RUSH's GEDDY LEE: 'I Don't Want To Just Repeat And Live Off The Fumes Of My Past'

Geddy Lee has told Ultimate Classic Rock that he is "enjoying" the fact that he doesn't know what's next for him. The RUSH bassist/vocalist, who recently released a book called "Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book Of Bass", explained: "My life has been scheduled for the last 42 or so years, and I think I owe it to my family — and I owe it to myself — just to be a human being and allow things to happen, rather than to be so strategic in planning out my moves, if you know what I mean. I did that for so many years that I'm enjoying being bored occasionally. And out of boredom comes productivity, I believe.

"This book was a massive undertaking for me," he continued. "I have another couple of projects that are different from music projects that I'm working on, but I hope to get back into my home studio and see if I have something to say again."

Asked if it was hard to get into that mindset of realizing, "I don't have to be X place all the time," Geddy said: "Yeah. It was hard to adjust to not having my band to rely on, you know, because the band was the epicenter of my life for over 42 years. That's a big adjustment, because everything you do is in context of when you go back to work, right? So your playtime is really playtime, because you know you're going back to work because you do have a job. But when you don't have a schedule to adhere to, it sometimes invokes a bit of panic. You know, where you're going, 'Holy shit, what am I going to do now?' But I have faith in my interests, and I have faith in my ideas, and I know that sooner or later I'll find myself doing something that intrigues me. But I won't do music just for the sake of doing music. I have to feel that I have something to say. And that's really important to me. I don't want to just repeat and live off the fumes of my past."

To date, Lee has only released one solo album, 2000's "My Favourite Headache". The disc was recorded during a time when RUSH's future was uncertain. The band was in the midst of what would be a five-year break from the road following the tragic deaths of drummer Neil Peart's daughter and wife in 1997 and 1998, respectively.

"Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass" documents the evolution of the bass guitar since the 1950s and shows how those evolutions changed the sound of popular music as we know it. The book includes photos of Lee's massive bass collection, as well as interviews with fellow bass players like John Paul Jones of LED ZEPPELIN, Bill Wyman of THE ROLLING STONES and U2's Adam Clayton.

RUSH has been completely inactive since completing its "R40 Live" tour four years ago.