The prog veterans have announced a run of shows notably shorter than their road trips of recent years, and all three members have hinted at difficulties in deciding whether to do it at all.

Now Lifeson tells Q107 Toronto: "We'd been working like crazy for five years. After the last tour we were exhausted and we decided to take a year off. I think over this past period we've got to really like being home and enjoying our family time.

"My wife and I did a lot of travelling - stuff we wanted to do for decades and hadn't been able to. We took advantage of that time off. Coming back to another big tour was a really tough decision. You can see that in the number of dates - it's a short tour."