Rush manager Ray Danniels says it’s possible the band’s upcoming R40 40th Anniversary tour may also serve as the group’s farewell tour.
Rush have recently announced North American dates that will see the band hit 34 cities across the continent this summer, with shows beginning May 8 in Tulsa, OK.
Asked if the trek will be Rush’s final, farewell tour, Danniels tells Celebrity Access: "Somewhere between possible and probable. There are some of us who would keep going forever, and there are some of us who wouldn’t. So it’s a process of working that out. And what somebody thinks today may not be what they think in a month.
“I am focused on making this as good as it can be, and then seeing where we are,” he continues. “I did not want to do a farewell tour. There was no one in the band who wanted to do that because there is nobody who thinks it is that final or thinks that they won’t make music or do something.
“But I will tell you this: I am probably not going to be able to get a band full of 65 year olds out again on the road - which is what would happen next time with any potential tour - they all would be 65-ish. Neil is as much an athlete as he is a musician, but with these 2 1/2 and 3 hour length sets, I don’t know if it possible to keep up with that (physical) demand. And they each want to go out on top in every single way.”
Bassist Geddy Lee addressed the farewell tour question recently on VH1 Classic’s “That Metal Show.”
"It's very hard to answer that question for a lot of reasons,” Lee explains. “The three guys in this band have different opinions on this point – everyone's in a different space right now. Neil has a young child at home and he's said numerous times that it's very hard for him to leave his daughter. She needs him.
"It's clear that we are at a point in our career that we have to slow down – and slow down dramatically,” Lee continues. “So, I'm not a guy who's in love with the farewell tour idea, but it's clear that this is going to be the last big tour that we're going to do for a while, anyway.”
The 2015 tour is named after Rush’s 40th anniversary box set, “R40.”
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