Rush admit initial doubts over new drummer Anika Nilles: “It wasn’t quite working”
Rush have revealed they initially had doubts about their new drummer, Anika Nilles, during their first rehearsals together.
In October, Rush confirmed they would be returning in 2026 for a reunion tour with Nilles as their new drummer, stepping into the boots previously filled by the late Neil Peart, who died in 2020.
Nilles has a strong pedigree, having previously played in The Jeff Beck Band, but Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee were unconvinced that the German musician was the right fit for a number of days when they started playing together.
In a new interview with Classic Rock, Lifeson frankly admitted of his first impression, “We rehearsed for four days, and on the fourth day Ged and I sat down and we weren’t sure.”
He added, “It wasn’t quite working with the three of us. We were thinking that maybe we should continue with someone else, just to see how that might feel.”
However, on the fifth day of rehearsals, it suddenly clicked into place, with Lifeson recalling, “She took all our comments about feel, about Neil’s feel and the way he played, and being very cognisant of the ability that he had, and bang! She nailed the songs all day. It was a real ‘Wow!’ moment.”
Geddy Lee agreed with Lifeson’s analysis, sharing, “That was the real turning point. We were playing, and she was smiling, and we had this eye contact. For a long time I’ve had that drummer/bass player eye contact thing, and that’s so important to me, and it was so much fun. And I thought, man, if she comes on this ride, it’s going to be so good for us because she brings a whole different energy, it’s wonderful.”
Nilles revealed that a big thing for her was “immersing myself to some extent in Neil’s way of thinking and his playing feel” in order to “approach it with respect and a lot of sensitivity”.
She recently made her first live appearance with Rush at the Juno Awards, marking the band’s first show in 11 years.
Rush will begin the North American leg of their reunion tour in June. Due to phenomenal demand, it was extended multiple times, taking their total number of planned dates to more than 50 and keeping them on the road from June to December.
Next year, they will take their tour international, with visits lined up to Argentina, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
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