It may be hard to fathom that virtuoso guitar players like Eddie Van Halen, with his two-handed tapping, or Matteo Mancuso , who Joe Bonamassa said has “completely reinvented the instrument,” could have insecurities about their playing.
But many great players — including Pete Townshend — have had to deal with doubts about themselves and their talents.
Alex Lifeson understands that all too well. The former Rush guitarist may be celebrated as one of the greatest players in prog, but he says that even at the height of his powers he felt inadequate.
“I’ve never been very confident, to be honest with you, as a player,” Alex Lifeson tells Guitar World in a new and candid interview. “I’ve always felt like I had to work hard, and maybe I didn’t appreciate that I have a natural talent for playing guitar.”
The tide didn’t turn until long after the curtain fell on Rush’s career. It’s been nearly a decade since the group’s final show, on August 1, 2015, at Los Angeles Forum.
Since then, Lifeson says he’s been “reborn” as a guitarist.
“I know where I came from, and I know what I was like as a player for the bulk of my main career,” he expands. “Now I’m more of a sensitive player.”
Life after Rush has seen him release two albums with his atmospheric but no less progressive project Envy of None, the latest of which saw him fall in love with guitar solos once again having weeded them out of Rush’s latter-day era. More than that, he says he “bloomed” while piecing together its 11 new songs.
“My fingers feel better,” he notes. “But I’m 71; I’m not going to play like I did when I was 21 — or 51, for that matter. It’s a long road when you’re at this age. I’m battling the things that come with advanced years, but my fingers feel so much better than they did six months ago. They’re grateful to me for doing this and getting them back into shape.
“I feel confident. I feel happy,” he says. “I feel reborn in terms of playing. It’s a good place for me right now.”
Lifeson says he continues to field questions about a Rush reunion — plenty of drummers have put their name forward since Neil Peart’s passing – since learning he has been jamming with bassist Geddy Lee. But he says their sessions are solely to “keep my fingers moving.” For that matter, he says the two men sometimes sound like “a really bad tribute band.”
Since Rush called it a day, the pair performed together at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in 2022, with Dave Grohl behind the kit, and paid homage to fellow Canadian musician Gordon Lightfoot in May 2024.
Away from that, Lifeson has found new life in his aging fingers and with it, has come to the realization that he isn’t a terrible guitar player after all.
He isn’t the only big-name guitar player to struggle with mental health. John 5 has called the guitar his “savior” as it helped him overcome tragedy to find himself playing guitar for David Lee Roth, Lita Ford, Rob Zombie, and Mötley Crüe across a storied career.
Country guitarist John Osborne has also spoken to Guitar Player about how he fought tinnitus and mental health issues to pen a career-defining album with his brother last year, and Richie Faulkner has been left feeling like a “fraud” after struggling to return to form after heart surgery.
