{"id":813740,"date":"2026-08-14T20:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T20:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/813740\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T20:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T20:47:23","slug":"rush-interview-geddy-lee-alex-lifeson-anika-nilles-on-their-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/813740\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush Interview: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Anika Nilles on Their Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\tThis cover story<\/a> was produced in partnership with Rolling Stone Canada\t<\/p>\n

\n

\tO<\/p>\n

n their long journey towards becoming Rush<\/a> again, Geddy Lee<\/a> and Alex Lifeson<\/a> pushed past death, illness, age, self-doubt, and for one guy, a weed habit that dated back to 1966. They just didn\u2019t count on the fog.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn early June, the resuscitated band was about to begin its first concert in 11 years<\/a>, the kick-off of its Fifty Something tour. Backstage at Los Angeles\u2019 Kia Forum that Sunday evening, Lee was feeling tense, Lifeson less so. \u201cI was, surprisingly, not really that nervous,\u201d the guitarist says. At showtime, video screens surrounding the stage began to glide upwards, revealing two familiar silhouettes, complete with dual doublenecks, shrouded by thick clouds of smoke. Lifeson put his foot on his volume pedal, ready to unleash the swelling notes that begin 1977\u2019s \u201cXanadu.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe August cover of Rolling Stone Canada<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotograph by Richard Sibbald<\/p>\n

\n\tAs more smoke billowed, he could feel his guitar\u2019s twelve-pound weight on his spine, but couldn\u2019t see a single fret. For a second, at least, \u201cnot really that nervous\u201d melted into near-panic. A few feet away, Lee glanced down at a small mirror that was supposed to let him watch drummer Anika Nilles<\/a>. In the haze, his rearview was gone. \u201cWe were drowning in fog,\u201d Lee says, laughing at the Spinal Tap absurdity of it all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHalf-blinded but undaunted, they launched the song. In the opening moments of her very first Rush concert, Nilles whirled through the \u201cXanadu\u201d intro\u2019s lengthy procession of exclamatory drum fills. A minute in, she was pounding out the tom-tom-heavy accompaniment to a winding riff. Don\u2019t fuck up this fill, she recalls telling herself, just as her left hand lost its grip: \u201cI saw this stick flying over the toms.\u201d She missed a single drum hit, enough to trigger a concerned glance from Lee, before plunging on one-handed. In the same millisecond, she somehow snatched the errant stick out of the air, flipped it over, and kept going. \u201cIt happens,\u201d she says, still unfazed. \u201cYou drop the stick. As a drummer, you\u2019re used to it.\u201d (\u201cShe\u2019s a pro,\u201d Lee adds. \u201cShe rose to the occasion on opening night.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tAt age 43, Nilles, a native of Aschaffenburg, Germany, is three decades younger than her new bandmates. When she was born, Rush were about to record their tenth album, Grace Under Pressure. She\u2019s had stage fright in the past, but on the highest-stakes night of her career, was relaxed enough to break into a smile right after that stick recovery. It helped that she meditated for a full 45 minutes before the show, part of a \u201ccalming routine.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIn each song part,\u201d she says, \u201cI had to coach myself a little bit through it, especially in the first show, not to fly away.\u201d She tried not to consider the bigger picture. \u201cThat all helped not to think too much about how big that seat is and what role I\u2019m filling in it, at the point where I\u2019m sitting on stage. Be in the moment, be present, be focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tThe seat she\u2019s filling will, of course, always belong to Neil Peart, who died of brain cancer in 2020<\/a>. That night in L.A. was Rush\u2019s first concert without him since his debut on Aug. 14, 1974. Peart was a one-of-a-kind virtuoso<\/a>, one of the greatest drummers rock ever knew, his monstrously complex parts so intrinsic to Rush\u2019s sound that the idea of replacing him long seemed unfathomable. He was also their lyricist, lending Canada\u2019s greatest power trio their cerebral ambition and poetic soul, after some loveable sci-fi\/fantasy excursions in their earliest days. \u201cWe\u2019re only immortal,\u201d Lee sings in 1991\u2019s \u201cDreamline,\u201d \u201cfor a limited time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tWatch the video interview below\t<\/p>\n

