“No one was more deserving of a life to himself than he was… We were torn, and sympathetic. At the same time, we felt we had unfinished business”: Geddy Lee on honouring Neil Peart and why he and Alex Lifeson are getting back together as Rush

There had been so shortage of speculation that Rush could one day take to the stage again, that frontman/bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson would once more perform the songs that made the Canadian trio one of rock’s most beloved institutions.

A lot of this was wishcasting. Rush had played their final show on the 1st August 2015, said their farewells. Whatever rumours had circulated in the interim were shot down by Lifeson in 2018; Rush were officially disbanded. The death of the band’s beloved drummer and lyricist Neil Peart in 2020 made all this tragically final.

And yet all this did not stop fans gaming out the scenarios. Whenever Lee and Lifeson appeared together in public – especially when they performed Closer To The Heart at the South Park 25th Anniversary Show with Matt Stone on drums, then played at both Taylor Hawkins tribute shows – it made these scenarios more plausible. Still, Lee and Lifeson remained coy. There were a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous.

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And there were a lot of good reasons why not to do it, not least because they would have to find someone to sit in for Peart on drums. Well, here we are, sitting across from Geddy Lee in a suite in Claridges, one of London’s most storied Mayfair hotels, and he is officially all out of good reasons why not to do it.

He is here to talk about Rush’s epic Fifty Something Tour, which has just been expanded from the US to include 2027 dates across the UK, Europe and South America. As for the drummer, Anika Nilles, formerly playing with Jeff Beck, has got the gig. And it will be an occasion for them to come together with the fans and celebrate Neil Peart’s life and legacy.

“During the show we will pay tribute to Neil a couple of times with film footage, and playing appropriate songs that we feel point to him more than other songs,” says Lee. “We’re going to try to learn 40 songs. We won’t play 40 songs a night, because… I am forbidden by law after the age 70 to play a three-hour show. I think it’s a law in many countries. [Laughs] The three-hour show is done for us, but we can certainly play 2 hours 20 minutes, and I think that’s a substantial thing.”

Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Anika Nilles Talk 2027 Rush Tour Dates – YouTube

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The Fifty Something Tour lineup will be further augmented by Loren Gold (the Who/Roger Daltrey) on keyboards and backing vocals, and with Nilles behind the kit, Gold on keys, four players onstage, Lee believes it will be reassuringly different.

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The plan is to play the songs as recorded. As he relays said plan, Lee he sounds more and more excited about it; there is also a note of trepidation. The first show picks up where Rush left off in 2015, at the Forum, in Inglewood, CA. It’s going to be emotional.

“I have great trepidation about the first show,” he says. “I suggested that we do the first gig where we did the last gig – and I must have been high or something, ‘cos I’ve just made it even more difficult to hit that stage that night.”

But why now? What changed? “Quite a bit changed,” says Lee, smiling.

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It was a good way to honor an old friend. It was a way of taking care of some “unfinished business”.

(Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

“Obviously, Neil retired in 2015. Not a happy decision for Alex and I,” says Lee. “Although we were torn because he was our friend, no one was more deserving of a life to himself than he was after all the shit that he had lived through and survived. And he had a second lease on life with a new family, so, of course, we were torn, and sympathetic. At the same time, we felt we had unfinished business.”

Neil didn’t want to do the tour at all. He committed to 30 shows, and he was a man of his word. He played 30 shows, and he did what he promised to do

How could Lee have felt otherwise? The R40 Live Tour had been an unqualified success, proving that 40 years on from Peart joining the band in the summer of ’74, making his debut on record the following year with Fly By Night. It wasn’t just his drumming that transformed the band, Peart’s lyrics broadened their horizons. But a deal is a deal.

“We hadn’t taken this tour we were so proud of to England to play – or Scotland – to play for our fans,” says Lee. “We hadn’t taken it to Europe, and there were parts of North America we hadn’t covered. We hadn’t taken it to South America, We were more ambitious in that regard, but Neil didn’t want to do the tour at all. He committed to 30 shows, and he was a man of his word. He played 30 shows, and he did what he promised to do.”

Lee and Lifeson wanted more and yet they understood that Peart had already given more of himself than he wanted. That did not go unappreciated.

Mistakenly we felt with the band over, the music was over, but that’s not how music is. Music has a life of its own

“Any bad feelings or frustrations subsided fairly quickly,” says Lee. “After a month or two of living a normal life we were communicating again, and all was good. And then we moved on with our lives. Neil, unfortunately, had only barely a year of that idyllic life before he was diagnosed. And then everything changed. The mood changed. Feelings about things changed to the point where our music kind of was put in a box.”

Rush as a band was most definitely over. Lifeson hooked up with his old friend Andy Curran, the co-founder and bassist/vocalist for Canadian rockers Coney Hatch, forming Envy Of None in 2021, with Alfio Annibalini on keyboards and the preternaturally gifted Maiah Wynne on vocals. Their self-titled debut arrived in 2022; its follow-up, Stygian Wavz, was released last year.

