Alex Lifeson unveils Rush-era track Cherry Lopez – and it's inspired by weed

Rush may have called it a day but Alex Lifeson is staying busy, he has released new solo compositions, a beer with Geddy Lee, has a new band in the works called Envy Of None and released a new version of his signature Les Paul with Epiphone. Now he's revealed an instrumental that dates back to his time with Rush – and it's inspired by weed.

"This was written during the mix session of Clockwork Angels while in LA for months starting early 2012," writes Lifeson. "I did an interview with High Times and the interviewer brought along a friend, an esteemed grower who provided a sample of his creation named Cherry Lopez.  Because I was on an EST body clock, I was up most mornings at 5:00 am.  I'd order coffee, sit on my hotel room balcony, read the paper and wake and bake then dive into making some fun sounds while the city was waking up.  

"I had some borrowed acoustic and electric guitars for the duration, thankfully, as sitting around waiting to go to the studio was tedious and certainly, a bowl of Cherry kept my appetite healthy."

Unsurprisingly the piece is a wonderfully trippy, mellow affair. Lifeson also revealed he's released his first newsletter and you can sign up to that at alexlifeson.com

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.