\n\tFor this tour, though, he was determined to prove otherwise. Not only was Rush\u2019s frontman, bassist, and designated taskmaster reviving a vanished band, but he had over-the-top, nearly masochistic ambitions for its new incarnation. \u201cIt\u2019s how I\u2019m built,\u201d Lee says. \u201cI\u2019m crazy.\u201d The musicians, now also including keyboardist Loren Gold, would have to learn over 40 songs, many of them stuffed with more musical twists than some bands\u2019 entire albums.\u00a0 There are four alternating setlists, each stacked with the trickiest material of their notoriously tricky-to-play catalog \u2013 the full first side of 2112 was just the start. Gold\u2019s presence at least rescued Lee from playing bass pedals with his feet during every keyboard part, but he\u2019s still grabbing some signature synth riffs for himself.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhy do you do it? It\u2019s a test,\u201d says Lee, who turned 73 in July. \u201cIt\u2019s howling at the moon! It\u2019s saying, \u2018I\u2019m this age now. Can I still do it?\u2019 Those moments of self-doubt, of course we all have those. Anika has those, and she\u2019s much younger than us, apparently. That\u2019s just being a human. You always doubt that you can stretch and play at your apogee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Lifeson, that struggle was real and visceral. \u201cIn the last month of rehearsals,\u201d he says, \u201cthere were times I was sitting on the edge of my bed at two o\u2019clock in the morning thinking, \u2018Did I make the right decision? Can I do this? Can I play? Am I good enough?\u2019 It wasn\u2019t really until Sunday, when we played that gig, that it all kind of came down this funnel and spilled out. It was at that moment that I thought, \u2018Yeah, this has all been worth it. This is where I really am happy to be.\u2019 I\u2019m tired this week. But I\u2019m really, seriously happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRICHARD SIBBALD<\/p>\n

\n\tLee wanted to get back on stage from the moment the band said goodbye in August of 2015, but confirming the tour meant many months of grim-faced work. His daughter, Kyla, said she hardly saw a real smile from him for a year and a half. \u201cIn my history as a musician, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever rehearsed quite as much as an individual, and also as a band,\u201d Lee says. \u201cOf course, we needed to, because it was a monumental task\u2026 In the last month and a half, I think at one point we did the show 24 times in 27 days. It\u2019s been a long time since we were on a stage, and we put so much of our heart and soul into shaping the show and perfecting our parts. And when the curtain goes up, you just never know which version of you is gonna show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOpening jitters aside, the first show turned out to be a triumph, with the crowd instantly, even gratefully, embracing Nilles. By nights three and four, any remaining nerves had burned off. Lifeson was roaming the stage, trying to make the new drummer laugh. \u201cWe\u2019re much looser than we\u2019ve been before,\u201d Lee says. \u201cGoofier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMore than once, Lee couldn\u2019t help leaping in the air as he thumped out, say, the riffs of \u201cRed Barchetta\u201d or the climax to \u201cLa Villa Strangiato.\u201d Did anyone suggest that, for a septuagenarian with many months of shows ahead around the world, including two homecoming runs through Canada, leaving the ground might not be the best idea? \u201cYes,\u201d Lee says, smirking. \u201cMy trainer. My wife. My daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJUST TWO YEARS AGO, Lifeson told me his mind was made up. \u201cThere\u2019s no chance that we\u2019re going to get a drummer and go back on the road as the rebirth of Rush or something like that,\u201d he said in May of 2024. He and Lee had just started to play Rush songs in private again, but Lifeson insisted it was just for fun. He was recording with a band called Envy of None, but otherwise seemed like a man at peace with semi-retirement.\u00a0 \u201cI really would feel like we were doing an injustice to our fans and that would be just a money grab.\u201d A few months later, in another interview, he went even further, calling the R40 tour a high point: \u201cI guess I\u2019d rather be remembered for that legacy than returning as the top Rush tribute band.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRICHARD SIBBALD<\/p>\n

