Alex Lifeson says Geddy Lee working on a photo book of bass guitars, Rush not done in new Sirius XM interview

UPDATE - 4/13@6:55PM: Blabbermouth.net now has a detailed recap of Alex's Sirius XM interview with several direct quotes in it here. Will C had the gist of things correct, but this report fills in a lot of details. Here's a sampling:

... "I would say that it's unlikely that we'll tour again as RUSH. Really, we toured for forty-one years, and I have to say that first year off, I felt like I was grieving for my career and the band, but truly, forty-one years of touring the way we toured, I shouldn't feel badly about that." ... Even though there are no plans for RUSH to regroup in the foreseeable future, Lifeson revealed that "Ged and I will probably do something together. He's been really busy. He's working on his own little book project. He's become quite a bass guitar collector, and he wants to do a little thing on the history of the instrument. So that's keeping him super busy." As for Peart, Lifeson said: "I'm not sure what Neil's doing these days. He's on the West Coast. He's always got something going on." ...

As far as Neil Peart goes he said, "I'm not sure what Neil's doing these days. He's on the West Coast. He's always got something going on." In my original post, I reported (paraphrasing based on Will C's report) that Alex had said, "I haven't heard from Neil in quite a while". So that wasn't too far off.

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UPDATE - 4/10@3:35PM: Apparently the interview is available for subscribers on the SiriusXM app in the OnDemand section for about seven days. It's on the Volume channel, show title Debatable (thanks Bluesaloon).

Over the past few months, Geddy Lee has been adding several new guitars to his already extensive bass collection as well as making a few side trips to check out some famous/rare guitars. Back in January Geddy purchased a 1961 Hofner 191 double-neck which he showed off in this Instagram post, and last month he visited UK-based vintage guitar shop Guncotton Guitars to purchase a mint 1960 Hofner 500/1 bass guitar as seen in this photo. Ged also posted a photo of himself to Instagram holding John Entwistle's legendary Frankenstein Fender Precision Bass a few weeks ago. Most recently he paid a visit to Norm's Rare Guitars in Los Angeles with his bass tech Scully where Norm's filmed a 2.5-minute video of Geddy's visit to YouTube as seen here. In the video they talk about how Ged had purchased guitars from Norm in the past, including one used on the last tour - a bass originally owned by Jimmy Bryant's bass player Rue Barclay as pictured in this Instagram post. It seems that there's a method to Ged's bass-collecting madness of late. Alex Lifeson was interviewed by Sirius XM prior to the 2017 Rock Hall induction ceremony this past Friday, and - according to reader Will C who was able to tune in to the interview - mentioned that Geddy was keeping himself busy putting together a book on classic bass guitars. From other information I've obtained, it sounds like the book will be a coffee table book of photographs of rare and famous bass guitars from both Geddy's own collection and other collections, and the publisher will be Harper Collins or one of its subsidiaries. There's no news on a release date yet, but I'd imagine that they are aiming for a Holiday season release later this year. More information as we learn it. Will C also reports that in the Sirius XM interview, Alex mostly spoke about YES and their Rock Hall induction, but did cover a few other subjects. Alex mentioned that he no longer feels constrained by the album format, and felt that he could release smaller numbers of songs whenever he was ready to, although he didn't give any details on what or when or with whom. He went on to say that he and Geddy would definitely be writing and working together in the near future, but didn't give any specifics on that either. When Alex was asked what Neil Peart was up to he just said, "I haven't heard from Neil in quite a while" (paraphrasing - NOT a direct quote). On a positive note, he emphatically stated that Rush as an entity is not finished and that, "we will be doing things together again", but again - no timetable or specifics. It doesn't look like the interview is available online anywhere, but if you heard it and have anything to add or clarify, please let us know.