Geddy Lee Quotes

“With the help of modern technology, I can compose intricate keyboard parts and then I have to go back and learn them in order to perform them properly.”

— Geddy Lee

“Live albums are very important for Rush, and they became sort of a closing chapter for us.”

— Geddy Lee

“Certainly my personality, my sense of humor, my outlook on life was informed by the experiences of my parents and the stories they shared with me.”

— Geddy Lee

“Music is all about wanting to be better at it.”

— Geddy Lee

“If I start mining for opinions on hundreds of websites that have fan forums, I'll be totally distorted in my view of myself. I'll lose myself in all that.”

— Geddy Lee

I am moved more by melodies, song structure, and evocative textures.

— Geddy Lee

“That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.”

— Geddy Lee

“I prefer to think of myself as a musician who is still learning and trying to do something every time out.”

— Geddy Lee

“There was a time when fast playing and fretboard pyrotechnics on the bass were important to me and when I am recording a bass track, that is still very important to me.”

— Geddy Lee

“I guess, we were people who just dedicated to trying to get better.”

— Geddy Lee

“I have always felt I was more accurately a Hard Rock musician.”

— Geddy Lee

“I have a lot of hobbies and I can be very remiss in reminding myself to go down to the basement to work.”

— Geddy Lee

“I love to write. It's my first love.”

— Geddy Lee

“It's hard for me to just practice without writing something.”

— Geddy Lee

“With me, satisfaction is always very fleeting with our work. I always get a little restless with it.”

— Geddy Lee

“The first song that made me interested in music was 'Oh, Pretty Woman' by Roy Orbison. It was the guitar intro, that riff, that I really liked and made me listen in a different way.”

— Geddy Lee

“I can't remember the first song I learned to play on bass, but the first song I learned to play on guitar was 'For Your Love' by the Yardbirds. That kind of was the beginning for me. I thought it was a great song and I loved the open chord progression at the beginning of that song.”

— Geddy Lee

“I think jamming is the way we begin to communicate. In the old days, people actually wrote notes on paper and sent them to each other. I guess that's how they jammed.”

— Geddy Lee

“I was taking piano lessons with a very good piano instructor in Toronto, and I'm afraid due to my schedule and discipline, it kind of fell apart. One thing lead to another and I was unable to practice as much as I wanted to.”

— Geddy Lee

It's a battle between record company, between producer and between mastering engineer. Because the louder you make your record in a digital process, the more dynamics are squished out of it. Nobody knows exactly what happens, but the dynamics in the performance disappear, and everything is at the same volume.

— Geddy Lee

“Something happens when you become an elder rock & roller and you're still functioning. People start to give you awards and recognize achievements. It's the life achievement period of your career.”

— Geddy Lee

“I do love using keyboards and I love writing keyboard parts, but I am not a player in the true sense of the word.”

— Geddy Lee

“I'm a big believer of daylight in the studio.”

— Geddy Lee

Live records of mine are very painful to listen to because you always think you can do it better. I don't think I have a single favorite one.

— Geddy Lee

First of all, when you live in a country like Canada, it's quite different from America in the sense that it's very tied to traditions that were born in Britain.

— Geddy Lee

“I think you just have to cross your fingers that there's enough artists out there that keep producing interesting work, and eventually it will form a kind of wave that will force people to pay attention to it.”

— Geddy Lee

“I liked the fact that I was forced to get inside of my emotions and to really try to figure out a lot of what I was going through.”

— Geddy Lee

I think, basically, the music industry is scattered and in a mess. I think you've got lots of people that are so-called 'experts' that have no idea where it's headed.

— Geddy Lee

“It's very rare - and it does happen on occasion - where I'll take a piece of lyric and I'll just sit down and purposefully craft that melody around that lyric because I think the lyric is the wellspring for the song, without question.”

— Geddy Lee

Then, once I have lyrics, being able to shape them around a song is nothing new for me, I've been doing that for 25 years. The soul searching part of it, the spontaneous part of it, that was, and remains, a really terrific process.

— Geddy Lee

“My diet, my regime, the whole life I have on the road has always got that little bit of stress because I'm always afraid I'm going to get a cold. And it's just such a nightmare when you got a cold or an irritation and you have to do a show.”

— Geddy Lee

“So, I don't know what is going to happen when the CD comes out, how well it will sell, etc. But, from a personal point of view, it was a very worthwhile endeavor.”

— Geddy Lee

I worry about my voice 24/7 when I'm on tour. It's like a pitcher and his arm. It's constantly the thing that my whole life revolves around.

— Geddy Lee

For me, there is a lot of room for improvement and there are a lot of things I would like to be better at.

— Geddy Lee

“Some writing and production projects will be a great way to spend my elderly rock years.”

— Geddy Lee

“For me, how I feel about what I wrote down turns into a song.”

— Geddy Lee

“I feel a little uncomfortable about endorsements.”

— Geddy Lee

“I would like to shift more into writing for and producing people.”

— Geddy Lee

“So, I really don't consider myself a fabulous keyboard player.”

— Geddy Lee

“I have such an extreme attitude about work, where I can just completely be derelict of my responsibilities and then when I am not derelict, I am completely indulged in it. I swing pretty wildly from the two extremes.”

— Geddy Lee

“I feel safe and comfortable to do that once I know that the song structure around the bass part is very interesting and it satisfies me in a compositional sense.”

— Geddy Lee

“I would like to think that Ben and myself have begun a partnership that will take us into different areas of music that we can continue to write, enjoy and keep me involved with music other then what I do with RUSH.”

— Geddy Lee

Music turned to digital, and suddenly you had the possibility to make things louder than loudest, which boggles the mind but it's true, and what you have are all kinds of different ways of distorting your music.

— Geddy Lee

“My emotions are very simple and always have been about the Hall of Fame. It's something that I had absolutely nothing to do with and had no control over, so I never thought much about it, to be frank.”

— Geddy Lee

“And the meek shall inherit the earth,”

— Geddy Lee

“Invisible airwaves crackle with life Bright antennae bristle with the energy Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free”

— Geddy Lee

“To Toronto City Council:
The Sam The Record Man store and sign were important fixtures in Toronto's musical landscape as well as its Civic history. Sadly, all that remains now are our memories of the store and this magnificant neon sign. Ryerson and they City of Toronto should absolutely preserve what myself and many of its citizens consider to be an important symbol of our past and of that store's contributions to our culture.”

— Geddy Lee

“The sudden passing of Jack Bruce is terribly sad news. One of the greatest rock bassists to ever live and a true and profound inspiration to countless musicians. He was one of my first bass heroes and was a major influence on my playing and my music. My heartfelt condolences to his family and fans.”

— Geddy Lee

I was thrilled to support the Teenage Cancer Trust while celebrating the music of The Who - a band that changed my life.

— Geddy Lee

“I'm always scouring the universe for great old instruments from the '50s and early '60s. That's really, for me, the golden age of basses, when they had just been invented within 10 years of that period and they had just started to come into their own, especially the old Fender jazz basses and old Rickenbackers and Gibsons. I'm always on the lookout. It's fun.”

— Geddy Lee