\n\tIn September of 2022, at two tribute concerts<\/a> for late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, Lee and Lifeson performed together for the first time since Peart\u2019s death, with a revolving crew of drummers. Earlier, they had made it clear that Rush was gone: \u201cThat\u2019s finished, right? That\u2019s over,\u201d Lee told me in late 2020. After feeling their songs under their fingers again, they weren\u2019t so sure,\u00a0 and it didn\u2019t hurt that Paul McCartney urged them to get back on the road backstage after the first show, at Wembley Stadium. \u00a0In the aftermath, Lifeson got briefly excited about the idea, then seemed to change his mind. Lee kept at him, and along the way, began to find Lifeson\u2019s interview comments increasingly baffling. \u201cAl is great at saying one thing to your face and then saying something else in public,\u201d Lee says now. \u201cYou\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s interesting.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLifeson shrugs. \u201cYeah, I kind of do do that.\u201d They\u2019re sitting side by side in the dark basement studio of the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, their go-to hotel in the Seventies.<\/p>\n

\n\tLee has boundless affection for his best friend, but he found one part of Lifeson\u2019s public comments intolerable. \u201cI know how he feels and how he\u2019s felt for a long time,\u201d Lee says. \u201cWe\u2019re friends first. But\u2026 when I heard this thing about the tribute? It\u2019s like, \u2018They\u2019re your songs, motherfucker!\u2019 It\u2019s not a tribute band! We own those songs as much as we did with Neil. And they\u2019re part of us. They\u2019re part of your soul. They\u2019re part of your heart. And when we started playing them together again, that kind of woke up in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLifeson thinks he was trying to send messages through the press that he didn\u2019t have the heart to say to Lee\u2019s face. \u201cMaybe I was trying to send a bit of a signal,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to create this wall that I didn\u2019t have to climb over, by saying, \u2018Oh no, I don\u2019t wanna be in a Rush tribute band,\u2019 blah, blah, blah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Lifeson told me in 2024, his reluctance was as much physical as it was emotional. After two failed surgeries, he suffered from stomach paralysis, gastroparesis, which left him constantly nauseous. He had a continuing issue with arthritis in his hands, though medicine keeps that largely under control. He also found himself dreading the road. \u201cYou could feel like a hotel room is prison,\u201d he says. \u201cThat can be a lonely place. I didn\u2019t know if I really wanted to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTHEY\u2019RE YOUR SONGS, MOTHERF\u2014ER! IT\u2019S NOT A TRIBUTE BAND!\u201d<\/p>\n

Geddy Lee<\/p>\n

\n\tHe started to budge last year, during a sojourn at VivaMayr, a well-regarded wellness clinic on a lake in the Austrian countryside, where staff design custom low-calorie nutrition programs, massage your stomach daily, and teach you to chew bread 40 times. Lee decided to tag along, \u201cfor moral support,\u201d and ended up enjoying it, despite a ban on both alcohol and caffeine. Lifeson dropped 30 pounds over two visits, and learned how to address his digestive issues. \u201cThey really set me straight,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile they were there, the duo set up a studio in Lifeson\u2019s room, with gear shipped from home and instruments rounded up from a local music shop. Every day, after their treatments, they began making music. \u201cWe started really getting into it,\u201d says Lee. \u201cAnd when you combine that feeling with the fact that he was feeling good, I think that\u2019s what convinced him that maybe we should think about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLee had just finished his third book, and restlessness was setting in. \u201cI don\u2019t like not having a project. I am not happy if I don\u2019t have something to engage me,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought, \u2018Right. Time to write some lyrics. Time to get your fingers in shape.’\u201d For a while, he assumed he might be working towards his first solo album since 2000, maybe his first-ever solo tour. Some of the lyrics he was writing felt too personal for Rush, not to mention that he hadn\u2019t sung his own words with the band since their first album, before Peart joined.\u00a0 \u201cBut before I got to that point,\u201d he says, \u201cwe sparked.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRICHARD SIBBALD<\/p>\n

