RUSH's ALEX LIFESON And GEDDY LEE Talk 'Crazy' Reaction To Band's 'Fifty Something' Tour, Possibility Of New Music

In a new interview with Chile's Radio Futuro, RUSH bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson spoke about the band's "Fifty Something" tour, which launched on June 7 in Los Angeles. It is RUSH's first tour in over 10 years and the group's first run of shows since the 2020 death of Canadian rock legends' iconic drummer Neil Peart. The "Fifty Something" tour is also RUSH's first with the band's revamped lineup of classic members Lee and Lifeson alongside 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.

Asked how they feel about the response to all the shows on the "Fifty Something" tour so far, Alex said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't know that we were quite prepared for the reaction. We thought that coming back after 11 years, being away, there were a lot of RUSH fans that were maybe unhappy with the way things sort of ended, and never thought they'd see us again. And then we started the tour, and the response has been — you go online and it's crazy. People are so excited and so happy. And looking out at our audience night to night, everyone is so joyous. Everyone is having such a good time. There's such happiness in the air, and it's a beautiful thing to experience. People are crying, and they're laughing, and they're high-fiving, and they're just getting an escape for a few hours from this crazy world. I mean, things are so nuts in the world right now, and this affords them an opportunity just to get away from that and to be together, like a community. It's really more of a family reunion than it is a concert. And we're just having a riot. We feel so comfortable and happy, and we feel well-prepared. I think we're playing as well as we can, and we're also having a riot on stage and goofing around. And Anika is so open to our craziness and really has become a part of it. And Loren is the same; Loren has a great sense of humor. So the unit is very happy. The four of us are very happy, and I think the audience feels it and really, really appreciates it."

Geddy chimed in: "I'm just having a ball. I don't think I've ever worked so hard in my life. Preparation for this tour was intense and years in the making. People think you can just walk up on stage and play three hours' worth of those songs. I've got news for you — even the guys that wrote those songs have to work really hard to perfect them. And there was no way I was gonna hit the stage unless I knew that we could play at the top of our game. I mean, that's something Neil used to always say, and that's the reason he stopped playing, was because he no longer felt he had the energy to play at the top of his game. And it's very difficult, especially for a drummer — and a singer, I might say. So, yes, I'm ecstatic that we're playing so well and that the musicians that we've chosen to join us on stage have jelled the way they have. And every night out there is — for me, I just can't wipe the smile off my face. I'm not pretending, when you see me smiling up there. It's a joyous moment for me, and I know there're only so many gigs left in my body, so I'm gonna enjoy them while I can."

Asked if there was a "schedule" and a "countdown" for Lee, Lifeson, Nilles and Gold to become fully prepared to hit the road, Alex said: "Yeah. There was a countdown, for sure. We had a schedule. We laid out what our rehearsal schedule was going to be, with an end date being in May [of 2026], that we had to get everything done by then. And 14 months, at the beginning we thought, 'Oh, that's plenty of time. We'll get it done.' The last couple of weeks were, like, 'Oh my God, we gotta really focus on this and really put it together.' And we worked hard for that whole period. It's just a lot of work to prepare."

Added Geddy: "Especially for Anika. She had to learn something like 43 songs in the course of a year, and those are not easy drum parts to learn. Those are not easy song arrangements to learn, and she was working as hard, I think, as she's ever worked on anything. And sometimes I would text her, I'd say, 'How's it going?' She lives in Germany, we're in Toronto. I'd say, 'How's it going?' And she's going, 'Oh, my hard drive is full. I'm worried that it's going to crash.' So, she would work really hard on her own. Then she would come to Toronto sporadically and we would work really hard. And I think she found it much easier to work with us in person because there's a chemistry that we have, and we can reassure her that this part is right, and this part is this long, and no, you have to play this part this way. And so she was like a sponge soaking it all up. She's a brilliant player technically, but she's also a brilliant person, and so she understood the gravity of what she was taking on, and she's able to rise above the difficulties and deliver. So, yeah, I think the last month, as Alex alluded to, we played a full show 24 nights out of 27 days. We've never worked that hard in our entire lives. And I'm thankful for it because opening night, we were all a bit of a nervous wreck. And all that rehearsal paid off. [Laughs]"

Asked if they are thinking about possibly working on new RUSH songs with the current lineup of the band, Geddy responded: "No. We have enough to do. We're still trying to remember the old songs and play them."

Geddy also elaborated on the difficult process of rehearsing the classic RUSH material with a new drummer and keyboardist, especially after not having performed any of those songs in at least a decade. He said: "We made as many mistakes as [Anika] made, so that made her happy every time we rehearsed. [Laughs] And we all have these expressions now when we were making a mistake in the studio or whatever, we just look at each other, like, shock, made a mistake. One of the things I said to her and Loren before the tour started, I said, 'Look, these are complicated songs. You are going to make a mistake.' I said, 'It's not about the mistake. It's about how you recover from the mistake. So just play. Just keep playing and don't worry. There might be a bump in the road, but we'll just work around it and carry on.' And I think it helped them relax a little bit, because it's kind of scary arrangements. They're very complicated, and if you didn't write them, you have to learn them, and it's very different. When you write a part, it's automatically in your DNA. You understand it inside out. But when you're coming to it to learn it as an outsider, you try to break it down into the laws of music, and our songs don't adhere to the laws of music strictly. So it can be very intimidating and challenging. And so I think [Anika] appreciated face to face of being able to work out those parts. I remember when we talked about learning 'A Farewell To Kings', and it was that daunting middle section that's… And she's very mathematical, so she's breaking it down into time signatures and I'm going, 'Well, I just play the riff over and over again until it's over.' So I said, 'Don't worry about it. Figure it out, 6/8, 7/8, whatever you think, a bar of four here. You figure it out. When you get together with Alex and I, we'll bash it around and it will feel second nature to you.' And that's how it comes together. And so I think that helped her relax a little bit to know that her two crazy uncles are out there, and we've got her back. 'We've got you. Don't worry. We'll get you through all the tough parts.'"

RUSH's setlist for "Fifty Something" is culled from a pool of more than 40 RUSH classics, with the band playing two sets a night that celebrate late RUSH drummer Neil Peart's life and legacy.

The 2026 leg of the "Fifty Something" tour, which will cover Canada, USA and Mexico, initially consisted of 22 dates, which sold out immediately, prompting the addition of more shows. The tour now totals 58 shows across 24 cities, with over half a million tickets sold for 2026.

In February, RUSH announced the addition of South America and Europe tour dates to the "Fifty Something" tour, in early 2027. The dates will be the first time the band has played in Europe since 2013 and 17 years since visiting South America.

RUSH performed in public with Nilles for the first time at Canada's Juno Awards in Hamilton, Ontario in late March. They played "Finding My Way", the first song from RUSH's first album, the band's only LP not to feature Peart.

The Juno Awards performance was Lee and Lifeson's first as RUSH since they finished their 40th-anniversary tour in 2015, although they have performed under their own names on occasion, including tributes to legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot and Taylor Hawkins of the FOO FIGHTERS.

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

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