Rush’s return to the stage has drawn fresh attention not only because the band is performing again without Neil Peart, but also because Geddy Lee says some drummers reacted poorly after Peart’s death. Lee and Alex Lifeson are now preparing for a new chapter with former Jeff Beck drummer Anika Nilles stepping into the role.
The band retired after the R40 tour in 2015, largely because of Peart’s declining health. When Peart died five years later, many assumed Rush had reached a permanent end, but Lee and Lifeson eventually found a path back through careful planning and a drummer recommendation that came from outside the usual rumor mill.
Why some drummer approaches bothered Lee
Lee told Guitar World that the musicians closest to Rush understood the sensitivity of the situation. He said, “People who are close to us – good friends that are successful drummers – would never infer something like that because they have too much respect, not only for Neil and for the situation.”
He added that those friends were grieving too, which made opportunistic behavior even more jarring. According to Lee, “there were many other drummers who reached out to me in the aftermath of Neil’s passing that were pushing themselves, and that was most distasteful to me.”
How Anika Nilles entered the picture
Lee and Lifeson did not work from a long list of candidates. Instead, they started with Nilles after a tech who had spent time on Jeff Beck’s 2022 tour recommended her, and Lee said he had already done some research on her.
He described being drawn to her style early on, saying he “loved her vibe and diverse style.” After they reached out, Nilles came in, the musicians connected, and Lee said she brought more than technical ability to the role.
“She brought an intelligence and a story,” he said, while also crediting her chops, her nerve, and her willingness to accept the pressure of the part.
Why the choice mattered to Rush
Lee said Nilles’s background gave her a different perspective, noting that she was born into a family of musicians and came along between Rush’s ninth and tenth albums. He also said she “doesn’t even remember the first time she picked up sticks,” because drumming is part of who she is.
That relative freshness, Lee added, has helped shape Rush’s second act. The band first soft-launched its return at the Juno Awards in late March, before moving toward a fuller comeback at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on June 7, the venue where Rush played its final show with Peart.
The reunion gained momentum after Lee and Lifeson played Rush songs with Dave Grohl at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in 2022, then later reunited again for a Gordon Lightfoot tribute show. Lifeson’s admission that the pair had been jamming fueled speculation, but Lee said the real challenge was finding the right person for “that impossible seat.”
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