\n\tLifeson had to admit it. \u201cWhen we sat down, this was not about being in a Rush tribute band,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is about being Rush. In one of its best forms. And that was a whole different kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLifeson had one more life change to make. He first smoked weed at age 13, and while he\u2019s had periods of abstinence, it\u2019s been a fairly constant companion for the last 20 years. \u201c\u200aIn the studio, I enjoyed it,\u201d he says. \u201cI found it did spark some creativity that was different from the straight world.\u201d Four months before tour launch, at age 72, he quit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen he\u2019d get high at night and pick up his guitar, as was his ritual, he \u201cwasn\u2019t playing that well. And I started having these negative feelings about my confidence and about what was ahead of us. We were halfway through the process. It\u2019s too late to jump off this ship that\u2019s screaming across the sea. And I thought, this is interfering with the way my brain should be working, and the kind of focus and discipline that all of a sudden I really wanted to have in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe went on a THC-removal rampage.\u00a0 \u201cI got up, and I went in the bathroom, and I took all my little jars of pot and the pipes and threw them in a garbage bag,\u201d he says. \u201cThen I went in the kitchen, I took all my pipes and threw it all in the garbage. Then I went in the studio and looked at one container of pre-rolls and I thought, \u2018Oh, I really like these. Maybe I\u2019ll just hang onto these.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Al, this is not the idea.\u2019 So I tossed that in. I went to every little place I had stashes. It was a garbage bag full of pipes and bongs and pot, pot, pot, pot. All my friends said, \u2018Why did you throw it out? You should\u2019ve called me. I would\u2019ve been happy to take it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTHIS IS ABOUT BEING RUSH. IN ONE OF ITS BEST FORMS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Lifeson<\/p>\n

\n\tHe initially planned to abstain for a week, then a month. \u201cTHC stays in your system for typically 30 days,\u201d he says. \u201cI got to the month and I thought, \u2018Oh my God, maybe I\u2019ll just try it for two years then, for the whole tour.’\u201d He has no regrets. \u201cThe other day I was standing on stage thinking, thank God I\u2019m not smoking pot anymore, \u2019cause I\u2019m so much clearer. I don\u2019t procrastinate like I used to. My memory is so much better. It\u2019s all the stuff that they tell you about cannabis. I never believed it.\u201d He\u2019s mostly stopped drinking, too.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s really been a positive experience. I didn\u2019t expect it, and I was hoping it wouldn\u2019t be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLifeson\u2019s attention to detail can easily rival his bandmate\u2019s. For this tour, he decided to ditch physical guitar amps in favor of digital emulation, with sounds set up to match each song\u2019s precise studio amps and effects. \u201cHe\u2019s got this fucking incredibly complicated setup of pedals and sounds,\u201d says Lee, \u201cjust because he wants each moment of the song to be true to the original moment of that song.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRICHARD SIBBALD<\/p>\n

\n\tLifeson was tweaking those sounds all through the rehearsals, and Lee didn\u2019t always love the 30-minute delays that could result.\u00a0 Even with the tour well underway, he\u2019s still massaging those presets. \u201cThere\u2019s always something I want to just get a little bit better,\u201d Lifeson\u00a0 says. \u201cAnd I like it. That keeps me going. And that\u2019s the way my brain works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLee laughs.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s such a fucking guitar player. There\u2019s an old studio joke about a guitar player getting a sound. The producer goes, \u2018That\u2019s it. That\u2019s perfect!\u2019 And the guitar player says, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll change it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHOW DO YOU REPLACE SOMEONE who you can\u2019t replace?\u201d That, in Lee\u2019s words, was the question in the air.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the autumn of 2022, Lee\u2019s longtime bass tech, John \u201cScully\u201d McIntosh, went on tour with Jeff Beck. Beck had recruited a new drummer with a substantial online following, one Anika Nilles<\/a>, and Scully immediately took note. He reached out to Lee, who had just performed at the Hawkins tribute shows, suggesting her as a potential collaborator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLee duly looked her up on YouTube. In videos from the Beck tour, a shades-wearing Nilles grooves like John Bonham, breezing through Beck\u2019s most complex material and the skittering hi-hats of Billy Cobham\u2019s \u201cStratus,\u201d\u00a0 blasting out a succession of beastly fills. In clips of solo songs like \u201cAlter Ego,\u201d her playing is more overtly technical, with ever-shifting parts and a notable sense of percussive melody, even as she toys with polyrhythms and unusual time signatures. There\u2019s even an instructional video where she shows drummers how to think in quintuplets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHOW DO YOU REPLACE SOMEONE WHO YOU CAN\u2019T REPLACE?\u201d<\/p>\n

