Aleksandar Živojinović (born 27 August 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (/ˈlaɪfsən/), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist for the rock band Rush.

In 1968, Lifeson co-founded a band that would later become Rush, with drummer John Rutsey and bassist and lead vocalist Jeff Jones.

With Rush, Lifeson played electric and acoustic guitar, as well as other various string instruments such as mandola, mandolin, and bouzouki.

Aside from music, Lifeson has been a painter,[6] a licensed aircraft pilot, an actor, and the former part-owner of a Toronto bar and a restaurant called The Orbit Room, which closed in 2020.

[7][8][better source needed] Lifeson was born Aleksandar Živojinović[9] (Serbian: Александар Живојиновић) in Fernie, British Columbia.

[11]His first guitar was a Christmas gift from his father, a six-string Kent classical acoustic which was later replaced by an electric Japanese model.

Lifeson was primarily a self-taught guitarist with the only formal instruction coming from a high school friend in 1971 who taught classical guitar lessons.

When Lifeson was 17, he had an argument with his parents about his future; he wanted to drop out of high school to pursue his dream of becoming a professional guitarist.

Adrian is also involved in music, and performed on "At the End" and "The Big Dance" from Lifeson's 1996 solo project, Victor.

In August 1968, following the recruitment of original bassist and vocalist Jeff Jones, Lifeson and Rutsey founded Rush.

[18] Instrumentally, Lifeson is renowned for his signature riffing, electronic effects and processing, unorthodox chord structures, and the copious arsenal of equipment he has used over the years.

Geddy Lee was amenable to leaving keyboards off the album due in part to Lifeson's ongoing concern about their use.

Lifeson's approach to the guitar tracks for the album eschewed traditional riffs and solos in favour of "tonality and harmonic quality.

He made a guest appearance on the 1985 Platinum Blonde album Alien Shores performing guitar solos on the songs "Crying Over You" and "Holy Water".

[21] In 2006, Lifeson founded the Big Dirty Band, which he created for the purpose of providing original soundtrack material for Trailer Park Boys: The Movie.

Lifeson made a guest appearance on the 2007 album Fear of a Blank Planet by UK progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, contributing a solo during the song "Anesthetize".

Outside band related endeavours, Lifeson composed the theme for the first season of the science-fiction TV series Andromeda.

Alex Lifeson is featured on Marco Minnemann's 2017 release Borrego, on which he played guitars on three songs and co-wrote the track "On That Note".

In 2018, he played lead guitar on Fu Manchu's 18-minute mostly instrumental track "Il Mostro Atomico" from the group's Clone of the Universe album.

Envy of None consists of Lifeson, Curran, singer Maiah Wynne, and producer and engineer Alfio Annibalini.

Envy of None's self-titled debut album, which includes "Liar," "Kabul Blues," and "Spy House," was released on 8 April.

In the episode, he is kidnapped by Ricky and held as punishment for his inability (or refusal) to provide the main characters with free tickets to a Rush concert.

In the end of the episode, Alex reconciles with the characters, and performs a duet of "Closer to the Heart" with Bubbles at the trailer park.

[29] Lifeson and bandmate Geddy Lee appeared in the series Chicago Fire, season 4, episode 6, called "2112", which first aired on 17 November 2015.

He had a Fender Stratocaster with a Bill Lawrence humbucker and Floyd Rose vibrato bridge as backup "and for a different sound.

At the 2017 Winter NAMM Show, Gibson representative Mike Voltz introduced an Antique White Gibson Custom Alex Lifeson Signature ES Les Paul semi-hollow guitar, a hybrid of a Les Paul Custom & an ES 335, with only 200 made.

[46] In addition to acoustic and electric guitars, Lifeson has also played mandola, mandolin and bouzouki on some Rush studio albums, including Test for Echo, Vapor Trails and Snakes & Arrows.