It’s hockey season again and, for fans in Canada, that means each Monday will include Prime Monday Night Hockey, which will be broadcast by Amazon. And to play the show’s opening theme song, they chose Billy Talent to cover one of Rush‘s biggest hits. Each week, the game will open with Billy Talent performing a cover of “Limelight.” And the band is thrilled.
“It’s such an honour for us to be asked to cover Rush,” said lead singer Ben Kowalewicz. “They are, without a doubt, one of the greatest Canadian bands of all time, and ‘Limelight’ is a classic.” Guitarist Ian D’Sa added, “I’ve been listening to this song since I was a kid, and I always wanted to learn Alex [Lifeson’s] parts because it contains three of my favorite Alex riffs of all time. They are just crazily inventive, unique parts that only Alex Lifeson could write, and it was such a fun thing to learn for me as a guitar player.”
Billy Talent formed in 1993 and has featured the same lineup since then. (Though drummer Aaron Solowoniuk has been on leave from the band since a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2016.) Rush is one of the biggest bands in Canada, formed in 1969, featuring Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart. The group disbanded in 2015 and Peart died of brain cancer in 2020, though Lee and Lifeson just announced a reunion of the band featuring drummer Anika Nilles.