And it was something completely different to Rush. Speaking to MusicRadar in 2025, Lifeson said he was doing what he always did, in a sense, chasing fresh sounds, subverting expectations of how his electric guitar could sound.

“I’ve always moved outside of what typically the job of the guitar is,” he said. “I have always looked at trying to manipulate the sound; it’s obviously played on the guitar but it doesn’t sound anything like one, so I am already set up for that sort of thing.”

Lee didn’t have a musical project but he did have a book to write. His autobiography, My Effin’ Life, was released in 2023. The producers of long-running Canadian TV drama Murdoch Mysteries, cast him as Tom Sawyer for one episode.

There were other endeavours. Lifeson and Lee launched a Rush beer. Lifeson started a gear brand, Lerxst, partnering with Godin for replica editions of his classic Hentor Sportscaster S-styles, working with Mojotone on the limited edition RCHI50 tube amp, and a range of guitar effects pedals. Rush’s tones would live on in the hands of other players. Fans could drink Rush beer. The music stayed in the box.

But Lee says they were kidding themselves. When Dave Grohl asked him and Lifeson to join the 2022 Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts, one in California (again, at the Forum in Inglewood), one at Wembley Stadium, they dug out Working Man, 2112 Part One: Overture and YYZ, and they were to perform them with a cast of drummers.

There was Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, session legend Omar Hakim (David Bowie/Weather Report etc), Danny Carey of Tool, and Grohl himself.

Just looking at these guys, the penny dropped. The music was not over; it’s never over.

(Image credit: Fin Costello/Redferns)

“Mistakenly we felt with the band over, the music was over, but that’s not how music is. Music has a life of its own,” says Lee. “Bands come and go, but when a band ends, it doesn’t mean that music isn’t still vibrant and alive and require some attention. But that was a lesson that was hard to learn, and we didn’t realise that until we played the shows in 2022 in tribute to Taylor Hawkins.

The idea of playing those songs went from being verboten to, ‘Why not?’

“When we did those shows, and we taught those songs to four different drummers, that was the greatest example of how alive those songs were, because those guys were so happy to play that music with us. That it was infectious, and we got happy again.”

Rush’s dynamic duo had a well-rehearsed answer to the question of whether they would perform together under the band’s name. It was always “no”. Prevarication became second nature but things were different now.

“The idea of playing those songs went from being verboten to, ‘Why not?’ And the high we felt after that concert – especially the one in London – lasted when we got home,” continues Lee. “We started talking about maybe a reunion is not such a bad idea.”

A better idea than reality could provide at that point. Lee had his book tour booked in. Lifeson had Envy Of None, Lerxst. More seriously, he had some health concerns that had to come first before they could realistically talk about actually rehearsing, booking shows and getting back out there.

“He has arthritis. That doesn’t go away,” says Lee. “And he has very serious health concerns. He’s had a couple of surgeries. He has digestive issues, and he wasn’t sure that his body could handle the work. Fair enough. We put it to bed, and I said, ‘Don’t talk to me about it again, unless you can do it!’ [Laughs] Well, late in 2024, it came up again.”

Rush – Freewill (Live From The Montreal Forum / 1981) – YouTube

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Lee had finished his book tour in early 2024. He had ants in his pants. He needed to do something, and that something had to be musical. “I was getting my fingers in shape again. I was writing lyrics, and I was pretty happy to do that,” he says.

He had been neglecting his bass guitar collection. He had been neglecting his chops. It felt good to feel a set of fresh Rotosound Swing 66 bass strings under the fingertips again. Lee was enjoying making some noise again – then the phone rang.

“My fingers needed some attention. My basses were lonely downstairs in my studio without me as company!” he says. “When Al got wind that I was prepping for something, he just called me, said, ‘Hey, let’s jam.’ I said, ‘Yeah, great. Come on over.’ So, we fucked around, recorded some stuff for fun, jammed.”

They were just about to finish, it occurred to them that they hadn’t played a Rush song. Would they still know the notes, the changes? Only one way to find out…

“We fucked it up, of course,” says Lee, smiling. But it was a start.

he looked to me, and he said, ‘Yeah, I can do this if you want to do it.’ I said, ‘Fine. But if you don’t follow through on this we’re never talking about it again.’

The pair only live five minutes away from each other They are often in each other’s company anyway, so why not jam, why not make it a regular thing. They did. Much of 2024 was spent going back and forth. But if they were to get serious about a reunion, Lifeson needed to get fit.

“In the New Year, we decided to get him to a wellness clinic in Europe,” says Lee. “There was this one a friend of ours had recommended that deals with his kind of issues – not the mental ones, the digestive. I went with them for moral support, and we both left there feeling great!

“He had a new regime, a new diet, a new positivity. And he looked to me, and he said, ‘Yeah, I can do this if you want to do it.’ I said, ‘Fine. But if you don’t follow through on this we’re never talking about it again.’ He said, ‘Deal.’ And that’s when our trouble began, ‘Cos we had to find a drummer.”

Luckily, Lee had someone in mind…