RUSH: Ah, jeez. You might want to kill the theme music so that the audience can hear what’s going on here. (singing continues)
SNERDLEY: How old are you now?
RUSH: What’s that?
SNERDLEY: How old are you now?
RUSH: Sixty-one years old today.
STAFF: (laughing)
RUSH: Sixty-one, and you know what? Throughout my whole life, I’ve always said I want to be older. At 15, always wanted to be older. At 20, always wanted to be older, ’cause I knew that life was gonna get better as I got older. And I still haven’t gotten to the point where I wished, “Gee, I wish I was younger.” I’m still looking forward to next year, still looking forward to getting older, even at 61. And you know what?
SNERDLEY: What?
RUSH: No, it has nothing to do with Social Security. Is this White Trash Cake?
DAWN: White Trash.
RUSH: And that’s an affectionate term when you’re talking about cake, don’t misunderstand. You only put two candles on it.
DAWN: A six and a one.
SNERDLEY: We couldn’t fit 61 candles on the cake.
RUSH: All right, okay. Normally this kind of stuff embarrasses me and bothers me, you know, birthdays. I’ve told the staff for 23 years, “Don’t do it,” and every year they do it. I’m not mad. I’m not upset. I’m not embarrassed. I guess I’m getting better at receiving. So, I gotta make a wish here. Let me hold the cake up for those of you watching on the Dittocam. I better not drop this. All right, there it is. There’s the cake for those of you to see and for those of you in the media watching to be misquoted later. Where you going, Brian? Is there a problem back in Broadcast Central?
DAWN: No. (laughing)
RUSH: Okay. So I’ll make a quick wish here and then I will blow out the two candles. And then Snerdley and Dawn, who are in here, can go back to the gig. Here we go. Three, two, one. (blowing)
DAWN: Yay! (clapping)
RUSH: Right on, right on, right on. Okay, take that into the kitchen and slice it up. By the way, thanks to everybody that sent me an e-mail birthday greeting today. Literally tens of thousands of them and I can’t possibly respond to all of them personally, but I do appreciate it, I really do.