FLY BY NIGHT: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson Will Tour as Rush in 2026.
Rush co-founders Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will return to the road as Rush next year for a 50th-anniversary tour dedicated to the memory of their late bandmate Neil Peart, they announced today. German drum virtuoso Anika Nilles, who’s previously backed Jeff Beck, will join them for the 12-date, seven-city Fifty Something Tour, which kicks off June 7 at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum — the same venue where Rush played their last show with Peart in August 2015. “After all that has gone down since that last show, Alex and I have done some serious soul searching and come to the decision that we fucking miss it,” Lee said in a press release. “And that it’s time for a celebration of 50-something years of Rush music.”
Lee and Lifeson, best friends since high school, spent the past few years in a friendly public debate about the prospect of touring again without Peart, their drummer and lyricist, who died in 2020 after a quiet battle with brain cancer. Lee told Rolling Stone that he’d been working to persuade Lifeson to go out, and even Paul McCartney had told the duo that they needed to tour again. As recently as last May, Lifeson was still resistant, at least in public, telling Rolling Stone, “There’s no chance that we’re going to get a drummer and go back on the road as the rebirth of Rush or something like that.”
Finding Nilles, a widely acclaimed 41-year-old drummer — who happens to be known for playing in the kind of odd time signatures that are Rush’s specialty — to step into what may be the most intimidating open chair in all of rock may have made the difference. “As we all know, Neil was irreplaceable,” Lee said. “Yet life is full of surprises, and we’ve been introduced to another remarkable person; an incredible drummer and musician who is adding another chapter to our story while continuing her own fascinating musical journey. Her name is Anika Nilles, and we could not be more excited to introduce her to our loyal and dedicated Rush fan base, whom, we know, will give her every chance to live up to that near-impossible role.”
Given America’s rapidly declining birth rate, presumably Rush hitting the arenas once again is a devious Canadian plot to tank those numbers even further: An FAQ About Your New Birth Control: The Music of Rush.