Geddy Lee Weinrib (; born Gary Lee Weinrib, July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Rock music band Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968 at the request of his childhood friend Alex Lifeson, replacing original bassist and frontman Jeff Jones. Along with Lifeson, Lee is one of the only two members to appear on every Rush album, and he remained in the band until its hiatus, which lasted from 2015 to 2025. Lee's solo effort, My Favourite Headache, was released in 2000.
Lee's style, technique, and skill on the bass have inspired many rock musicians such as Cliff Burton of Metallica; Steve Harris of Iron Maiden; John Myung of Dream Theater; Les Claypool of Primus; Steve Di Giorgio of Sadus, Death and Testament; and Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Along with his Rush bandmates – guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart – Lee was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio was the first rock band to receive this honor. "Rush highlights" , MapleMusic Recordings (accessed May 23, 2007). In 2013, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after 14 years of eligibility. In 2006, Lee was ranked 13th by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Vocalists of All Time. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Lee 24th on their list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time
When Lee started school, his name was incorrectly registered. As a result, Lee grew up thinking his middle name was "Lorne". As a teenager, he saw a copy of his birth certificate and discovered that his middle name was "Lee".
Lee's father died young, which forced Lee's mother to work to support their three children by running the Newmarket, Ontario, variety store that her husband had owned and managed. Lee has suggested that his father's death was probably a factor in his becoming a musician: "It was a terrible blow that I lost him, but the course of my life changed because my mother couldn't control us." He has said that losing his father at such an early age made him aware of how "quickly life can disappear", which inspired him from then on to get the most out of his life and music.
Lee turned his basement into practice space for a band he formed with high school friends. After the band began earning income from small performances at high school shows or other events, he decided to drop out of high school and play rock and roll professionally. His mother was devastated when he gave her the news.
Jweekly featured Lee's reflections on his mother's experiences as a refugee and on his own Jewish heritage. Lee's name, Geddy, was derived from his mother's Polish-accented pronunciation of his given first name, Gary. This was picked up by his friends in school, leading Lee to adopt it as his stage name (excising his surname, leaving his middle name as his surname) and later his legal name, Geddy Lee Weinrib (replacing his first name).
After Rush had become a widely recognized rock group, Lee told the group's drummer and lyricist, Neil Peart, about his mother's early life. Peart then wrote the lyrics to "Red Sector A", which was inspired by her ordeal. The song, for which Lee wrote the music, was released on the band's 1984 album Grace Under Pressure. The lyrics include the following verse:
In 1969, Rush began playing professionally in coffeehouses, high school dances and at various outdoor recreational events. By 1971, they were now playing primarily original songs in small clubs and bars, including Toronto's Gasworks and Abbey Road Pub. Lee describes the group during these early years as being "weekend warriors". They were holding down jobs during the weekdays and playing music on weekends: "We longed to break out of the boring surrounding of the suburbs and the endless similarities . . . the shopping plazas and all that stuff...the music was a vehicle for us to speak out." He claims that in the beginning, they were simply "a straightforward rock band."
Short of money, they began opening concerts at venues such as Toronto's Victory Burlesque Theatre for the glam rock band New York Dolls. By 1972, Rush began performing full-length concerts, mainly consisting of original songs, in cities including Toronto and Detroit. As they gained more recognition, they began performing as an opening act for groups such as Aerosmith, Kiss, and Blue Öyster Cult.
By the 1980s, Rush had become one of the "biggest rock bands on the planet", selling out arena seats when touring. Lee was known for his dynamic stage movements. According to music critic Tom Mulhern, writing in 1980, "it's dazzling to see so much sheer energy expended without a nervous breakdown."Tom Mulhern, Bass Heroes: Styles, Stories and Secrets of 30 Great Bass Players, Backbear Books (1993) p. 110 By 1996, their Test for Echo Tour began performing without an opening act, their shows lasting nearly three hours; Rolling Stone, December 12, 1996 this tradition continued until Peart's retirement from touring in 2015 which hastened the band's demise. Lee and Lifeson reunited as Rush in October 2025, with Anika Nilles filling in for Peart.
In April 2025, Geddy Lee released a 12" single titled The Lost Demos, consisting of re-recordings of two previously unpublished demos from My Favourite Headache. On the week of its release, the United Kingdom The Lost Demos reached 30th on the Official Physical Singles Chart and Official Vinyl Singles Chart, and the A-side, "Gone", reached 62nd on the UK singles chart.
In 1981, Lee was the featured guest for the hit song "Take Off" and its included comedic commentary with Bob and Doug McKenzie (played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, respectively) for the McKenzie Brothers' comedy album Great White North, which was released on Rush's Anthem Records label. While Rush has had great success selling albums, "Take Off" is the highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 of Lee's career.
