Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
In a recent interview with Darren Redick of Planet Rock in the United Kingdom, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush discussed their decision to tour together in 2026 and 2027, as per Blabbermouth. The gigs will start at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, where the iconic Canadian band’s “R40” anniversary tour concluded, and will mark Lee and Lifeson’s first official performances under the Rush banner in eleven years. Anika Nilles, a German drummer, who toured with legendary guitarist Jeff Beck in 2022 and has been practicing with Lee and Lifeson in anticipation of the “Fifty Something” tour, will accompany the duo on their journey.
What started this whole thing is [Alex and I] started jamming, and the jams were kind of interesting, but in the middle of it, after we sort of got tired of jamming, we said, ‘Well, let’s play a RUSH song.’ And then it changed the subject. So we got to the point with that where it was either we’re going to follow through on this or we’re never gonna talk about it again, because you can caught in this thing, ‘Shall we? Shall we not? Shall we? Shall we not?’ And for me, it was, we’re not getting any younger. If we’re gonna do it, let’s do it now, or let’s just not do it. – Geddy Lee
They also shared how Anika Niles got the job.
My bass tech Skully [John McIntosh] — he hates when I tell this story, but he had been on tour with Jeff Beck; he worked for Jeff Beck for the last three, four tours before [Jeff] sadly passed away. And on the last tour, there was a drummer, Anika Nilles. And he came back from that tour just raving about how great she was and how nice she was. And he said, ‘Well, if you ever decide to do a solo project or something with Al, think about it.’ So here it was. I had done some investigation about her — I’d watched her videos and listened to her play — and she’s deeply talented. And so I brought her up to Al, and he went out and did his own research on her and came back and said, ‘Wow, she’s great.’ So we just arranged a Zoom call with her, and it went really well. And we said, ‘Would you come to Canada very quietly and jam with us for a few days and play a few RUSH songs and see how that goes?’ She said, ‘Sure, I’d love to.’ And that’s how it all began. And by the end of five days, we sort of had a drummer. – Geddy Lee
But what can we expect from the tour?
We’re gonna do two sets. Each set will be about an hour, a bit more. So we’ll end up playing around two hours, 15, 20 minutes, something like that, with an intermission, of course. And in each of those sets, we’ll take a song and do a bit of our own way of tributing to Neil [Peart]. And, of course, his presence will be throughout the evening. But we’re hard at work designing a show now, and we’ve got some of the old insane-person people that work for us to help us design, to do what we have always done. It’ll be a show along the lines of what we’ve done in the past. And I’m pretty excited about some new technology that we’re using. So, it’s a full-time job right now. And we’re working hard. – Geddy Lee
Anika knows about 25 songs now. We’ve had numerous rehearsals with her. And we just let her know yesterday that we’ve added another song to the set. So we’re gonna hope to learn around 40 songs, and we will change the set every day a little bit, but 40% of the set will be different from night to night to night to night. –
So many Rush fans go to multiple shows. So it’s nice to provide a difference for each of those sets on a five-night cycle. – Alex Lifeson
There are also challenges.
We always rehearsed a lot, and in the past we would rehearse on our own individually for maybe a month, and then we would get together and rehearse for a month, and then we’d do a couple of weeks, full-production rehearsals in a venue. So by the time you hit the stage on the first show, you’re seasoned; it’s like the 20th show. The difference this time around is that we’re rehearsing for about a year — seriously — before the [first] show. We just really wanna be at our absolute peak by the time we start the tour in earnest. – Alex Lifeson
And it’s a lot for Anika to take on. Even though we’re rusty on some songs, they’re lying in the grooves in the brain somewhere, and it comes back. But she’s starting from scratch. And she’s starting from scratch trying to fill the shoes of a guy whose shoes are impossible to fill. So she has her work cut out for her. But she’s incredibly, deeply talented, both technically and from a musical knowledge standpoint. She’s got a fantastic work ethic. She’s easy to be around. She’s a great person, and she’s ready to take on the inevitable scrutiny of RUSH fans. And so far they’ve been very welcoming, they’ve been very warm, and she’s really appreciative of that. – Geddy Lee
They were surprised that the audience reacted in such a good way to the tour announcement.
Originally the tour we wanted to do was just going to be six or seven cities and we would thought we’d do these small residencies, and when we announced it, people went crazy, and we were taken aback. Our new management was very heartened and very bullish. They thought the shows would do well, obviously, but we didn’t expect them to sell out in a few days. It was insanity. And so we had not been prepared for anything beyond that. But management always thinks ahead. And we had hoped that we could come to the U.K. in the fall of 2026, but we couldn’t get the dates. So we added an American leg, which is also selling incredibly well. And so finally we can organize coming over to Europe and the U.K. [in 2027]. So it’s a lot to take on. We haven’t done a tour that big in many years, so we’re just gonna make sure that it is effing note perfect. -Geddy Lee
Upcoming shows:
RUSH 2027 Fifty Something Tour Dates:
