Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson reunited under the Rush banner on Sunday for a surprise appearance at Canada’s Juno Awards, introducing their new drummer, Anika Nilles. The 42-year-old German former Jeff Beck drummer will fill the late Neil Peart‘s sizable shoes this year on the Fifty Something Rush reunion tour.
Rush opened the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys with the first song from the band’s first album, “Finding My Way” off 1974’s Rush. Lifeson’s piercing blues-guitar hook slices through the mix as Lee reaches for high falsetto notes he recorded at a third of his current age. Like the rest of the song, the drum part lacks much of the technical complexities that would become a hallmark of Rush’s progressive sound, but the simple beat still allows Nilles to loudly announce her presence on one of rock’s most iconic drum stools. “Finding My Way” and Rush featured the band’s original drummer, John Rutsey, who Peart replaced just before Rush’s inaugural North American tour in 1974.
“You really can’t ask us what song to play,” Lee told reporters afterward about the band choosing “Finding My Way”. “If we have to choose one song, it’s almost impossible. We have so many. So we just asked management, and they said first song, first album.”
“Also,” Lifeson added, “It’s the only song we know how to play.”
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have not performed as Rush since wrapping the R40 Tour on August 1st, 2015, at The Forum in Los Angeles, five years before Peart’s death from brain cancer at age 67. On June 7th, Lee, Lifeson, Nilles, and keyboardist Loren Gold will kick off the Fifty Something Tour at that same L.A. arena.
What was originally announced as a 12-date run of reunion shows in seven cities has since grown into a 50+ worldwide tour stretching into the spring of 2027. Each show will feature two distinct sets drawn from a rotating selection of around 35 songs.
Since Rush’s last concert in 2015, Lee and Lifeson have made sporadic—usually surprise—appearances together. They honored the lives of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, and played alongside Primus and South Park co-creator Matt Stone at the cartoon’s 25th-anniversary concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in August 2022.
Find Rush tickets and tour dates here, and watch the band debut its new drummer at the Juno Awards. [Editor’s note: Live For Live Music may earn a commission on ticket purchases completed via the links on this page.]
Rush — “Finding My Way” — Juno Awards — 3/29/26