In 1982, Lee produced the first (and only) album from Toronto's new wave band Boys Brigade. On the 1985 album We Are the World, by humanitarian consortium USA for Africa, Lee recorded guest vocals for the song "Tears Are Not Enough". Lee sang "O Canada", the Canadian national anthem, at Baltimore's Camden Yards for the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Another version of "O Canada", with a rock arrangement, was recorded by Lee and Lifeson for the 1999 film soundtrack .
Lee also plays bass on Canadian rock band I Mother Earth's track "Good for Sule", which is featured on the group's 1999 album Blue Green Orange.
Along with his bandmates, Lee was a guest musician on the Max Webster song "Battle Scar", from the 1980 album Universal Juveniles.
Lee appeared in Broken Social Scene's music video for their 2006 single "Fire Eye'd Boy", judging the band while performing various musical tasks. In 2006, Lee joined Lifeson's supergroup, the Big Dirty Band, to provide songs accompanying .
In 2017, Lee performed in place of late bassist Chris Squire with Yes during the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, playing bass for the song "Roundabout."
In 2018, Lee published Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass, which highlights his collection of over 250 basses along with interviews with some of the leading bass players and bass technicians.
In 2020, Lee provided guest vocals to an all-star Canadian rendition of the late Bill Withers song "Lean on Me" during the TV special Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble, a Canadian benefit performance simulcast by every major television network in Canada as a benefit for Food Banks Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 24th-greatest bassist of all time.
In September 2021, Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson revealed that he was working on a "secret project" with Lee, which turned out to be callouts for a subsequent Rush pinball machine.
In 2022, he appeared as a Guest appearance playing Thomas Sawyer on the acclaimed long-running CBC period drama Murdoch Mysteries.
In November 2023, Lee published an autobiography titled My Effin' Life. The book was promoted with a 19-date Book tour of the UK and North America.
On December 5, 2023, Paramount+ released a video series, "Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?" Four episodes were aired on Les Claypool, Robert Trujillo, Melissa Auf der Maur, and Krist Novoselic. Each episode features Lee visiting with and talking to the guest bassist.
Greg Prato of AllMusic wrote that "few hard rock bassists have been as influential as Rush's Geddy Lee." Bass players who have cited Lee as an influence include Cliff Burton of Metallica, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, John Myung of Dream Theater, Les Claypool of Primus, and Steve Di Giorgio of Sadus, Death and Testament.
In 2019, Lee sent several of his guitars to Mecum Auctions, including a 1959 Les Paul Standard, a 1960 Gibson ES-345, a 1955 Fender Stratocaster, a 1960 Gibson ES-335, a 1965 Gibson ES-335 and a 1967 Gibson Flying V.
In 1998, Fender released the Geddy Lee Jazz Bass, available in Black and 3-Color Sunburst (as of 2009). This signature model is a recreation of Lee's favourite bass, a 1972 Fender Jazz that he bought in a pawn shop in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1978. In 2015, Fender released a revised USA model of his signature bass,[3] with most of the changes reflecting those Lee had made to his own instrument over the years.
Lee has been a longtime user of RotoSound strings. He uses Swing Bass RS66LD (.45-.105) on a majority of his basses,[4] but used Funkmaster FM66 (.30-.90) on his Wal basses from 1985 to 1992.
To trigger these sounds in real-time, Lee uses , placed at the locations on the stage where he has a microphone stand. Lee uses two types of MIDI controllers: one type resembles a traditional synthesizer keyboard on a stand (Yamaha KX76). The second type is a large foot-pedal keyboard placed on the stage floor (Korg MPK-130, Roland PK-5). Combined, they enable Lee to use his free hands and feet to trigger sounds in electronic equipment that has been placed off-stage. With this technology Lee and his bandmates can present their arrangements in a live setting with the level of complexity and fidelity that fans have come to expect and without the need to resort to the use of backing tracks or employing an additional band member.Peart, Neil Rush Backstage Club Newsletter, March 1990, via "Power Windows" Rush Fan Site During the Clockwork Angels Tour, a notable exception was when a string ensemble played string parts, originally arranged and conducted by David Campbell on Clockwork Angels.
Faced with the dilemma of what to do with the empty space left behind by the lack of large amplifier cabinets, Lee chose to decorate his side of the stage with unusual items. The Snakes & Arrows Tour prominently featured three Henhouse brand rotisserie chicken ovens on stage complete with an attendant in a chef's hat and apron to "tend" the chickens during shows.Jamie Thomson. "Rush concert review: Wembley Arena, London. Friday, October 12, 2007.", The Guardian. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
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