RUSH's GEDDY LEE On ANIKA NILLES: 'When You Hear Her Talk About NEIL PEART, She Really Understands And Appreciates His Greatness'

In a new interview with producer and YouTuber Rick Beato, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of RUSH spoke about their decision to reunite for a tour in 2026 and 2027. The run of dates — Lee and Lifeson's first official shows under the RUSH banner in 11 years — will begin at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, site of the last RUSH concert on the legendary Canadian band's "R40" anniversary tour. Joining the duo on the trek will be German drummer Anika Nilles, who toured with legendary guitarist Jeff Beck in 2022 and has been rehearsing with Lee and Lifeson in preparation for the tour, dubbed "Fifty Something", which will celebrate RUSH's music, legacy, and the life of late drummer and lyricist Neil Peart.

After confirming that RUSH will play, over the course of four shows in a particular city, 38 different songs from the band's vast catalog, Geddy was asked if there will be tracks from every RUSH record. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I haven't checked. I have not checked. I don't think every record is represented, and some are over-represented for kind of obvious reasons. And what's interesting, and one of the reasons I really wanted to go out on tour is there's so many fan letters and messages I get from fans that became young musicians after our last gig. And they really would love to hear some of those songs. And so that's an opportunity for them, and, of course, they're not fortunate enough to hear Neil play those songs, but we'll do our best to make them happy."

Regarding the preparation for the "Fifty Something" tour, Alex said: "Well, that's the difference. In the past, we would plan a couple of months maybe, six weeks, on our own. We'd have a list of about four hours' worth of music. Then we'd sort of whittle it down to what the show would probably be. And then we would have a month together. So you've already prepped, and then we're together for a month, and then we would go into full production somewhere in an arena somewhere for maybe 10 days, and then the tour would start. So we have the benefit of four months, basically, of prep. This time around, Anika had to learn all these songs."

Geddy chimed in: "And one important thing that goes unmentioned is when you're preparing for a tour, when we would prepare for a tour with Neil, we're working really on new material that we just recorded, because the old stuff we knew. For this tour, we're starting from scratch and we're really teaching an incredibly talented, exciting drummer that comes from a very different school of music how to understand 40 songs from this weird, idiosyncratic band. That's a horse of an entirely different color. And that was difficult, but also exciting because when all the tumblers fall into place and she gets the vibe and she's feeling it, and her and I are playing together, and we're smiling. And it's, like, 'Oh, this is gonna be so much fun.' And she's embraced it. She's an amazing talent, but she's such a great person. She's got the right attitude. She works hard. She's not afraid to work hard. And she loves to play the same way we love to play, so we have that in common. Maybe every musician has that — I don't know; I imagine so — but it's been good for us to be around… And she brings something fresh. She brings a different story to our story. And I think that's really nice. And I think our fans have responded to the fact that we didn't get someone from another famous band and all that, 'Well, you should've got this guy or that guy.' This is a whole different feeling. It's non-competitive. And we're very lucky, 'cause she's the only drummer we thought of. We tried out one drummer."

Alex continued: "And after this time together, we've really bonded. It's not just about playing the songs and learning the music and playing it; it's about really falling in love with each other. And there's such a strong feeling, a joyful feeling of working together, playing together, and it just gets better and better and better as we progress with the songs. Now that we're at the stage where we're just playing everything and starting to get our pacing, it's just so much fun. We just can't wait every day to get back in here and do it."

Geddy added: "We added one song, one extra song recently. And she freaked out. I knew she would freak out, but she freaked out. She said, 'My hard drive is full.' And this song has a lot of complicated time signature changes. And so we made a deal. We pulled two songs out in exchange for this one song. She said, 'Okay.' [Laughs] But she's up for it. And that's a very difficult seat to sit in. And some people will never forgive us for going on with somebody else. And she has the guts to sit in that seat, to accept that gig and take whatever fans are gonna dish out. And that's not a small thing. That's a huge thing. And it's not out of arrogance. It's out of confidence and respect for Neil. When you hear her talk about Neil, she really understands and appreciates his greatness. And none of this that happens is diminishing his greatness by one iota."

Peart died on January 7, 2020, after quietly battling brain cancer for three and a half years. 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.

In 2022, Geddy revealed that Neil wanted to keep his cancer diagnosis a secret prior to his death.

Lee went on to say that he and Lifeson had to be "dishonest" to fans in order to protect Peart's privacy.

RUSH will perform multiple shows in cities across Canada, the United States and Mexico, beginning June 7, 2026 at The Kia Forum in Los Angeles. These special "evening with" shows will find the band playing two sets each night. Each show will feature a distinct selection of songs and RUSH will build each night's setlist from a catalog of 40 songs, including their 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.

At the moment, the North American leg of the "Fifty Something" tour is scheduled to stretch into the fall and early winter, with sold-out shows in Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, as well as dates in Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C., to name a few. Lee, Lifeson and Nilles will then take the tour to South America and Europe in 2027. They also announced that keyboard player Loren Gold will be joining them. South American dates run from January 15, 2027 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to February 4, 2027 in Brasília, Brazil. The trek will then head to Europe starting February 19 in Paris, with dates running until April 10 in Helsinki, Finland.

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.

Nilles, who has more than 275,000 subscribers on YouTube, toured with English rocker Jeff Beck in 2022 and was praised in 2023 by Lee, who told The Guardian at the time: "She played on the last Jeff Beck tour, and I thought she was terrific."

Nilles's official Instagram account, which is filled with her drumming videos, boasts more than 485,000 followers.

In a recent interview with Classic Rock magazine, Anika stated about Neil: "His playing was very energetic, and I really like that. That's something I feel very comfortable with. I also love playing in a very energetic way. That's the first thing that comes to mind, and something I really appreciate about his playing. He also had an incredible range of tonal colors. He had a very melodic approach to drumming and used a wide variety of sounds to achieve that. That set him apart and made him stand out to many drummers, for whom he was — and still is — a role model. He had a very distinctive way of playing the ride cymbal. When you listen to the music, that cymbal always stands out prominently. He had a very distinctive snare sound as well. There are certain signature sounds that come directly from his playing — not from the equipment, but from him. You recognize him immediately. Adapting to his way of playing is a challenge."

"Neil rarely repeated himself," she continued. "He kept bringing something new into the song. Even if a section repeated in terms of songwriting, his drumming the second time was different from the first. That makes it exciting and is part of what gives the songs their identity. At the same time, it's a challenge to remember all those details, because they're important. It's a composition; you can't just ignore certain parts, they're all essential and have to be played. That's challenging."

RUSH 2026 press photo credit: Richard Sibbald