This doc footage shows Rush's Alex Lifeson at 17 arguing with his parents about his future

CBC

26-03-2025

Alex Lifeson, the Canadian musician best known as the co-founder and guitarist of Rush, was only 12 when he started playing the guitar. After school, that's pretty much all he'd do.
"I immediately went upstairs, played guitar till dinner, had dinner and then immediately played guitar till I was supposed to do my homework," the Canadian rock legend tells Q 's Tom Power in an interview. '[I] didn't do my homework. I just couldn't stop playing. Every chance I got, I played."
As a teenager, Lifeson often butted heads with his parents over his total lack of interest in school. In fact, there's even footage of one of their arguments.
WATCH | Alex Lifeson's full interview with Tom Power:
When he was 17, Lifeson was featured in the 1973 documentary Come on Children, which followed the struggles of 10 teenagers. It was directed by the Canadian filmmaker Allan King, one of the earliest pioneers in cinéma verité.
"The premise was 10 kids from all different parts of the city moving in together in a farmhouse," Lifeson explains. "Unfortunately, it was really boring, nothing really happened…. About halfway through, I guess, our parents were invited to tour the farmhouse — it was in Newcastle, Ont. — [to] just see what we were doing."
In one part, Lifeson and his parents are sitting around a dining table discussing his future.
"I don't want to make a bunch of money," says a teenaged Lifeson. "Like, if I make a lot of money, that's great. But I'm not going to go to university and get a big degree…. Who wants to know how much atmospheric pressure is on five milligrams of mercury and stuff like that? That's not going to help me. I don't see why I have to go through all the bullshit of high school to learn music."
"You won't last long, Alex," his mother warns. "You won't last long."
WATCH | Alex Lifeson and his parents argue about his future:
In retrospect, Lifeson can understand why his parents, who were Serbian immigrants from Yugoslavia, had concerns about him dropping out of high school to pursue his dream of becoming a professional guitarist.
"They came from the war," he tells Power. "They came from that horror and having nothing. And they wanted me to be a professional: a dentist or an engineer or something. And I was just set on music…. You know, schooling has a place … but learning about all those things that you had to learn in school — I was so passionate about music. That's not what I needed."
Of course, for Lifeson it all worked out. While it's not typical to see your high school band rise to massive worldwide fame, that's exactly what happened to Rush.
"I really had a belief in myself," he says. "Like, if this doesn't work out, this music thing, well then I'll do something else. I will work with my dad as a plumber's assistant or whatever, but I really believed that this was going to work out. I never worried about it in the early days. And when we started touring in America and when we got our record deal, I mean, that was a major turning point. It was so exciting."
This week, Lifeson will release new music with his band, Envy of None. Their sophomore album, Stygian Waves, comes out everywhere on March 28.