Musicians and the law don't seem to mix well. Michael Jackson's facing pedophile claims, Meat Puppets bassist Cris Kirkwood faces assault with a deadly weapon charges, White Stripes singer/guitarist Jack White's up on battery charges and now Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson may just join him.
Alex Zivojinovich, better known by his stage name Alex Lifeson, was arrested for what deputies described as drunken, violent behavior at the Naples Ritz-Carlton hotel.Very disappointing, Rush is my favorite band and Lifeson is the last guy I'd expect to see this kind of behavior from.Deputies said they used a stun gun on Zivojinovich, 50, who faces 6 charges that include aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, and disorderly intoxication.
Also arrested were his 33-year-old son Justin Zivojinovich and wife Michelle Zivojinovich, 30.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jonathan
Anyone see the trailer park boys episode with him in it?
HILARIOUS.
2 - Eric Olsen
Tom, when did the Kirkwood charges become murder?
3 - Mac Diva
All those years of being at the end of every alphabetical list and having a name many people probably find hard to pronounce have probably taken their toll on Zivojinovich, Tom-:).
4 - Tom Johnson
Eric: sorry, I will reword this - at one point, the news reported that he faced possible attempted murder charges. He is now charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and has been denied bond as a flight risk based on previous drug offenses and probation violations. Here are the details.
I knew I shouldn't have written that half-asleep.
5 - Tom Johnson
Mac - can you blame the guy for going by stage name of "Lifeson"?
6 - Eric Olsen
thanks Tom, no prob
7 - Anne
This was a shocker. While it sounds like the police were heavy-handed, he and his family were drunk and out of order.
8 - TDavid
Man, how the words to some songs can ring eerily true:
9 - BB
Back in my RR days I used to record in the same studio as Rush. Given that his son and wife were also charged it does sound heavy-handed. Given also that he has "previous drug offenses and probation violations", it sounds more like retribution than by-the-book police work. Too bad he doesn't qualify for NAACP assistance :-) Rock on Alex!
10 - Tom Johnson
BB, you're mixing Cris Kirkwood and Alex here. Eric inquired about a now-edited comment I made about Kirkwood, that he faced attempted murder charges after his skirmish with an armed security guard. Alex Lifeson has no known prior offenses of any kind, which makes this case all that much stranger.
11 - Dave
I was a little surprised at first when I heard about this, but then I remembered back to an interview with Rush in which Geddy Lee described Lifeson as sometimes "emotional" and "irrational." (Check out some of his lyrics on his solo project "Victor." There's definitely some pent-up anger in this character!) Still, this reads like an over-reaction on the part of the Naples police to me. Wow -- a stun gun! Let's hear it for aging Canadian rock stars!
12 - Firenuts
Guess they dont like rock stars in Florida. We're not in Canada anymore Toto.
13 - concerned omegan
wow... my heart goes out to Stan and his family.. just a thought though.. buy a snowmobile and enjoy the great CANADIAN winters... thats what I do... keep your head up
14 - Omegan Admirer
This incident won't affect Lerxt's career whatsoever. He's a perfectly normal human being with a divine sense of humor. Of course he smokes pot! Doesn't just about every musician? I'm sure one of the stage employees was responsible for triggering the bad behaviour. Don't worry fans. Rush will rule for several more years!
15 - Tom Johnson
Concerned Omegan: who is Stan?
16 - concerned omegan
Stan Getz AKA Snowdog AKA Alex Lifeson
17 - Raul
Justin Z. does not have the type of 'tan' that cops in the south care for. Perhaps they thought he worked in the kitchen, so it was okay to lay a beating in to him. Bigotry is alive and well in Jeb Bush country.
18 - K
I've met Alex twice (once with Geddy Lee) and he was nothing but a complete gentleman. He was polite, very friendly, always smiling. A friend and I talked to him for a couple of minutes while he sat in the back seat of a limo (when he was performing at the White Ribbon campaign in Toronto) and he signed my "Hold Your Fire" CD. My friend gave him something to sign too, and he didn't have a pen handy so he asked to borrow mine & thanked me afterword. This whole situation in Florida just seems so completely out of character, and I'm of the opinion that just because they're COPS doesn't mean they're automatically right about everything or justified in all their actions. And anyway, that's all they are, just cops...not gods. There are corrupt cops all over the place! I think Alex and his son are being portrayed as total thugs. And come on, a friggin stun gun? Hmmm, I wonder what Geddy and Neil think about all this.
19 - Tom Johnson
I wasn't aware that Alex/Lerxst/Snowdog had picked up a new nickname. I think I'll stick to the other two, since the "Stan" thing is only because of Rio set, and changed from night to night anyway. I don't have enough bootlegs to list them all, but I'm sure someone out there does . . .
20 - Mac Diva
I thought the guys at The Smoking Gun would be all over this since they love to flog celebrities. But, there is nothing about Mr. Z's situation there. Maybe there are confused by the two names.
21 - Mac Diva
Correction: They're for "there are."
22 - Eric Whitehead
Tom,
FYI... Zivojinovich is a Serbian surname and translates into English as "Son of Life"... hence the stage name... Lifeson.
23 - Mark Darrall
I really appreciate the even-handedness of the postings here. It's as though a close friend of mine is in trouble, and I guess, in a musical sense at least, that Rush ARE friends of mine. Never physically closer than the distance from seat to stage, I feel like I've known "the boys" for most of my life.
This is so unlike what we've all seen and felt of Alex, that I can only imagine that booze, parental instinct and rough police tactics combined in a very, very bad way.
I wish them all the best.
24 - Dick Little
Those cops can be pretty mean. I wasn't there so I can't say they acted improperly...booze makes people do stupid stuff and the reports claim he was intoxicated. Here's how I read it, he was accused of spitting blood in an officers face-did they bust him up first and he was only reacting to being victimized? Also did he push the officer in self defense or what? Not being there I can't really say anything about what happened that night. My experience is that cops "shoot first and ask questions later." Even if you are right, it seems best to not resist them and get a lawyer and witnesses who can back you up.
25 - Gabby
My question is, how did he get bloody in the first place. We are talking about a 50 year old man, with no history of violence.