ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY TONY MOLINA
JUNE 25 | HOLLYWOOD—The Walk of Fame beats the Hall of Fame—RUSH gets a star!
If HELL actually froze over, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland has yet to see it. But the unbelievable happened out west—in Hollywood—when Canadian rockers RUSH were actually honored for something. The band received the biggest blessing from above. RUSH became the 2,412th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fittingly, the star landed in front of the Musicians Institute‘s Hollywood Blvd. location, where hundreds of RUSH fans from as far as Canada welcomed the musical heroes, who were being forever embedded on the famous boulevard.
Officially credited with discovering and bringing RUSH to radio from her days at Cleveland’s WMMS-FM, the station’s music director and DJ Donna Halper began the induction by recalling the beginning—listening to an obscure demo on her desk. Without hesitation, she put it on the air, and listeners responded. They wanted to know when the new Led Zeppelin record was coming out. To their surprise, Halper told them it was a new band called RUSH. The rest is rock and roll history. In describing the strong loyalty between the band and its fans, she said, “A Japanese man decided to learn to speak English so he could better appreciate the words of RUSH songs.”
Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan, who had a great appearance in RUSH documentary RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage, went to the podium to send his compliments to his musical inspiration. Billy began with a comical apology for stealing the riff from RUSH song “By-Tor and the Snow Dog,” but he dug into his honest emotions when he told the crowd that he couldn’t believe he is able to share this moment with RUSH, especially after getting fired from his first-ever band, which was a RUSH cover band.
Billy concluded, “I’ve been in the rock and roll business for 20 years, and let me tell you, these guys are the best of the best … RUSH represents the value that the fan will listen and care, that you give a fuck about what’s going on.”
Adoring fans at the induction couldn’t get enough, as a rare opportunity to meet RUSH came their way when Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson mixed into the raging crowd, autographing anything from arms and foreheads to 25-year-old posters. The presider of the induction ceremony, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce president and chief officer Leron Gubler, said it was “one of the most enthusiastic crowds we’ve had in a long time.”
Bassist and frontman Geddy Lee returned the adoration by stating, “There are times in life where you have what I would call a beautiful, surreal moment. This is one of those moments.”
But where is the “Professor”? Drummer Neil Peart was on the wild highway on his motorcycle journey toward New Mexico, where RUSH will begin its Time Machine 2010 tour. As Neil would say, “The point of the journey is not to arrive.”
Click here for more pictures of Rush at Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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