Rush donating VIP proceeds for Neil Peart
Rush will be donating a portion of proceeds for their VIP ticket earnings to the Neil Peart Memorial at Lakeside Park in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson recently announced their decision to reunite Rush, with their first tour in 11 years kicking off in Los Angeles next June. In a new interview with CBC News, Lee opened up about their decision to hit the road without their late drummer Neil Peart – who passed away in 2020.
“Well, I’m a bit overwhelmed right now, to be honest,” Lee said in regards to how it feels to take Rush back on tour after more than a decade. “Alex and I took a long time trying to figure out if we could actually do this ever again. And when we did finally decide, of course people were optimistic, but we really didn’t expect the kind of overwhelming response our announcement has brought forth out of our fanbase. It’s just been a remarkable few weeks around our homes, but very exciting — very exciting.”
In Peart’s place, Lee and Lifeson have hired drummer Anika Nilles.
When asked what it’s been like to play with someone behind the kit other than Peart, Lee replied:
“Well, of course it was a very difficult decision to go back on the road, and that was the main stumbling block, obviously. How do we replace the irreplaceable, so to speak? And we have been fortunate to have been introduced to the name Anika Nilles through one of my road crew — my bass tech Skully [John McIntosh], who was on tour with Jeff Beck, and she was the drummer for Jeff Beck on his last tour. And he came home from that tour raving about her.
“And so when we made the decision to see what it’s like to play with another drummer, we contacted her, and she’s just a fantastic person. And she came to Canada and we very surreptitiously snuck into a studio and worked out for about a week. And by the end of it, we were convinced that this would be a go for us. Yeah, she’s just a tremendous player.”
Lee went on to say that while Nilles was a bit intimidated to step into Peart’s role, both he and Lifeson think she fits in well with the band.
He does admit, however, that she wasn’t a fan of Rush before joining them.
“When she first came over here [to Canada], we started playing some of the songs, trying to translate Rush music to someone who didn’t really grow up as a Rush fan; she was not a Rush fan,” Lee said. “She knew, of course, of Neil’s playing — every drummer knows who Neil is, or Neil was, I should say — so it was a bit of a daunting task. And we had to go through each song and explain the nuances of the song and the idiosyncratic nature of how our songs are put together. So at times she was a bit overwhelmed, but she’s an incredibly hard worker. She’s got great technical facility and she’s just got a really positive attitude, and that’s really good for Alex and I to be around right now.”