Geddy Lee<\/p>\n

\n\tLee, who knows a bit about drumming greatness and weird meters, was impressed. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my God, she\u2019s so good,’\u201d says Lee. \u201cShe\u2019s so interesting. She\u2019s got such charisma, personal charisma, and flair.\u201d He filed the name away, but for three years, he says, \u201cI just kept it to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce Lifeson was fully on board, the guitarist suggested \u201csome other guys that maybe he was thinking of that might work for the gig,\u201d Lee recalls. But he asked Lifeson to go check out Nilles, and he came away converted. \u201cI see what you like about her,\u201d Lifeson said. \u201cShe\u2019s really good.\u201d Scully made the call, a Zoom introduction went well, and Lee extended the invitation: \u201cWould you like to come to Toronto and just jam and bang it out?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor all Nilles\u2019 mastery, Lee and Lifeson weren\u2019t fully convinced until the fifth day of that informal audition. She was so well-known in her world that she made the cover of Modern Drummer in 2017, but the Beck tour was her only high-profile, mainstream gig. Beck never told Nilles what to play or how to play it, which left her with preconceptions\u00a0 ill-suited to Rush. \u200a\u201dI wasn\u2019t sure if I should prep every little detail,\u201d she says, \u201cor to have the main parts down, but have some freedom here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRICHARD SIBBALD<\/p>\n

\n\tIn those first days, the feel of \u201cTom Sawyer\u201d initially eluded her, if not the fills, and in \u201cSubdivisions,\u201d she kept adding additional complexity to Peart\u2019s already well-embroidered parts.\u00a0 \u201cA lot of extra grace notes,\u201d says Lee. \u201cI don\u2019t think she fully understood what her mandate was.\u201d Once she realized the extent to which Peart was a self-described \u201ccompositional drummer,\u201d his parts welded into the music, \u201cshe approached listening to the songs in a very different way,\u201d Lee adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tGetting there meant the rapid dismantling of some of her hard-won skills. Her elegant method of playing \u201cthose sneaky sixteenth notes\u201d on the hi-hat, one of the defining bits of \u201cTom Sawyer,\u201d simply sounded wrong. To get Peart\u2019s dauntingly robotic sound, she had to pound the thing harder, with the same impact on each note, using her forearm instead of her wrist. In old interviews, she spoke of using technique to compensate for what she believed was male drummers\u2019 greater physical strength. For Rush, she decided to simply get stronger, and you can hear it in every snare hit. \u200a\u201dI have to play more out of muscle power,\u201d says Nilles, who\u2019s been lifting weights for months in between rehearsals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI NEVER THOUGHT SOMETHING BIG LIKE THIS WOULD EVER HAPPEN.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anika Nilles<\/p>\n

\n\tHer drum kit kept growing, too, and she fell in love with Peart\u2019s brutal sound on the earliest Rush records. \u201cI like being a rock drummer!\u201d she told the band early on. The process required an almost eerie level of absorption. \u201cNow, I have a little bit of Neil in me,\u201d she says. \u201c\u200aWhat I learned for myself the most is the compositional part.\u00a0 He was brilliant in that, really. He constantly builds, and builds, and builds the drum part to a point where you think, \u2018What the hell is going on?’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere are moments where I\u2019m just so proud of her,\u201d says Lee. \u201cBecause in order to do this gig, let\u2019s be frank, you know, you have to compromise a bit of yourself. Because you\u2019re trying to be true to another drummer\u2019s part\u2026 And that\u2019s a sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Nilles, it\u2019s simple. \u200a\u201dI have no ego, so I play what is required,\u201d she says. Still, she\u2019s not going for clone-like micro-replication of Peart\u2019s parts, and is still sneaking in some extra twists. \u201cAt the same time, I am a musician myself, with my own character and own style, and that sneaks in even if I don\u2019t want to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs they tried to acclimate Nilles, Lee and Lifeson gained new insight into how quirky and insular their musical approach could be. \u200a\u201dSometimes Anika would write to me and say, \u2018What time is this part in?\u2019 I would go, \u2018Fuck, I don\u2019t know,’\u201d Lee says. \u201cAnd I realized we would do a weird musical passage in an odd time signature, but we wouldn\u2019t need to count, \u2019cause we would just glue a bunch of phrases together\u2026 We knew the nuances of each other\u2019s parts so intimately that we had cues in each other\u2019s playing. But she hadn\u2019t had enough familiarity yet. She couldn\u2019t possibly have played off of those cues yet. And now I think she can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRICHARD SIBBALD<\/p>\n

