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The members of Rush will be receiving another one of those glittering prizes this weekend: the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award, honouring their decades of dedicated philanthropy.

The gifted Toronto power-prog trio is characteristically low-key about the honour, which will be issued during a Juno Awards ceremony.

If Rush’s generosity was a bit of a secret, they wouldn’t have minded if it stayed that way.

“It’s a way that you can do it as a unit, which Rush is, without making really a big deal about it,” guitarist Alex Lifeson said recently from Toronto.

“This is really great to get this award it’s always very humbling but this is just something that you’re supposed to do. We don’t make a big deal out of it.”

Among their charitable contributions, Rush has donated significantly to Toronto Food Bank, United Way, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the New Orleans-assisting Make it Right Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, Alberta Flood Relief and Casey House.

Lifeson and his peerless bandmates Neil Peart and Geddy Lee are currently preparing to rehearse for their upcoming 40th anniversary tour practising for practise, basically: “We rehearse ourselves to death,” the guitarist said.

He took a break to talk to The Canadian Press about the band’s charity and a 40-year history with the Juno Awards.

CP: You guys didn’t grow up wealthy, but was charity always instilled in you?

Lifeson: We’re all middle, or lower-middle class, suburban kids.