Humble Beginnings
In the neighborhood of Willowdale in Toronto, Canada, guitarist Alex Lifeson and his neighbor John Rutsey started experimenting with music in their parents’ garages. Rutsey had a rented drum kit, and they formed The Projection in 1963. The band stayed together until early 1968 when they decided to go in a different direction.
Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images
Lifeson and Rutsey had been friends since childhood, so they stuck together to form a new group. They recruited Jeff Jones as the bassist and frontman for their first gig at the Coff-Inn, a youth center in the basement of St. Theodore of Canterbury Anglican Church. The gig only paid $25.