\n\tNilles grew up surrounded by drummers, playing by age six. Her parents recognized her talent, but feared the instability of a musician\u2019s life.\u00a0 So she spent five years studying social work, and got a job working with kids at a preschool. She kept playing on nights and weekends, and another life kept calling to her. She started over at age 26, enrolling at the Popakademie Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg in Mannheim, where she was convinced she\u2019d fallen behind her younger classmates. \u201cI felt like I was old and sucked,\u201d she once said. She soon surpassed them, thanks to the same work ethic and humility that would later win her the most fraught gig in rock. Clips of her playing eventually went viral, and her YouTube success ultimately led Beck in her direction.\u00a0 \u201cI never thought that something big like this would really ever happen,\u201d she says. \u201cI would have been happy with a regular touring gig in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Peart\u2019s death, more than one drummer actively pitched themselves to Rush, which Lee found offensive. Nilles never coveted the gig, or even imagined having it; she didn\u2019t even know the band\u2019s music all that well before her audition. For fans, those all seem to be points in her favor. It\u2019s hard to imagine persnickety Rush obsessives cheering quite so ecstatically for a session pro or superstar drummer borrowed from some other band. \u200a\u201dIt\u2019s so great to see the audience really accept her,\u201d says Lifeson. \u201cAnd root for her. They really want her to be a success.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI HAVE NO EGO, SO I PLAY WHAT IS REQUIRED.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anika Nilles<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore the first show, she heard from Peart\u2019s widow, Carrie Nuttall. \u200a\u201dI got a nice message from her, a really lovely message,\u201d Nilles says. \u201cIt was really nice to hear that she is on board and looking forward to this whole journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the initial concerts behind her, Nilles is allowing herself to finally feel some of the impact of it all. \u201cI feel really energized,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd relieved.\u201d\u00a0 But that was already evident in the broad smile she\u2019d flash\u00a0 after nailing the \u201cTom Sawyer\u201d drum fills. Pushed to recall her thoughts in those moments, she laughs hard: \u201cI made it through!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBEFORE REBUILDING THE BAND, Lee had to do the same for himself. \u200a\u201dI didn\u2019t play bass on a regular industrial level for 10 years,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought I was in shape, \u2019cause I would go down to the studio, and I would play one of my zillion basses, and I would go, \u2018Ah, this is great bassing!\u2019 You\u2019d think you\u2019re in shape. You\u2019re not. That\u2019s not playing shape. That\u2019s not touring shape. Not until you get calluses on calluses on calluses and your fingers are sitting there at night sizzling.That\u2019s getting in shape. So I had already made the decision before Al agreed to do any tour to get my fingers back in shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis other task was scarier and more personal. How did the voice of Geddy Lee get so high? He had no idea, but he was finally going to have to find out. In the Seventies, Lee sang in a speaker-melting shriek that he unleashed without coaching or conscious technique, somehow doing everything right (or wrong, if you believed certain churlish critics) from pure instinct. From the Eighties onwards, he pared down the high notes, though he did push into glass-shattering territory on the final verse of \u201cFreewill.\u201d As the years passed, he found his old banshee wail harder and harder to access, particularly in this century. He took it as a natural part of aging, and simply did his best, occasionally lowering keys to give himself some help.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis time, after over five decades of singing professionally, Lee decided to take his first lessons. He began Zoom meetings with a veteran vocal coach, Mitch Seekins, who works remotely from the small town of Ilderton, Ontario. Seekins, a longtime Rush fan, knew right away that Lee was a long way from being ready. \u201c\u200aIt was shocking,\u201d says Seekins. \u201cI mean, it was horribly out of shape. The muscles weren\u2019t responding in the top end anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRICHARD SIBBALD<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the coach still had very good news for his client:\u00a0 \u201cI could hear that it was there, he just couldn\u2019t do it yet.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t sure if he was ever gonna be able to do what he did when he was much younger\u2026 But there was no degradation at all, even due to age.\u201d The high notes would inevitably lack some of the reckless power of the old days, but they were all accessible. The real trick was convincing Lee that he could do it. \u201c\u200aThe hardest part of the repair part is the psychological end of the thing,\u201d says Seekins, whose techniques can seem Yoda-like. \u201cBecause it is subconscious, and if you\u2019ve convinced yourself that you can\u2019t do something, well, guess what? You can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLee, who already works out four times a week, began to get it. \u201c\u200aIt\u2019s no different than going to the gym and getting strong,\u201d he says. \u200a\u201dYou have to get this muscle strong, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve worked on \u2014 and to take a more forensic look at how a voice makes a sound, and apply it.\u201d Even so, he adds, \u201cI was nervous to try some of those songs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI HAVE TO SING IN THIS F\u2014ING STRATOSPHERE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geddy Lee<\/p>\n

