70 | NOVEMBER 30 • 2023 
J
N

G

eddy Lee set out 
“to talk about who 
I am” in his new 
memoir, My Effin’ Life.
And a big part of that 
identity is being Jewish.
It’s not something Lee, 
co-founder and vocalist/
bassist/keyboardist for the 
band Rush, ever kept secret. 
But given the Toronto trio’s 
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 
career — encompassing 
50 years, 19 studio albums 
and global record sales of 
more than 42 million — it 
was seldom a major topic 
of discussion. For most 
interviewers, “Tom Sawyer” 
was more topical than, say, 
Talmud. 
The 512-page My Effin’ 
Life, however, gave Lee 

(born Gershon “Gary” 
Eliezer Weinrib) the chance 
to dig deep into his heritage 
and his family’s history. 
“I understand the 
publisher wants, really, 
my effin’ life with Rush, 
not my effin’ life,” Lee, 70, 
acknowledges via Zoom. 
“But I asked myself, ‘What 
is a memoir?’ What is the 
point of it? Is it just to sell 
books for somebody or am 
I supposed to actually help 
the reader understand who 
I am? And if I want them 
to understand who I am, I 
have to explain my context. 
“So, I felt very comfort-
able talking about those 
(early) memories, and some 
of those memories are 
painful but others are quite 

joyous, and the food and 
the household and the sense 
of humor are rich memories 
for me and probably good 
memories for me. So, I was 
more than happy to talk 
about them.”

FAMILY MEMORIES
Lee’s father Moshe (Morris) 
was born in Switzerland 
and his mother Marika 
(Mary) in Warsaw. He 
spends the full 41-page 
third chapter of My Effin’ 
Life tracing his family’s 
experience during the 
Holocaust; his parents met 
in Poland’s Starachowice 
ghetto and were imprisoned 
at Auschwitz, where Morris 
would bribe guards to 
take shoes to Mary. They 

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

 My
 Ef
 n’ 
 Life

Rush co-founder Geddy Lee 
to talk about his new memoir 
Dec. 4 at the Fillmore.

GARY GRAFF CONTRIBUTING WRITER

RICHARD SIBBALD, PROVIDED BY HARPER BOOKS

Geddy Lee

HARPER BOOKS

