Alex Lifeson

Biography

Aleksandar Živojinović (born August 27, 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist for the rock band Rush. In 1968, he co-founded a band (which later became Rush) with drummer John Rutsey and bassist and lead vocalist Jeff Jones. One month later, Jones was succeeded by Geddy Lee and in 1974, Rutsey was succeeded by Neil Peart, at which point the lineup remained unchanged until the band's initial dissolution in 2015; Lifeson and Lee eventually reformed Rush in 2025, with Anika Nilles as a live drummer. Lifeson is the only member of Rush to have stayed in the band throughout its entire existence and, alongside Lee, the only member to appear on all of the band's albums.

With Rush, Lifeson played electric and acoustic guitar, and various other string instruments including mandola, mandolin, and bouzouki. He also performed backing vocals in live performances and select studio recordings, and occasionally played keyboards and bass pedal synthesizers. Each band member sometimes performed real-time on-stage triggering of sampled instruments. They became Officers of the Order of Canada in 1996, as the first rock band to be so honoured as a group. In 2013, he was inducted with Rush into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lifeson was ranked 98th on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time and third (after Eddie Van Halen and Brian May) in a Guitar World readers' poll listing the 100 greatest guitarists.

Though the bulk of Lifeson's work in music has been with Rush, he has also contributed to a body of work outside the band, including a solo album titled Victor (1996), and two albums with Envy of None, a band that Lifeson formed after Peart's death in 2020. Aside from music, Lifeson has been a painter, a licensed aircraft pilot, an actor, and the former part-owner of a Toronto bar and a restaurant called The Orbit Room, which closed in 2020.

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