ALEX LIFESON Admits He Had 'Reservations' About Touring With RUSH Again: But Now 'I've Just Fallen Totally In Love With It'

In a new interview with Tom Power, host of "Q" on Canada's CBC Radio One, RUSH bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, along with RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith, discussed the new documentary "Neil Peart: No One's Disciple", which follows the late Canadian drummer's tough start as a young artist, his meteoric rise with RUSH and, later, his personal tragedies.

Asked what it has been like for RUSH to be back on the road with Anika Nilles, a German drummer who toured with legendary guitarist Jeff Beck in 2022, and newly added keyboardist Loren Gold, who is best known as touring member of THE WHO and CHICAGO, Alex said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It feels fantastic, to be honest. I think all the fears that I had starting out, whether physically I would be up to it, whether my hands would work as well as I expected. Because like Geddy was saying [earlier in the interview], you wanna go beyond what the previous gig was. Once we started playing and I felt confident and good about my physical condition, I really fell in love with it. I love the songs, I love playing with Anika. Anika's a brilliant musician, and she's a wonderful person. She has a great sense of humor. We've become really quite close in the two years that we've been working with her, 'cause it has been a while. So I'm really, really excited. And I have to admit that maybe perhaps I wasn't quite so excited when it was just a concept. I had reservations about it, mostly health-related reservations. But I got my health in order, relatively. And the key was to be able to play the way I felt I needed to play. So, I've just fallen totally in love with it. And now I'm the guy who wants to do more gigs."

Added Geddy: "I know. It's just unbelievable to hear him say that. But it wasn't a simple journey to get back on stage. And I know we're not really here to talk about that; we're here to talk about Neil. But Neil's presence is always there. I mean, it really is, in so many ways. We pay tribute to him during the show, of course, and I try to tell stories about him and try to give people a look behind the songs as to how they came together and what we feel about each other and him."

Lee continued: "It was a very unlikely thing that we would be back to play together, and, of course, at the age that we are, which I will not say out loud, there's a lot of fear. And what Alex is talking about is that. It's the fear — the fear that you're not going to be as good as you were, the fear that you're gonna let people down. And that is not how you honor your fallen comrade by letting people down. So there was a lot of pressure on our shoulders to be as good [as], if not better than, we have ever been, and put a show together that would do his tribute justice. So that's what Alex is talking about. You had those terrified moments."

After Power noted that Peart is "still there" in RUSH's live performances and in the music that is being performed on the current tour, Geddy said: "Well, when you lose somebody… Somebody was asking me the other day about do I believe in the afterlife, and I said, 'Well, the afterlife is for people that are still alive.' You create the afterlife by making that person present, talking about them, remembering them, telling stories about them. That's how you keep them alive. For me, that's the afterlife."

"Neil Peart: No One's Disciple" includes interviews with Lee and Lifeson, alongside reflections of other acclaimed drummers. It also features Lee and Lifeson's new live performances of RUSH classics — with the likes of Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS),Stewart Copeland (THE POLICE) and Danny Carey (TOOL) filling Peart's seat at the drum kit.

Peart died on January 7, 2020 in Santa Monica, California after a three-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 67 years old.

RUSH announced Peart's passing three days later, setting off shockwaves and an outpouring of grief from fans and musicians all over the world.

The June 7 show at Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California was the kick-off gig of the "Fifty Something" tour, which marks RUSH's first with the band's revamped lineup of classic members Lee (vocals, bass) and Lifeson (guitar) alongside Nilles and Gold.

RUSH is performing multiple shows in cities across Canada, the United States and Mexico. These special "evening with" shows find the band playing two sets each night. Each show features a distinct selection of songs, and RUSH builds each night's setlist from a catalog of around 40 tracks, including its greatest hits and fan favorites.

After Lee and Lifeson announced RUSH's initial 2026 tour dates in early October 2025, they instantly sold out. They then doubled the tour's length due to increased demand before adding even more dates to the trek.