Pye Dubois, the Canadian lyricist and poet most famous for his work with Rush and Max Webster, and later with Max Webster frontman Kim Mitchell, has died at the age of 77.
The news was broken in an obituary published by the Smith Funeral Home and Family Centre in Sarnia, Ontario. "Pye was a true Canadian Icon," the notice read. "A gifted writer, artist, lyricist, and poet, he was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021."
"It’s been an unbelievably tragic year for Max Webster founder Kim Mitchell and all those who knew that band personally," Rush wrote on social media. "In late February, Max keyboardist Terry Watkinson passed away, and now, a mere seven days after the death of drummer Gary McCracken, news has reached us that Max Webster lyricist Pye Dubois has suddenly left the planet.
"For those who aren’t aware, over a span of 20 years, Pye and Neil collaborated on the lyrics for four Rush songs: Tom Sawyer, Force 10, Between Sun And Moon, and Test For Echo. We send our most heartfelt sympathies to the bandmates, friends and families of those three stellar musicians. RIP boys."
Dubois, born Paul Woods, was raised in Sarnia and joined childhood friend Kim Mitchell as a lyric-writing, honorary member of the fledgling Max Webster in 1972. Airing their skewed hard rock and prog on the local bar circuit, the band soon hit on their classic line-up, which comprised Mitchell and Dubois alongside keyboard player Terry Watkinson, drummer Gary McCracken and bassist Mike Tilka (later replaced by Dave Myles).
“Our lyrics were rarely stories," Mitchell told Classic Rock. "Pye would just jam with the English language in this amazing way, painting pictures. I said to him one time: ‘Pye, where are you getting all this stuff?’ He said: ‘You just have to listen really well. People are saying these things.’ I was like: ‘They are? Really?'"
Mitchell contributed lyrics to all five Max Webster albums, from their self-titled 1976 debut to 1980's Universal Juveniles, which featured Rush on the Mitchell/Dubois-written epic Battle Scar. At the recording studio, Dubois asked Rush if they might be interested in using some of his words, and the lyric he presented them with, titled Louis The Lawyer, was later reworked for Tom Sawyer, the much-celebrated opening track on Moving Pictures.
"His original lyrics were kind of a portrait of a modern-day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful," wrote Peart, in Rush's Backstage Club newsletter. "I added the themes of reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be – namely me, I guess."
After Max Webster broke up in 1981, Dubois continued working with Mitchell and co-wrote three of his first four solo albums, but the pair stopped working together after falling out during Max Webster's reunion tour in 1995.
In 2021, Mitchell and Dubois were inducted into The Canadian Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame, but Mitchell attended the small, COVID-postponed ceremony alone. “They told me Pye was invited, but he didn’t show,” Mitchell told Classic Rock. “In fact, he didn’t even respond. I haven’t seen him since the reunion tour.”
"Rest in peace, lyricist/friend/writing partner Pye Dubois," he wrote on social media as the news of his former bandmate's death broke. "You sure knew how to jam with the English language!"
