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Alex Lifeson, Donna Halper interviews at Yahoo! News

Mon, Apr 18, 2011@4:46PM | comments removed/disabled

[Legendary rock outfit Rush owes much to Cleveland]

Yahoo! News contributor Peter Chakerian caught up with Alex Lifeson and Donna Halper last week prior to the Cleveland show for a piece titled Legendary rock outfit Rush owes much to Cleveland. This was one of the many articles discussing Cleveland's role in the history of Rush that were published in the lead-up to the live DVD filming of Rush's show at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland Friday night. Alex touches on the importance of Cleveland in the band's history:

... "Cleveland was hugely important for us, because up until we were embraced there, we were just basically a bar band in Toronto," ... "We were on the Southern Ontario high school dance circuit and doing clubs. "To come to America was such a huge deal, and to come to Cleveland -- with its rich connections and rock music heritage and be embraced by the city and crowd there -- it really was a really great experience for us. It all started for us in Cleveland and the city has a giant place in our hearts." ... "It couldn't be more appropriate to be doing the DVD in Cleveland. I can't tell you the number of gigs we played at the Agora when we were starting out," ... "I definitely remember those gigs! The genuine interest in the band was amazing, the place was always packed and we were on that little stage playing our hearts out. When I close my eyes as a guy who calls himself 'forty-seventeen' (57 years old) now, I can still see myself us there playing and miss the skinny, sweaty long-haired guitar guy who was up on stage!" he laughed. ...

Donna Halper, who discovered Rush while working as program director at legendary Cleveland radio station WMMS back in 1974, had some nice things to say about the band:

... "One of the unique things about Rush is that they're singularly distinctive in so many ways," ... "Not just in their sound, or how they have continued to reinvent themselves when the critics and music industry insiders are stuck on the bands that don't, but in how unusual they are as people—they're not caught up in the myth of the rock star, those people who begin believe their own hype. "Success hasn't spoiled them," ...

And Alex Lifeson likewise had some nice things to say about Donna, who they invited to the Cleveland show as a special guest of the band:

... "It's really difficult to say if or when we might have broken out, or what it would have looked like without the help of Donna when we finally did," agreed Lifeson. "We had a couple other American record companies at our bar gigs who were mildly interested, but having Donna in our corner -- which really led us to our first contract with Mercury Records -- was a really big deal for us." ...

On the subject of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Alex says:

... "We do have a long history and have remained intact in terms of personnel, along with seeming to fit the criteria. But this [Rock Hall] is a private little project and they're not really that interested in us, which is fine," he added. "We're busier than ever, sometimes more than we all want to be... We'll just see what happens." ...

On the other hand Donna Halper, like many diehard Rush fans, does not mince words when discussing the Rock Hall:

... "The first critics who went to Rush concerts were very critical of the band, called them Led Zeppelin clones and so on -- and those same critics are now voters for the Rock Hall," Halper offered. "These critics never changed their opinion of Rush as the '70s band they loved to hate. Rush has reinvented themselves a million times, but these same critics never have. I hope I live to see them get in, because while the guys are being gentlemen about it, I'm furious the Hall won't acknowledge them. "This isn't about judges or elitism or anything," Halper added. "This is about three guys who have made millions of fans happy for 38 years and are, for all intents and purposes, the mostly original band. What more do they have to do to get in? "If [Rolling Stone magazine publisher and Rock Hall co-founder] Jann Wenner was sitting in front of me, that's the question I would ask him... 'Seriously, what more do they have to do?'" ...

Well said Donna! And when Lifeson is asked how long he thinks the band can keep going, he replies:

... We're more popular than we've ever have been, performing with more confidence and skill, having greater vision on how we build our shows, watching our audience relationship build to a place that is as large as it has ever been. We have so many things in the right place. "The only thing that I see stopping us at this point would be the physicality of growing older... I figure we can play at the peak level we're at now for at least the next few years," ...

You can read the entire article at this link. For complete coverage of the Cleveland show and live DVD filming, be sure to check out this post.

Related Posts:
[Rush 2011 Time Machine Tour: Cleveland open thread]
[Cleveland Plain Dealer talks with Geddy Lee, Donna Halper ahead of tonight's show]
[Alex Lifeson on the Cleveland DVD, Rock Hall in new interview]
[Rush to film April 15th show at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland]

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