Nobody else in rock and roll with a voice like Geddy Lee’s would ever have bothered to pick up an instrument. (You never saw Robert Plant screwing around with a fiddle.) But as much as the high-pitched pyrotechnics of Lee’s voice, it was Lee’s talent on the bass that drove the Canadian power trio Rush to elite rock status, with a fan base as rabid–if not as obtuse–as that other Rush (Limbaugh) who gets a lot of radio play. Indeed it was Geddy Lee’s delight in a little Stephen Colbert bit where the TV host conflated the two Rushes that led to the band’s first TV appearance in decades. That 2009 appearance, with Rush whipping the set into a controlled sonic debauch, seemed to drive Colbert visibly crazy with physical glee. Colbert has since been known to pronounce the name Geddy Lee with more reverence than any other name.
Lee likes Burgundy, cheese, baseball and–allegedly–collecting monocles. But be careful: his voice can get stuck in your head.
