An award-winning musician, Lee's style, technique, and skill on the bass guitar have inspired rock and heavy metal musicians, such as Steve Harris of Iron Maiden,John Myung of Dream Theater, Les Claypool of Primus, Cliff Burton of Metallica, and Juan Alderete of The Mars Volta.
In addition to his composing, arranging, and performing duties for Rush, Lee has produced for various other bands, including Rocket Science. Lee's first solo effort, My Favorite Headache, was released in 2000.
Along with his Rush bandmates — guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart — Lee was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio was the first rock band to be so honored, as a group. Lee is ranked 13th by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal vocalists of all time .
Lee and the rest of the band finished touring North and South America on the Time Machine Tour, October 17 in Santiago, Chile. The band later added additional dates to the tour which currently is scheduled to end June 2, 2011 in Seattle, Washington. Additionally, as a tribute to the U.S. city that first played their music, Rush has confirmed that the Cleveland performance of their "Time Machine" show on April 15, 2011 at the Quicken Loans Arena will be filmed for a full-length release.
Cleveland is remarkable for being one of the very first U.S. cities where Rush performed, in addition to being the first city to provide American airplay.
