This doc footage shows Rush's Alex Lifeson at 17 arguing with his parents about his future
Alex Lifeson, the Canadian musician best known as the co-founder and guitarist of Rush, was only 12 when he started playing the guitar. After school, that's pretty much all he'd do.
"I immediately went upstairs, played guitar till dinner, had dinner and then immediately played guitar till I was supposed to do my homework," the Canadian rock legend tells Q 's Tom Power in an interview. '[I] didn't do my homework. I just couldn't stop playing. Every chance I got, I played."
As a teenager, Lifeson often butted heads with his parents over his total lack of interest in school. In fact, there's even footage of one of their arguments.
WATCH | Alex Lifeson's full interview with Tom Power:
When he was 17, Lifeson was featured in the 1973 documentary Come on Children, which followed the struggles of 10 teenagers. It was directed by the Canadian filmmaker Allan King, one of the earliest pioneers in cinéma verité.
"The premise was 10 kids from all different parts of the city moving in together in a farmhouse," Lifeson explains. "Unfortunately, it was really boring, nothing really happened…. About halfway through, I guess, our parents were invited to tour the farmhouse — it was in Newcastle, Ont. — [to] just see what we were doing."
In one part, Lifeson and his parents are sitting around a dining table discussing his future.
"I don't want to make a bunch of money," says a teenaged Lifeson. "Like, if I make a lot of money, that's great. But I'm not going to go to university and get a big degree…. Who wants to know how much atmospheric pressure is on five milligrams of mercury and stuff like that? That's not going to help me. I don't see why I have to go through all the bullshit of high school to learn music."
"You won't last long, Alex," his mother warns. "You won't last long."
WATCH | Alex Lifeson and his parents argue about his future:
In retrospect, Lifeson can understand why his parents, who were Serbian immigrants from Yugoslavia, had concerns about him dropping out of high school to pursue his dream of becoming a professional guitarist.
"They came from the war," he tells Power. "They came from that horror and having nothing. And they wanted me to be a professional: a dentist or an engineer or something. And I was just set on music…. You know, schooling has a place … but learning about all those things that you had to learn in school — I was so passionate about music. That's not what I needed."
Of course, for Lifeson it all worked out. While it's not typical to see your high school band rise to massive worldwide fame, that's exactly what happened to Rush.
"I really had a belief in myself," he says. "Like, if this doesn't work out, this music thing, well then I'll do something else. I will work with my dad as a plumber's assistant or whatever, but I really believed that this was going to work out. I never worried about it in the early days. And when we started touring in America and when we got our record deal, I mean, that was a major turning point. It was so exciting."
This week, Lifeson will release new music with his band, Envy of None. Their sophomore album, Stygian Waves, comes out everywhere on March 28.
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Winnipeg Free Press
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- Winnipeg Free Press
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Lu Dort, Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin could also be big in series between Oklahoma City and Indiana. Get the latest from Ryan Wolstat straight to your inbox Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (left) and Luguentz Dort of the Oklahoma City Thunder walk on the court during a stop in play. Getty Images There has never been an NBA Finals with as much Canadian flavour as the one set to tip on Thursday. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account While players like Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins have played key roles in the past in the biggest basketball series of the year and others like Dwight Powell, Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph, Joel Anthony, Todd MacCulloch to Bill Wennington, Rick Fox and Mike Smrek have played bit parts, the 2025 matchup between Oklahoma City and Indiana is a completely different scenario. The best player in the series, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning NBA MVP, hails from Hamilton. His teammate Lu Dort, arguably the best defensive player in these Finals, is from Montreal. Andrew Nembhard, who just helped lock down all-NBA New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, might be Indiana's top defender and is from Aurora, Ont. The team's third-leading regular-season scorer, Bennedict Mathurin, is from the same Montreal-Nord neighbourhood as Dort and the two are close (not to mention Pacers scoring leader Pascal Siakam has spent a good portion of his life living in Toronto on his way to becoming an iconic Raptor). Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Canadians will have their fingerprints all over this matchup. The spotlight firmly will be on Gilgeous-Alexander, the sublime scoring machine. If he goes off, as he usually does, the heavily favoured Thunder should cruise to the franchise's first title (the 1979 NBA championship won by the Seattle Supersonics doesn't count). The Pacers will scheme to prevent that from happening and it's fitting that Nembhard, Gilgeous-Alexander's frequent teammate with Canada's national team, will be asked to do much of the heavy lifting in that regard. Nembhard had nine steals over the final two games against the Knicks, frustrating Brunson, and has had at least three swipes four times in these playoffs. Nembhard also has been a big threat at the other end, shooting 48.3% from three, matching his mark in 17 playoff games a year ago, while handing out 5.1 assists for the high-octane Pacers. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He's going to be important, too, both for what Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle will ask from him defensively, and for the pressure he'll take offensively off Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton. Haliburton will likely be hounded by Oklahoma City's defensive-stoppers Dort, Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace and Jaylen Williams. That was the case in the two regular-season matchups between the teams, with Nembhard tasked with running the offence more in those meetings. Expect Dort to be his usual aggressive self against the likes of Haliburton, Nembhard, Mathurin and Siakam. He was 11th in personal fouls in the regular season, is fourth in these playoffs and is built like a tank. Mathurin could be a wild card. Shifted back to the bench, the 22-year-old scoring guard has been inconsistent, but at times has provided points in bunches (like 20 in 12 minutes in Game 4 against New York and then 23 in 25 minutes in Game 6, and some big games earlier against Cleveland and Milwaukee). This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Read More And it's a nice touch that Mathurin and Dort at times likely will match up. Dort said on a recent conference call how big he thinks the moment will be for the city and its young basketball fans. And, like with Gilgeous-Alexander and Nembhard, Dort and Mathurin have trained and competed a lot against each other and know all of each other's tricks, adding another interesting subplot. Overall, Canadians should savour this moment because even though there are now so many in the NBA (only the United States produces more players, with Canada and France neck-and-neck annually for second), there's no guarantees that subsequent Finals will feature as many key Canucks. 'To see four homegrown players competing for an NBA championship is a testament to the depth, resilience and world-class players being developed in Canada,' Rowan Barrett, Canada Basketball's general manager and executive vice-president of men's high performance, said ahead of the Finals. 'We couldn't be prouder of what this means for our country and for the continued growth of the game.' Toronto & GTA Other Sports Ontario Soccer Canada
