Rush: The Tragic Death Of Drummer John Rutsey
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Published 2021-11-05
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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.
Rush’s original drummer John Rutsey was 55 at the time of his death in 2008. Following his departure from the band in 1974, after the release of their first album, Rutsey would be out of the rock n’ roll spotlight, all the while his former band would become one of the biggest acts in the world. This is his story.
John Rutsey founded Rush in 1968, in Toronto, Canada, along with guitarist and childhood friend Alex Lifeson, and future Red Rider bassist Jeff Jones, who was the band’s original frontman. The three musicians would use the band name Rush last minute, right before playing their first show, after struggling to come up with one during practice. Author Bill Basiniewicz wrote about how they’d eventually get their name in his 1988 biography on the band, Visions.
“The band was excited, but they had a big problem. While they had been dreaming of playing, they had neglected to come up with a name for their group. So, a few days before the gig, they sat around in John's basement trying to come up with an appropriate moniker. They weren't having much luck when John's older brother Bill piped up, 'Why don't you call the band Rush?,' and Rush it was," he’d say.
Rush’s first performance with Jeff Jones was successful, but on their next one, he would pull a no-show. Jones would leave the band and was replaced with Geddy Lee, another childhood friend who John and Alex knew from their time as students at St. Patrick’s School. Rush’s first roadie, Ian Grandy, who was with the band until 1983, discussed a temporary direction Rutsey had them pursue, in a 2009 interview with Guitar International Magazine:
“John led the guys as far as being 'glam rockers', with really flashy jackets and pants, and eight-inch high boots," Grandy would then mention an anecdote about him and Rutsey catching up at a now-legendary Toronto club.
“One time, he was speaking to me at the Gasworks and I said, ‘Didn’t we used to be the same height (5’8”)?’ He laughed and said ‘Well, maybe a long time ago!’”
In fact, Rush wouldn’t always be a trio. By 1971, the band also experimented briefly as a four piece, incorporating Mitch Bossi as second guitarist. But that didn’t satisfy John Rutsey, who sought a different direction for the band. On the podcast In Conversation with Chad Smith, Alex Lifeson said in 2013:
“John wanted to [do] more of a Bad Company or Small Faces sort of thing. That’s the kind of music he was really into…the English bluesy kind of thing,”
“We went for a while, for a few months. I remember we were at a rehearsal, and we told Mitch that it wasn't really working out. He picked up his stuff, and he left,” he’d say.
For a brief moment, it seemed as though Rush’s early efforts were about to pay off, but they’d hit another dead end. An episode of the podcast series Full in Bloom in May of 2020 featured Epic Records A&R Tom Werman talking about his attempt to sign Rush back in the early 70s:
“I heard a demo, and I went up to Toronto to see them, the manager picked me up - Ray Danniels, I think he managed Van Halen later on, I can't remember.”
“I went backstage and said, ‘This is incredible.’ This was very artsy. This wasn’t your standard rock ‘n’ roll, and I thought this would be a really great signing for me because it’s high-class, you know, and it’s differe
But Rutsey’
Sources:
Bosso, Joe. “In Conversation: Chad Smith with Alex Lifeson - Part Two.” MusicRadar, MusicRadar, 20 May 2013, www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/in-conversation-ch….
Daly, Skip. “Ian Grandy Interview: Rush's First Roadie.” Guitar International Magazine, 16 Sept. 2009, guitarinternational.com/2009/09/16/a-talk-with-ian….
“The National Midnight Star #138 (Rockline Radio interview excerpt).” The National Midnight Star - Digest Archives, www.pelstudio.com/tnms/0138.html.
Reed, Ryan. “The History of John Rutsey and Rush.” Ultimate Classic Rock, 25 July 2015, ultimateclassicrock.com/rush-john-rutsey/.
“Rush: Tom Werman Talks about Trying to Sign the Band in the '70s.” SoundCloud, Full In Bloom, 22 May 2020, soundcloud.com/fullinbloom/rush-tom-werman-talks-a….
Trunk, Eddie. "Hangin' With: Rush" Interview. YouTube, VH1, 2005, • Eddie Trunk "Hangin' With Rush" Inter... . Accessed 6 Oct. 2021.
All Comments (21)
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Here's the story about Rush's first US gig and why it was such a disaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3rYEMKioBs&t=6s
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John Rutsey never gets enough credit for that first Rush album. While Neal Peart rightly gets a ton of focus, let's not forget about John. 🥁
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It's incredible that there aren't any pics of John Rutsey beyond Rush. Not even a pic of him in his bodybuilding days. I am surprised that he never resurfaced with another band beyond Rush. RIP John Rutsey.
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Man that first album was Gold. When I first heard it, I got my first guitar.RIP John and Neil.