\n\tIt quickly became evident that he was pulling it off. \u201c\u200aWe were just looking at each other like, \u2018Holy crap,’\u201d says longtime Rush collaborator Dale Heslip, who directed the tour\u2019s opening film and designed the stage. \u201cLike, he has turned back time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Lee gained confidence, new possibilities opened up, including adding the long-unplayed title track of 1977\u2019s A Farewell to Kings back to the show. It\u2019s still the single hardest song of the tour for both Lee and Lifeson. Youthful ambition bequeathed them unpredictably shifting time signatures, a daunting nylon-string intro, some odd musical shifts during the guitar-solo section, and a long list of other complexities. \u200a\u201dYou kick off the verse, and I have to sing in this fucking stratosphere,\u201d says Lee. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of insecurity that comes with bringing back a song from that long ago\u2026 When you\u2019re at this age, people expect you to be a lesser version of yourself, and that\u2019s just not acceptable to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThey did have the option of dropping keys down, which is how they handle 2112 and \u201cAnthem,\u201d on the grounds that they both sound heavier that way. \u201cIt\u2019s partly an excuse and partly the truth,\u201d Lee says. But they took a close look at \u201cFreewill,\u201d and decided to keep it as is. \u200a\u201dThere\u2019s no way I would do that song unless I could hit that third verse,\u201d says Lee. \u201cWhich is really the highest verse that I sing all night.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSomehow, night after night, he\u2019s making it all the way up there. \u201cThe cats,\u201d says Lee, \u201care meowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTHERE ARE STILL SOME MOMENTS ONSTAGE when Lee glances behind him and is surprised to see a cheerful blond woman on drums. \u201cI keep expecting to see Neil\u2019s intense mug back there,\u201d he says. In truth, Peart is still very much part of the show. The most intense moments each night are \u201cTime Stand Still\u201d and \u201cBravado,\u201d both presented as overt tributes, with his face on the video screens and his voice heard beforehand, musing on his uncompromising approach to life and art.\u00a0 \u201cIf the dream is won,\u201d Lee sings on the latter song, \u201cthough everything is lost\/ We will pay the price, but we will not count the cost.\u201d The Lifeson solo that follows is a tribute in itself. \u201c\u200aIt has to be delicate in a way,\u201d says the guitarist. \u201cAnd emotive. And it has to have this crescendo. It has to go to a positive place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEven without the overt nods, Peart\u2019s presence would have been inescapable. As he emphasized to me in 2015, Rush\u2019s long run owed everything to the trio\u2019s deep level of collaboration, with each member essential to the triangle they formed. \u201cYou know how the dynamics of bands go when one guy writes all the songs and gets all the attention,\u201d Peart said, sipping whiskey in the garage hideaway where he did all of his writing. \u201cFor me, of course, the singer does, but I\u2019m sitting there, playing along, watching everybody sing along with Geddy to my lyrics, you know? The shared involvement in what we do and the shared reward and appreciation for what we do is huge because no bands survive. The Police. Talking Heads. Where someone is the band in every quantifiable way, it can\u2019t really endure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRICHARD SIBBALD<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Rush had toured closer to Peart\u2019s passing, it might have been trickier to include some of the lighter moments built into the show, from the comedic opening film to the tradition of South Park\u2019s Cartman counting off \u201cTom Sawyer\u201d while fronting \u201cLil\u2019 Rush.\u201d \u201cYou have to acknowledge the absence,\u201d says Allan Weinrib, the tour\u2019s creative director, who happens to be Lee\u2019s brother. \u201cStill, at the end of the day, this is Ged and Al going back on the road, you know? Once you decide you\u2019re going on the road, you decide you\u2019re gonna have fun again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe didn\u2019t want it to be funereal,\u201d says Lee, who still acknowledges getting choked up during a song or two. \u201cBecause we wanted everyone to remember him happily and celebrate the fucking amazing person that he was\u2026 But I\u2019m still processing. If I have to sing his lyrics, I feel very close to him. It\u2019s impossible not to, unless you\u2019re kind of dead inside. \u200aEven just talking about it sometimes, I can\u2019t help myself. It\u2019s hard. There\u2019s a part of him that will never\u2026 That grief will never completely disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNuttall and Peart\u2019s daughter, Olivia, attended the first two shows in Los Angeles. