Geddy Lee of Rush was interviewed on CBC News: The National discussing his career and new memoir My Effin' Life, which is released next Tuesday. The interview took place at the 1,200-capacity Rock Pile (formerly the Masonic Temple) venue in Toronto where Led Zeppelin performed twice in February and August 1969. Geddy discusses the venue and seeing Led Zeppelin, which is featured in the clip below.

Hello, I stumbled upon this clip from the 2008 MOJO Awards below. Led Zeppelin won the award for Best Live Act and Genesis received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Despite Phil Collins and Jimmy Page bickering at one another in the press for how disastrous the Led Zeppelin reunion was at Live Aid, they seem to be on good terms. They say hello to one another and are giving each other a hug.

These two karaoke singers from SNL didn't cater to the mainstream. One added lyrics to 'Sympathy For The Devil', which didn't exist before, LOL.

I should mention that I've given a recent shout-out to Crown Lands in the Canadian Music Thread below. Kevin and Cody have admitted that their influences are Led Zeppelin, RUSH, and Genesis. If you click on the August 22, 2020 link, you'll see my post.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Canadian blues musician Colin Linden, who plays resonator guitar on the song 'Last Kind Words Blues'. Here's Colin below accepting a Grammy award last year for co-producing Keb' Mo's 2019 album Oklahoma.

For the last few years, Canadian pop rock singer and songwriter Andy Kim hosts a Christmas charity concert in Toronto. Yesterday, Alex Lifeson of RUSH was part of the lineup with other Canadian acts involved. Near the closing of the concert, there was a medley performance of 'Battle of Evermore' and 'Stairway To Heaven'. On a side note, I think Kevin Comeau of Crown Lands is playing Alex's Gibson EDS-1275 doubleneck guitar as they are standing beside one another. Both Kevin and Alex are switching guitars at the same time before the truncated version of 'Stairway To Heaven' is being played. The individual singing the Led Zeppelin songs is Cody Bowles of Crown Lands. I also think Alex wanted to acknowledge the 50th Anniversary milestone of Led Zeppelin IV somehow with the song choices being performed live at the concert.

Here's the rest of the interview. Rush’s Geddy Lee recalls watching Led Zeppelin alongside Alex Lifeson in 1969: ‘We wanted to be them instantly’

From Classic Rock magazine via Louder posted recently. Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant helped save Rush in their darkest hour, says Geddy Lee One omitted mention is that Geddy met Robert in Morocco, which is referenced from this November 2008 interview below with George Stroumboulopoulos. Beginning at the 7:24 mark. This led to the Page & Plant concert noted here. The full issue of Classic Rock # 289 (excerpt here) will be released on May 25th.

There's a fairly new Canadian rock-duo called Crown Lands, who describe their music as RUSH meets The White Stripes. Led Zeppelin is also one of their music influences, as they've performed covers of 'Kashmir' and 'Working Man' by RUSH live. Crown Lands just released their seven song self-titled debut album this month, which is noted in the press release here. They were recently featured in Guitar World here and Classic Rock magazine via Louder here. The first single from the album is called 'End Of The Road'

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of RUSH were also in attendance at the Page & Plant concert in Toronto as noted in this 2006 Guitar Player interview here. This CBC interview with Geddy and Alex also discusses this here. I should also note that Alex Lifeson's solo album Victor was released on January 9th, 1996 (Jimmy Page's birthday).

Regarding the date of 2/2/69 Toronto, ON when Led Zeppelin played The Rock Pile venue with opening act Mary Lou Horner, which is mentioned in this Dec 2007 Toronto Star article here. Mary Lou Horner was the house band at The Rock Pile venue that played country-rock and also was the support band for other acts such as John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry. Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ben Mink was the guitarist in the group. Below is a couple of photos from Ben's website. Photo 1 Photo 2 Ben Mink has performed with lesser known Canadian music acts throughout the 1970's, including a stint with Canadian progressive-rock band FM. Original founding member of FM; the late Nash The Slash (electric violin, electric mandolin, and vocals), was also in the audience at the Led Zeppelin concert according to this archived post here. Mink replaced Nash in FM later on. FM also recorded a techno-rock cover version of 'Shapes of Things' by The Yardbirds. FM also opened for RUSH in the late 70's (Permanent Waves "Semi-tour and some of the Hemispheres" Warm-up Tour) and early 80's (Permanent Waves Proper Tour and Moving Pictures Tour). Later on Mink collaborated with k.d. lang, and co-wrote the Grammy Award winning song 'Constant Craving'. Ben was also producer of Heart founder Ann Wilson's 2007 solo album Hope & Glory. Included on the album is a cover of 'Immigrant Song', which charted as "the #9 most podcasted song of 2007" on the PMC Top10's annual countdown. Then Ben produced Heart's latest two albums Red Velvet Car (2010) and Fanatic (2012).

It would've been cool if The Guess Who with Randy Bachman had been one of the opening acts on one of the early Led Zeppelin tours. Bachman mentioned in a couple of interviews how he helped make the Led Zeppelin concert happen in Winnipeg in 1970, when it almost didn't occur.