Fans of the rock band Rush have waited a number of years for bassist and lead vocalist Geddy Lee’s autobiography. I am one of those fans. The vast majority of Rush fans seem to be male, so I’m a bit of an anomaly in that regard. I’d been listening to them since the early 1980s and have devoured almost all of drummer Neil Peart’s books. It was time to hear about the band from a different point of view.

There was life before Rush for Geddy Lee, however, and that was the part of the book that was the hardest for me to read. His mother and father were both Jews who survived the German concentration camps, while losing many members of their immediate family. Geddy’s mother was honest about her experience in the concentration camp to her children, which Geddy recounts here. His father wouldn’t talk about it, so that part of the story is missing. Like Geddy says at the end of the chapter that gives this background, you’ll need a drink after reading about it. I certainly did.

His parents emigrated to Canada following the war and established themselves as part of the Toronto Jewish community there. Geddy was raised in the Jewish faith and even sang in Temple. Following his Bar Mitzvah, though, like many youth he drifted away from religion. His calling was music, and the music scene at that time in Toronto was thriving for bands who were eager to perform at various venues.

His Rush bandmate, Alex Lifeson, was a friend early in his life and the comradeship would buoy them through the years. The first Rush album was recorded without drummer Neil Peart, who was only added after drummer John Rutsey bowed out, unable to handle the demanding schedule. The rest, as they say, is rock & roll history.

Lee is honest about his faults throughout the book, taking responsibility for the fractures in his relationship with his wife. It’s common to many musicians who have family for them to come home to while they are off on the road. With Rush’s schedule of an album and touring nearly every year, that meant a lot of time away from home. His wife had her own career as well, and that often suffered when choices had to be made. Lee is honest about going to therapy to work things out. He’s also honest about his drug use and how it occasionally affected the music, especially when it came to cocaine. There’s a lot of drug use throughout the book, mostly psychedelics and pot, but occasionally dolloping in others.

However, it’s also obvious that Lee is a bit of a workaholic, at least when it comes to music. He seems to have a hard time saying no to requests from other musicians during Rush’s brief downtimes, although in later years it was longer. Still, Geddy had a drive to keep himself busy. He is also a huge baseball fan and has had season tickets for the Toronto Blue Jays since they were added to the American League, as well as a growing collection of baseball memorabilia.

I really enjoyed My Effin’ Life. It’s written in a way that’s easy enough to follow and breeze through, despite coming in at 521 pages. Lee does give readers the option to not read the passages about his parents during the Holocaust, but I feel everyone should, even if it’s disturbing. That’s the point in many ways – we should be horrified that any of our fellow humans would ever be subjected to this. There are many pictures throughout the book which were a bit hard to see on a Kindle paperwhite but do add a lot to the story.

He also talks about the Ayn Rand connection to their music. It’s been something that has often been misinterpreted and that they have sometimes been criticized for. Lee details what he read and how it affected his beliefs, especially as he drifted away from the religion he was born into. It’s not a complete acceptance of the beliefs Rand espoused, but a case of take what you can and leave the rest.

It was gut-wrenching to read what it was like for Geddy when Peart went through losing his daughter and wife and just how helpless a feeling it was for them. It was also hard to read about Neil’s death again and just how much it devastated Geddy to lose his longtime friend and collaborator.

I also went back and listened to much of the music he talks about while I was reading My Effin’ Life and have a new appreciation for some of it. I’ve always been amazed by Geddy’s voice, and the musical aspect awed me to see three men on stage making such a full, incredible sound. Now I sat and listened to specific things Lee talked about and gained a new appreciation for some songs I hadn’t listened to as closely before I read the book.

For the most part, I think fans of Rush will be the ones who get the most out of My Effin’ Life. The early part of Lee’s life and his parents’ background will be interesting to just about anybody. For me, reading about the differences in the Canadian music scene in the 1960s as opposed to the many books I’d read about the U.S. scene at the same time was eye-opening. It’s a long read, but it’s a good one, and I think fans of the band will come away learning a bit more about them.