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard for them,\u201d Lee says. \u201cThey\u2019re still grieving a lot. For them to sit through a show where we\u2019re doing it again, that\u2019s hard. I appreciate the difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEven the tour poster, created by Hugh Syme, who\u2019s long designed Rush\u2019s album covers, nods to the situation.\u00a0 It shows two small birds on a wire, and a third flying away. As it happens, says Lee, \u201cI had an incident with a bird recently.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe morning after the first show, Lee walked into the living room of the house where he was staying and found a bird on the floor, staring at him. He swears it looked exactly like the bird on the poster. It circled his bed, landed, turned to look at him again, and went out the window. \u201cIt was super-weird,\u201d says Lee, who couldn\u2019t help thinking of it as a visitation from Peart. \u201cI\u2019m not a big believer in mumbo-jumbo weirdness, but it was special.\u201d He grabbed his phone to text Lifeson, and as he hit send, there was the bird again, sticking its head through an open door. It gazed at him one more time before flying away for good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven the volume of Peart\u2019s writing, it seems safe to assume there could be enough unused lyrics somewhere to form the basis of new Rush songs. But Lee is cautious, and maybe slightly uncomfortable, when I bring up the prospect. \u201cI haven\u2019t thought about it at all,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a good question.\u201d As for new music in general, \u201c\u200athere\u2019s always a spark,\u201d Lee says. \u201cBut I can\u2019t afford to get ahead of myself here. And when we put this band together, it was for the purpose of this tour. And after this tour, we can, I guess, reassess and see what we have and what we want to do. Can\u2019t really give you a better answer than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWE\u2019RE A QUIRKY ROCK BAND, BUT WE ARE TRYING TO ROCK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geddy Lee<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s an awful lot of weeping going on in the stands at the Fifty Something tour. Even as fans mourn Peart, they\u2019re just as moved by his band\u2019s improbable, all-too-temporary reversal of entropy. The 20th century and its musicians keep fading away \u2014\u00a0but\u00a0Rush came back. \u201cIt is a miracle tour,\u201d says Weinrib.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe band members don\u2019t want to get too grandiose, but they understand. \u201cI feel it on stage,\u201d says Lifeson. \u201cAnd I feel it from the crowd. It\u2019s beautiful to see everybody so joyful, \u2019cause these are not joyful times that we live in right now, and it\u2019s a bit of an escape. And I look at our audience, and the whole family\u2019s together for this big picnic, and there\u2019s lots of high-fiving and laughing and crying, and it\u2019s a beautiful moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u200aLee nods. \u201cPeople are responding to this tour because they need something that\u2019s going on here,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd maybe there\u2019s not enough of it right now in the world.\u201d Or maybe it\u2019s simpler than that. \u201cWe are a rock band. There are not a lot of us that are still going.\u201d He smiles. \u201cWe\u2019re a quirky rock band, but we are still out there. Trying to rock.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This cover story was produced in partnership with Rolling Stone Canada O n their long journey towards becoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[117965,118234,236,85047,88,117966,48534,72063],"class_list":["post-813740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-alex-lifeson","tag-anika-nilles","tag-celebrities","tag-cover-story","tag-entertainment","tag-geddy-lee","tag-long-reads","tag-rush"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}