A Cleveland DJ gave the Canadian trio Rush its American break
Rush's first album sold modestly in Canada and critics called it a Led Zeppelin knockoff. Then Donna Halper, a DJ at Cleveland's WMMS, started spinning Working Man. Its blue-collar lyrics hit home with the city's factory workers, demand for the import surged, and within weeks Mercury Records had signed the band.
Guitarist Alex Lifeson, drummer John Rutsey and bassist Jeff Jones formed the group in August 1968 in Toronto's Willowdale neighbourhood. Their first gig, in a church-basement youth centre, paid CA$25, and Rutsey's brother Bill supplied the name because it was short. Jones soon left, and Lifeson's schoolmate Geddy Lee took over bass and vocals. Lee was briefly pushed out in 1969, while the band played as Hadrian, but a flop show brought an apologetic phone call asking him back.
A 1971 change lowering Ontario's drinking age from 21 to 18 opened up bars and clubs, and the trio went from a garage act to playing six nights a week. When no major label bit, manager Ray Danniels created his own imprint, Moon Records; their debut single, a cover of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away, reached only No. 88 in Canada. To pay the $9,000 needed to finish the album, Danniels sold his stake in his management company. Rutsey tore up his lyrics just before vocals were recorded, so Lee wrote replacements.
After Halper's airplay, Rush opened for ZZ Top in Cleveland in June 1974, and Mercury's Cliff Burnstein signed them within a day to a $200,000 two-album deal. The American pressing carried a dedication to Halper. That July Neil Peart replaced Rutsey, completing the lineup that lasted until 2015 and steered the music from blues-based hard rock through progressive epics and synthesiser-heavy 1980s records, with lyrics steeped in science fiction and philosophy.
The band has sold an estimated 43 million albums worldwide, won ten Juno Awards and was inducted by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. Peart died in 2020. In October 2025 Lifeson and Lee announced a reunion tour with Anika Nilles on drums.
Source: Rush (band)
