RUSH Receive Allan Waters Humanitarian Award; Photos From Juno Awards Presentation Posted

The members of Rush received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award, honouring their decades of dedicated philanthropy, at the Juno Awards 2015 ceremony on March 14th. Geddy Lee was on hand to accept the award on the band’s behalf. An Instagram photo of Lee with the award is available below. You can check out more photos of Lee and tweets from the ceremony on Twitter here.

Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson spoke to The Canadian Press about the band’s charity and a 40-year history with the Juno Awards. An excerpt follows:

CP: You guys didn’t grow up wealthy, but was charity always instilled in you?

Lifeson: “We’re all middle, or lower-middle class, suburban kids. First of all, it’s the right thing to do. We are very, very fortunate. We’ve had an amazing career as a band. I think we were raised with those sorts of traits. It just seems right to give back. Move it forward.”

CP: Rush performed a benefit for AIDS research in the early ’90s and you’ve been a huge supporter of Casey House. Has AIDS long been an important cause for the band?

Lifeson: “It was. We all knew people who passed away, who died from AIDS. You couldn’t stick your head in the ground and just ignore it. I think that particular (concert) in San Francisco was a foundation that was set up by Elizabeth Taylor.

Casey House does an amazing job. They’re so compassionate and they’re so caring. It’s really your last place to find a friend in a lot of ways, especially in the homeless community or the drug-addicted community, where they have nowhere to go.”