My introduction to the iconic rock n roll band, Rush, occurred in the early 1990s. In high school, there were a trio of friends who loved music and playing percussion instruments in the high school band. While only one of them played the drums, all three were humongous Rush fans. They exposed me to popular songs from the 1980s albums, Moving Pictures and Hold Your Fire. Needless to say, they were even bigger fans of Neil Peart and talked about him nonstop! Understandably so, check out this video for Tom Sawyer. 

Not long ago, my husband and I began listening to our favorite old Rush songs and going down the rabbit hole on the internet, learning about Neil Peart. Honestly, what I think opened the rabbit hole was the release of Geddy Lee’s biography, My Effin’ Life. My husband and I started talking about how this would be a fascinating book. I love biographies and memoirs. To be transparent, I do not claim to be a huge Rush fan. I like the group and their music, but admittedly, I’m only familiar with their music from the 1980s. I’m not familiar with the music they created beyond the 1990s. However, I do consider myself a fan of these artists and the impact they have had on their dedicated fans. 

Recently, I purchased several books by Neil Peart with my Audible subscription. I read The Masked Rider and developed even more respect for the man. (You can read my review of that book here.) I look forward to reading his other books, but before doing so, I wanted to read My Effin’ Life to learn more about Geddy Lee and Rush. I chose the audiobook format for this book; it’s so cool that Geddy narrates. As a bonus, there are two “new” Rush songs played at the end of the audiobook. They were recorded in 1999, but didn’t make it onto the album they were creating.   

As expected, My Effin’ Life began with the birth of Geddy Lee. He spends a considerable amount of time relaying his family background and childhood. The stories he shares about his family being placed in Nazi concentration camps and his parents meeting there were fascinating. Geddy acknowledged that some readers might not be interested in his personal history lesson, as they most likely picked up the book to learn about Rush, and gave readers permission to move on. I didn’t move on. I appreciate that this was an opportunity for Geddy to share an important personal history. 

The remainder of the book illustrates the life of Rush, including how the band was initially formed, the resignation of their first drummer, how Neil Peart joined the band, and highlights from their impressive 40-year career. Even though I don’t know all of Rush’s songs and albums, I enjoyed learning the stories behind certain songs, their touring lives, and how the band evolved. Since I’m always intrigued by learning about people, I especially loved learning about their personal lives. Geddy opend-up about his marriage, son, and grandson. He talked a lot about Neil’s personal life too, which was pretty sad at times. Geddy relayed the loss of Neil’s daughter and, less than a year later, the loss of his first wife. So tragic! Geddy also shared about Alex’s health problems, which he worried would impact their ability to tour.

As the book was coming to a close, the story got heavy as I knew where things were headed due to the loss of Neil Peart in 2020. I appreciate Geddy sharing his personal letters from Neil and his honest thoughts and feelings about Neil’s decision to retire. While it’s sad for everyone in the band and the fans that Neil wanted to retire, I understand his decision. It’s heartwarming to listen to Geddy share how good this decision was for Neil and how happy he was to be a full-time dad and husband to his second family. While the ending of the book made my heart heavy, it’s a beautiful story. 

When I finished the book, I had to search YouTube for a clip of their last concert in Los Angeles in 2015. Geddy relayed that Neil NEVER came from behind his drum set at the end of a show to say goodnight to the audience. Before their last show, Geddy asked Neil if he would please come to the front of the stage this time. Neil declined. I suppose Neil had a change of heart because he surprised his bandmates by meeting them for a group hug before quickly exiting the stage. I will leave you with this beautiful tribute to that last concert. It brought tears to my eyes. 😢

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