Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett recently sat down with Guitar Center for an interview at their San Francisco store. At one point he talks about hanging out with Alex Lifeson after a Rush show:

There was another time when I found myself thinking, "Holy sh*t. I'm living my high school fantasy". And that was when I had gone to see Rush and then after the show I was hanging out with Alex Lifeson. We were just hanging out, drinking wine, talking about guitars and I thought, "Yeah - I really made it. I'm really here, right now, hanging out with Alex Lifeson backstage drinking wine." It doesn't get much better than that.

You can check out the full interview on YouTube below or at this link; the Rush part comes in at about the 6:25 mark. Thanks to Chris C for the heads up. Hammett has mentioned Lifeson as being a huge influence several times in the past, and was one of the artists interviewed for the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage.