A new interview with Alex Lifeson of Rush has surfaced courtesy of Modern Guitars Magazine. Among the topics touched upon during the interview include the Grammy nomination for Lifeson’s song “Hope,” the Snakes & Arrows tour and whether or not the group will quit touring after their next one.

Lifeson indicated that the Canadian trio is planning to relax for a while and recover from their last tour, which consisted of about 120 shows. It’s easy to see why this hard-working group has no plans to do much of anything together until next fall at the earliest, although Lifeson admits that he and bassist/lead vocalist Geddy Lee live about five minutes from one another and sometimes get together to play around with musical ideas that can unexpectedly lead to more serious work.

Having recently reviewed the group’s most recent live DVD, it was interesting to see what Lifeson had to say about their experiences while filming some of the humorous vignettes that both Lifeson and Lee obviously enjoyed making. I think both of them may have a secret desire to make their own comedy film some day.

Lifeson also reveals that there is some possibility that their 2002 album Vapor Trails may be re-mixed, saying that they were never really satisfied with how it turned out, and he goes into the technical details a little bit about why it sounds the way it does.

The recent passing of former Rush drummer John Rutsey is also discussed, which also led to a tidbit that  I had not previously heard. After Rutsey decided to leave the group in 1973 due to health reasons, a drummer by the name of Jerry Fielding filled in for a while, allowing the fledgling group to honor some previous commitments for gigs that had been scheduled.

No Rush interview would be complete without a discussion around the issue of their “last tour”. Asked about a rumor that their next tour will be the last one, Lifeson does not say, and as he points out, none of us know exactly where life will be taking us. However, he does say that the group has a list of things that they want to do that they are “very excited about doing,” and that includes touring, a record and some other things.

Although he makes a very valid point about not knowing where life will take the members of Rush, it appears that they are not thinking yet about calling it quits. As Lifeson puts it, “…we’re certainly making lots of plans for the future, and I don’t think it’s going to be anytime soon that we’re going to be retiring.”

There’s a lot more in the interview which you can read at Modern Guitars Magazine.