Rush

Rush has also raised more than one million dollars for charities such as food banks and the United Way. In 1996, Rush received the Order of Canada.

Geddy Lee is a baseball fan, and could often be seen in the seats behind home plate during the Toronto Blue Jays’ 2015 playoff run.

Geddy Lee was born Gary Lee Weinrib and his parents were both Polish holocaust survivors. Lee’s mom was imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen and Lee’s father was in Dachau. This harrowing tale of survival served as inspiration for primary lyricist Peart. “Red Sector A” from Grace Under Pressure never directly references Jewish concentration camps, but Peart has admitted that he took much of the inspiration for the song’s bleak lyrics about “skeletons shuffled away” from Lee’s mother’s descriptions of Bergen-Belsen’s conditions.

After over a decade of being snubbed, Rush finally got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. While most Hall inductees take their speech opportunity to thank family, discuss influences or trumpet political causes, Lifeson simply said “blah, blah, blah” in conversational style through his entire speech. The speech quickly became a YouTube sensation, hailed by many as a brilliant takedown of the typical long-winded Hall speech.