Digital Edition will be made available, along with the Grace Under Pressure Tour: Live in Toronto 1984 being offered separately as a video DSP. Last week Rush posted the previously-unreleased video for Kid Gloves from the set to YouTube, and you can check it out below or at this location. The set will release on March 13th with pre-order/pre-save links available here. You can get all the details in this post.

The 2026 NAMM show took place last week in Anaheim, and Gibson unveiled a new batch of Epiphone guitars including a new ICG (Inspired by Gibson Custom Guitars) Alex Lifeson 1976 ES-355 reissue. Premier Guitars met up with Gibson's VP of Product, Mat Koehler, at the show, who gave a rundown of the guitar and its features which you can check out below or in this YouTube video. The guitar will retail for just under $1500, and is expected to release in April.

This past Tuesday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Rush's Geddy Lee recognized the occasion by posting a photo of his grandfather Gershon Eliezer Rubinstein to Instagram, who died in a concentration camp:

The only surviving photo of my grandfather- Gershon Eliezer Rubinstein - whom I am named after - In the middle of a winter's night in 1940 he was dragged from his home in Wierzbnik Poland, at gunpoint, thrown into jail, then sent to his death at Treblinka Concentration Camp. His crime? Being a Jew.

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Triumph's Rik Emmett was recently interviewed for Ultimate Guitar to talk about his band's upcoming reunion tour, and was asked about fellow Canadians Rush also deciding to reunite for a tour:

... "Yeah. I mean, serendipity. But it might also be something that's sort of a temperature of the times. And then the temperature of our own age is getting to a certain point. Alex [Lifeson] is pretty good friends with Gil. They play golf together a lot. And Alex and I know each other a little bit, and he played on my last album that I'd made for Mascot [2016's 'RES 9']. I think him and Geddy [Lee] got together, and they were just doing some playing, and one thing led to another, and then they had a guy on their crew say, 'Hey, I did this tour, and there's this female drummer that if you're ever thinking of doing it, you should maybe give her a call.' In their case, I think maybe not boredom, but you're getting to a point you go, 'What can I do that would be a lot of fun?' And then playing music is fun. That's one of the things that draws you. So even though you're in your 70s, it hasn't stopped being fun. I mean, you got to work around arthritis and other things, and I think that same reasoning that when my wife said, 'Well, it means you're going to get on your elliptical machine more often,' I think probably Alex and Geddy are getting that from their better halves, too." ...

The Much Rewind YouTube channel recently posted a very candid, uncut, 20-minute Hold Your Fire-era interview with Geddy Lee from their archives (thanks Thomas P). Ged talks about a number of subjects including the live music experience, life on tour, his passion for the Blue Jays and more:

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