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Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy was asked in a recent interview with Chile’s Futuro what he thought of the announcement made last year that RUSH’s surviving members, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, had signed award-winning fusion drummer Anika Nilles to cover for the late Neil Peart this year as the Canadian rock legends embark on their unexpected “Fifty Something” reunion tour. This is what he stated, as per Blabbermouth.
It’s extremely exciting. I, as a fan, can’t wait to see how they do this and what it’s gonna be like. Neil Peart was not only one of my biggest drum heroes, but he was somebody that I was honored to become friends with in the last decade or so of his life. So, yeah, as a fan of the band and as a friend of Neil’s, I’m very happy to see them doing this, and I can’t wait to hear what they do.
Portnoy never saw Anika Nilles performing live.
… but like everybody else in the world, as soon as the announcement was made, I started pulling up videos on YouTube and saw her playing with Jeff Beck and doing the jazz fusion kind of stuff she does. She’s obviously a tremendous drummer, so I’m really curious to see how it sounds.
Before last year’s announcement, Portnoy was asked how many times he had been questioned about his own potential involvement with Rush.
Before [Lee and Lifeson] announced their return, it’s a question that I would get asked in almost every single interview for the last decade: ‘Would you ever play with Geddy and Alex? Would you ever?’ Of course. Those guys are my heroes. But in all honesty, I’m kind of glad that they didn’t even ask me, because that would be way too much pressure, way too much pressure. So, it’s much better this way. I get to enjoy it like a fan.