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I had a roommate in college in the 1990's who was a real Rush fan, we would play rock n roll trivia and one his go to questions was, Who was the drummer on first Rush album? by the third time he asked I remembered John Rutsey. Never forgot.
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R.I.P. John Rutsey and Neil Peart 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
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Until this very moment, I never knew Rutsey talked Geddy into coming back to the band after he had left. Maybe the quietest and most vital bit of RUSH trivia/history EVER! Thank you John Rutsey! RIP.
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I'm so glad that I got to see the original line-up of Rush play with Rutsey. It was at an outdoor venue just a few miles from where I lived outside Cleveland. It was the first time anyone had seen them, and everyone was simply blown away by this powerful trio. Especially 'Working Man', as Cleveland was a working mans town.
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I knew from the minute I heard the first Rush album that these guys were destined to be superstars. That album is brilliant as were most of the material they released afterwards. Geddy and Alex were going to be stars no matter what. I love Peart's work, but yeah, you really can't ignore the talent in that band.
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I have to say, for as many times as Alex and Geddy were asked about John, they maintained the same thing always. “No, it wasn’t a falling out. No, there is no animosity. No, we never accused John of not being good enough.” But, still, it just seems people keep picking at at, like a bug bite that won’t heal. If Alex and Geddy say “it’s this way”, then, good enough for me. I find it peculiar, for all the time John WAS alive, no interviews on him, telling his side of the story…. Which leads me to think there never was a story in the first place.
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I'm honestly surprised at how many people are saying they didn't know that Neal was not the first Rush drummer.
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WITHOUT John Rutsey, we'd not have RUSH. WITH John Rutsey, we'd not have RUSH. John Rutsey, without a doubt, is a VERY tragic hero.
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You know you're good when the band has to hire the world's greatest drummer to replace you.
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Peart may well be the best drummer but Rutsey played on the first album. John Rutsey rocked. His playing on " Working Man" just grooved so much.
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Not gonna lie, Working Man is still my favorite Rush song. Raw and crunchy!!
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I saw Rush live 2X. Once on their Roll The Bones tour and at a festival. Alex Liefson played air guitar with me on my friends shoulders. Geddy Lee looked over to him, saw what Alex was doing and ran over to do the same. I feel Rush is a perfect name because, what a rush that was. I was in utter heaven. LOL No word can describe how amazing and so sweet. Also they are a Canadian band who started in Montreal Qc.
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Thank you for this rare and great Insight to early RUSH!
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This fails to mention that (iirc at least) Ray Daniels went up to Ged & Alex right before the band's planned first US tour and said look: Rutsey's health is deteriorating due to just this local heavy gig playing schedule you are doing, especially since Rutsey is partying hard after the gigs: if he goes on a long tour to the states with you, we're going to bring him home in a box. So that was the last straw: Alex & Ged ultimately kicked Rutsey out of the band over concerns for his health. Obviously neither of them wanted to have to find a new drummer (who wouldn't know the songs, nor have any long chemistry with them) right before their first US tour, but they were more concerned about Rutsey's health than their career, even at that crucial point that could break or make them. That speaks volumes to their character. Of course, all of these reasons contributed to Rutsey's outage: 1. Rutsey's druming style wasn't suited to the more prog rock Ged & Alex wanted to do (nor was his musical taste) 2. Rutsey had torn up the lyrics he wrote for the first album right before recording (which was mentioned in this video) which infuriated Ged who had to come up with new ones on the spot (that was not mentioned in the video) 3. Rutsey missed weeks of gigs due to health problems in the period before he "quit", and Ged & Alex had to substitute a drummer for him (also not mentioned in the video) 4. Rutsey was ok with remaining a semi-professional local band that played small venues in the area 5. Rutsey required going to the doctor/hospital weekly to get tests and treatments for his diabetes done; that would be very hard or even impossible to do on long tours outside the local area (constantly trying to sign up with and see new doctors...in a country in which you weren't even a citizen and so didn't even have the health care there needed to get tests and treatments done, all while constantly on the road from one city to the next on a daily schedule even if you were a citizen or had US health care: imagine being in Detroit one day, trying to get in to see a new doctor the morning of a show, actually getting in and seeing a doctor and having a test done, then doing the show, then the next day you're on the road to a gig in Cleveland and you're trying to get into a hospital to get treatment done there, per the recommendation of the doctor in Detroit who now has your test results--assuming they can be that rushed--in the hours before a show that night in Cleveland...and repeating this logistic nightmare a couple times a week over months in between shows and partying! it's easy to see it would be next to impossible to do this and Rutsey simply would of not kept up with the demands his health required to stay healthy).
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Favorite Rush song: Natural Science. Edgy. Brutish. Raw. Awesome! Saw Rush live in 1980. First concert I ever went to. I was 14. Been a Rush fanatic ever since!
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Great band. Saw them a few times in the 70s. Good show, all pro. Nice to see a normal bunch of guys, working.
