Came across this. Had to post it. John Rutsey is hardly mentioned, but this is the Rush I used to see at the Gasworks in 1974.
Rush with John Rutsey 1974
- Thread starter Robert Mugabe
- Start date
I saw them as well, at the Gasworks. I thought that they sucked. Too loud and too metal. It's probably why I never got into their music.
Here's the last known photo of John (pictured at right) in 2007, about a year before he passed away. He really dropped out of sight after he left Rush in 1974. Anyone know what he did post-Rush?
Very little info. Surviving Rush members never seem to have anything to say about him. He got into body building. Had various health issues. That's all she wrote.
I hear ya. However I bought and played their first album. Finding my way back home was a sure fire hit. Didn't buy anything else of theirs except Permanent Waves. Used to see them along with Max Webster. Brutus. Rose. a bunch of Toronto bar bands who were very good. What caught my attention was their professional attitude. Seemed to mean business. No schmoozing with the audience. No banter on stage. Just dead serious. They had intent.
Wow, hard to believe that was him. His brother, Mike, was a longtime baseball reporter with the Toronto Sun. Maybe you could find something about John by searching his brother on the internet.
If you read Martin Popoff's book Anthem: Rush in the 70s, there's a couple of paragraphs where it's stated that they would occasionally run into him & it was kind of uncomfortable since they had kicked him to the curb due to his health issues & musical differences. Couldn't have been too comfortable for him either, since with Neil they were beginning to have some success, success that they never would have had if they had kept Rutsey in the band.
