Why Rush replaced Neil Peart with Anika Nilles
In a recent interview with the Brazilians of Fantastic, Geddy Lee And Alex Lifeson they explained their decision to hire Anika Nilles as the new drummer of Rush for the reunion tour, replacing Neil Peart missed in January 2020, rather than tacking on an established rock drummer like, for example, Mike Portnoy of the Dream Theater.
The frontman of Rush Geddy Lee illustrated the reasons why an already known drummer was not chosen. “Well, there are several reasons. First of all, I think Alex and I wanted to avoid obvious comparisons. When you work with a drummer from a famous band, it’s all too easy to make comments. You know how the internet is, you know what kind of discussions can spark among fans.”
Lee went on to explain why the German drummer was chosen: “I think what attracted us to Anika was first and foremost her playing talent and her technical ability. And it never occurred to us that she was from a different musical genre. So, we were looking for someone new, someone with a story, someone whose story would be appreciated by our fans. And I think Anika is perfect for this role.”
The guitarist Alex Lifeson instead, he explained how the band’s decision to return to tour, the first series of concerts, came about Rush since 2015. “We’ve never talked about it, because it’s never been a concern or an issue. For me, I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of touring again. I’ve been working on other projects and I’ve been pretty busy. And I didn’t know if I wanted to go through the whole process of touring and living on the road again.”
Lifeson explained how their reunion evolved from simple rehearsal sessions with friends into a full-blown tour. “Me and Geddy met and started playing some stuff, inevitably we played some Rush songs, we had a lot of fun and we realized how much we love playing. I mean, we’re good friends, everyone knows we’ve been friends for a long time, we were having so much fun playing those songs, after not having played them for a while, they were a challenge. So it was even more fun. Then we started talking about the idea of sharing this project. The more we talked about it, the more we got into the idea It seemed interesting and took on a life of its own. And now here we are with a real tour.”
The bond between Nilles and the members of Rush would develop during the drummer’s 2022 tour with the late guitarist Jeff Beck. The “Fifty something tour” of the Rush will also make a stop in Italy, the 30 March 2027 at the Unipol Dome in Assagonear Milan.
