Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have revealed their regrets about the band’s farewell tour, as they couldn’t bring their show to other countries.

Rush launched their final tour, R40 Live Tour, in 2015. It commemorated the 40th anniversary of drummer Neil Peart joining the band in July 1974. The tour hit only the U.S. and Canada,

“I’d pushed really hard to get more gigs so that we could do those extra shows and I was unsuccessful,” Lee tells Classic Rock in a new interview. “I really felt like I let our British and European fans down.”

He adds, “It felt to me incorrect that we didn’t do it, but Neil (Peart) was adamant that he would only do thirty shows and that was it. That to him was a huge compromise because he didn’t want to do any shows. He didn’t want to do one show.”

“Ged and I were disappointed that Neil demanded playing only a limited number of dates which precluded a U.K. and European run,” Lifeson adds. “I think a dozen or so more dates would have made us a bit more accepting.”

He says Peart almost agreed to do more shows, but his health got in the way, sharing, “He got a painful infection in one of his feet.”

“I mean, he could barely walk to the stage at one point,” Lifeson says. “They got him a golf cart to drive him to the stage. And he played a three-hour show, at the intensity he played every single show.”

The R40 Live Tour wrapped up on August 1, 2015, and Peart announced his retirement that December. He passed away January 7, 2020, following a battle with brain cancer. He was 67.

Source: RTT Music News