35 Facts About Alex Lifeson

In 1968, Lifeson co-founded a band that would later become Rush, with drummer John Rutsey and bassist and lead vocalist Jeff Jones.

Alex Lifeson was the only member of Rush who stayed in the band throughout its entire existence, and he and Lee were the only members to appear on all of the band's albums.

Alex Lifeson performed backing vocals in live performances and select studio recordings, and occasionally played keyboards and bass pedal synthesizers.

Alex Lifeson was ranked 98th on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time and third in a Guitar World readers' poll listing the 100 greatest guitarists.

Alex Lifeson was born Aleksandar Zivojinovic in Fernie, British Columbia.

Alex Lifeson's stage surname of "Lifeson" is a calque of his birth surname Zivojinovic, which can be literally translated into English as "son of life".

Alex Lifeson recalls what inspired him to play guitar in a 2008 interview:.

Alex Lifeson lent his guitar to me and I grew to like it.

Alex Lifeson's first guitar was a Christmas gift from his father, a six-string Kent classical acoustic which was later replaced by an electric Japanese model.

Alex Lifeson was primarily a self-taught guitarist with the only formal instruction coming from a high school friend in 1971 who taught classical guitar lessons.

Geddy Lee, a high school friend of Alex Lifeson, assumed Jones's role soon after.

Instrumentally, Alex Lifeson is renowned for his signature riffing, electronic effects and processing, unorthodox chord structures, and the copious arsenal of equipment he has used over the years.

Rush was on hiatus for several years starting in 1997 owing to personal tragedies in Neil Peart's life, and Alex Lifeson had not picked up a guitar for at least a year following those events.

However, after some work in his home studio and on various side projects, Alex Lifeson returned to the studio with Rush to begin work on 2002's Vapor Trails.

Alex Lifeson has contributed to a body of work outside his involvement with the band in the form of instrumental contributions to other musical outfits.

Alex Lifeson made a guest appearance on the 1985 Platinum Blonde album Alien Shores performing guitar solos on the songs "Crying Over You" and "Holy Water".

Alex Lifeson played "The Little Drummer Boy" which was released as track 9 on the album.

In 2006, Alex Lifeson founded the Big Dirty Band, which he created for the purpose of providing original soundtrack material for Trailer Park Boys: The Movie.

Alex Lifeson made a guest appearance on the 2007 album Fear of a Blank Planet by UK progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, contributing a solo during the song "Anesthetize".

Alex Lifeson appeared on the 2008 album Fly Paper by Detroit progressive rockers Tiles.

Outside band related endeavours, Alex Lifeson composed the theme for the first season of the science-fiction TV series Andromeda.

Alex Lifeson produced three songs from the album Away from the Sun by 3 Doors Down.

Alex Lifeson is featured on Marco Minnemann's 2017 release Borrego, on which he played guitars on three songs and co-wrote the track "On That Note".

On 15 June 2021, Lifeson released two new instrumental songs, "Kabul Blues" and "Spy House" on his website alexlifeson.

Alex Lifeson made his film debut as himself under his birth name in the 1973 Canadian documentary film Come on Children.

Alex Lifeson has appeared in several installments of the Canadian mockumentary franchise Trailer Park Boys.

In 2006, Alex Lifeson appeared in Trailer Park Boys: The Movie as a traffic cop in the opening scene and in 2009 he appeared in their follow up movie, Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day, as an undercover vice cop in drag.

Alex Lifeson appears as the border guard in the 2009 movie Suck.

Alex Lifeson disclosed that he had surgery on his stomach in 2023, and as an aftereffect, he suffers from gastroparesis, and that a visit to a wellness clinic in Austria that focuses on digestive system in January 2025 helped.

In Rush's early career, Alex Lifeson used a Gibson ES-335 for the first tour.

From 1980 to 1986, Alex Lifeson used four identically modified Stratocasters, all of them equipped with the Floyd Rose bridge.

Alex Lifeson would start using them again twenty years later.

Alex Lifeson would continue to play PRS for the next sixteen years through the recording and touring of Counterparts, Test for Echo and Vapor Trails as well as the R30 tour.

Alex Lifeson used these two custom Les Pauls on the Time Machine Tour.

For effects, Alex Lifeson is known to use chorus, phase shifting, delay and flanging.