Geddy Lee gave Alex Lifeson an ultimatum when it came to deciding whether to reunite as Rush.
Lee tells The Guardian, “I told Al: ‘Look, we’re either doing this or we’re not doing it. I can’t talk about it every two years. Because time marches on and I don’t how much time we have. So if we’re going to do it, we do it now. If we don’t, fine, let’s just not talk about it.”
And Lifeson says, “True story.”
Of course with drummer Neil Peart passing away in 2020 from brain cancer, they questioned whether or not they could find someone to fill his seat. With that they reached out to Anika Nilles, whose resume includes a stint in Jeff Beck‘s band.
Lee says while they were impressed with her drumming skills, he adds that “something felt wrong” when they started rehearsing with her.
“I was, of course: ‘This is not gonna work.’ Those seemingly impossible fills were not a problem for her at all. What was difficult was understanding a relationship between snare, bass drum and hi-hat that’s different from her training.
“The first four days were up and down, and she was nervous, and she was jet lagged, and we were unsure. We had a little chat before the last day – ‘I don’t know, Al, is this going to work?’ We talked about all the things we liked about her, and what a work ethic she has, nice person and deep knowledge, deep technical ability. So there’s a lot of positives. So let’s not be hasty. And we went into that last day and she just nailed it.”
Lifeson adds, “She suddenly understood what we were talking about that whole week. Not about the technical aspect, but about the stuff in between the big stuff, that Neil was just so amazing at and those internal dynamics that only another drummer can understand, and it clicked in her.”
And as for her fitting in with Lee and Lifeson off stage, Lee says, “Anika is very quiet, and she’s sliding into our friendship.”
Rush will begin their Fifty Something tour on June 7th at The Forum in Inglewood, California, which is where they did their last show on August 1st, 2015.
