‘I Needed to Make Some Music Again’

Rush’s Geddy Lee talked about getting prepared for the band’s upcoming reunion tour — and his beloved Toronto Blue Jays making the World Series — in a new interview with CBC News.

“Well, I’m a bit overwhelmed right now, to be honest. Alex [Lifeson] and I took a long time trying to figure out if we could actually do this ever again,” Lee said of the reaction to the 50 Something tour.

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“When we did finally decide, of course people were optimistic, but we really didn’t expect the kind of overwhelming response our announcement has brought forth out of our fanbase. It’s just been a remarkable few weeks around our homes, but very exciting — very exciting.”

Lee has only sporadically performed live since the death of Rush drummer Neil Peart in 2020, and as the reunion tour continues to expand cities and add dates due to demand, the bassist told CBC News he’s “getting ready” for the rigors of touring.

“I’ve been playing diligently for about a year and a half now. And it wasn’t that we had planned this tour that long ago. I had just decided that after writing all these books and having the experience of doing television shows that I needed to make some music again,” Lee said.

“So I’ve been working out pretty regularly trying to get my fingers, these little digits, back in shape. And, of course, since we did make the decision to tour, I’m hitting the gym pretty hard, and so is Alex. But we’re gonna be ready. We’re working at it. We’re gonna put a lot of hours into that.”

Lee added that Rush won’t be staging three-hour concerts like “in our younger years, but we’re certainly gonna play over two hours. And we’ll get a lot of songs in, for sure.”

For the reunion tour, Rush recruited drummer Anika Nilles, who came highly recommended by Lee’s bass tech after the two worked together on Jeff Beck’s final tour, where Nilles served as that guitarist’s drummer.

“It was a very difficult decision to go back on the road, and [Peart’s death] was the main stumbling block, obviously. How do we replace the irreplaceable, so to speak?,” Lee said.

“And we have been fortunate to have been introduced to the name Anika Nilles through one of my road crew — my bass tech Skully, who was on tour with Jeff Beck — and she was the drummer for Jeff Beck on his last tour. And he came home from that tour raving about her. And so when we made the decision to see what it’s like to play with another drummer, we contacted her, and she’s just a fantastic person. And she came to Canada and we very surreptitiously snuck into a studio and worked out for about a week. And by the end of it, we were convinced that this would be a go for us. Yeah, she’s just a tremendous player.”

Lee continued, “When she first came over here [to Canada], we started playing some of the songs, trying to translate Rush music to someone who didn’t really grow up as a Rush fan; she was not a Rush fan. She knew, of course, of Neil’s playing — every drummer knows who Neil is, or Neil was, I should say — so it was a bit of a daunting task. And we had to go through each song and explain the nuances of the song and the idiosyncratic nature of how our songs are put together. So at times she was a bit overwhelmed, but she’s an incredibly hard worker. She’s got great technical facility and she’s just got a really positive attitude, and that’s really good for Alex and I to be around right now.”

It hasn’t been all tour prep for Lee as the bassist was photographed sitting behind home plate and enjoying a pivotal moment the Blue Jays’ run to the World Series earlier this week. “I’ve never heard a crowd that loud, that electric, and that on cue,” Lee said of when the Blue Jays’ George Springer hit a series-deciding home run to advance Toronto to the World Series.

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