Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson returned to the stage as Rush at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert in Manchester in 2022, with three drummers filling in for the late Neil Peart: Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith and Tool‘s Danny Carey.
Naturally enough, speculation about who might replace the irreplaceable Peart should Rush ever return to touring has been rife ever since. The three men above have been mentioned. Mike Portnoy. Gavin Harrison. Sully Erna. Mike Mangini. Marco Minnemann. The list goes on.
And now we have a name: German drummer Anika Nilles. The band will begin their Rush Fifty Something tour in Los Angeles next June, and Nilles will be behind the kit, having previously plied her trade with the likes of Jeff Beck, folk rocker Tom Liwa and jazz-rockers Panzerballett. And while Nilles might appear to have come from nowhere, Geddy Lee was happy to talk about her two years ago.
Answering readers’ questions in The Guardian in late 2023 to promote his book My Effin Life, Geddy Lee was asked, “There will never be another Neil Peart, but which drummers do you really rate today?”
“There are so many,” Lee replied. “We’re living in a time rich with great drummers. I love Danny Carey’s playing. I love Chad Smith. Very different to Neil, but the man has so much power. I heard this drummer the other day, I think her name is Anika. She played on the last Jeff Beck tour and I thought was she was terrific.”
Speaking at a press event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on Sunday night, when Rush announced their tour, Lee went into more detail about why Nilles was chosen as the band’s new drummer.
“My bass tech, Skully was working with Jeff Beck and he was on tour,” said Lee. “Sadly, before Jeff passed away, he was on tour with him for a few years, and on the last tour, he was playing with this drummer named Anika Nilles, an incredible drummer, and he would come home, he would rave about her, what a brilliant player she was, and great person, blah, blah, blah…
“So I looked her up, and she’s all over YouTube. She’s fairly well known in her own world of music. And then we started talking about playing again, so I said, check her out. Maybe that’s an interesting way to go. And so one thing led to another, and when we made the decision, we wanted to see if it would work.
“No matter who the drummer is, they all have their own perception of what it’s like to play a Rush song, and they may not line up with the way we play Rush. So whoever we were going to choose was going to be difficult, and there was going to be a translation. And so we very secretly brought Anika to Canada. It wasn’t an audition, because at that point we weren’t really sure that we were going to tour. It was all an experiment.
“I’m very happy to say that she is fantastic to play with, and we’ve had now a number of sessions with her, and we’re going to go on the road with her. I think she’s a remarkable story. And you know, she’s much younger than us. I know it’s hard to believe, and I like that, that she came to Rush music without any preconceptions. It also made it very difficult, because we had to explain nuances and work on subtleties, and she had to really try to get into Neil’s headspace and his feel.
“A lot of drummers can play Neil’s drum fills, but to combine that with the feel of those songs so that it feels the way you guys want to hear those songs. That’s work, that requires work. So she’s winning.”
Rush Fifty Something 2026 live dates
Jun 07: Los Angeles Kia Forum, CA
Jun 09: Los Angeles Kia Forum, CA
Jun 18: Mexico City Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico
Jun 24: Fort Worth Dickies Arena TX
Jun 26: Fort Worth Dickies Arena, TX
Jul 16: Chicago United Center, IL
Jul 18: Chicago United Center, IL
Jul 28: New York Madison Square Garden, NY
Jul 30: New York Madison Square Garden, NY
Aug 07: Toronto Scotiabank Arena, ON
Aug 09: Toronto Scotiabank Arena, ON
Sep 17: OH Cleveland Rocket Arena
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