For more than 40 years, the progressive rock giants Rush embodied the concept of the power trio. The musical bond shared by the three instrumentalists created a legacy that remains unmatched. Naturally, the dynamic shifted following the tragic passing of Neil Peart in 2020. Now, as Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson hit the road for the highly anticipated Fifty Something tour, the return to live performances carries a heavy emotional weight.
Stepping into what many consider the most intimidating drum throne in rock history is Anika Nilles. The German percussionist earned her spot after a grueling five-day audition process. Speaking recently with Rolling Stone, she explained that learning the intricate catalog was only a portion of the battle. The real struggle was overcoming the immense mental pressure of replacing a legend.
“In each song part I had to coach myself a little bit…not to fly away,” Anika shared regarding her initial rehearsal sessions. “That all helped not to think too much about how big that seat is and what role I’m filling in it.”
To handle the stress, she relied on a specific mental grounding technique: “Be in the moment, be present, be focused.”
Deciding how strictly to emulate the original drum patterns also required careful consideration. “I wasn’t sure if I should prep every little detail, or to have the main parts down, but have some freedom here and there,” Anika noted.
As she studied the complex rhythms, she discovered a need to alter her physical technique, shifting away from her standard stick control methods toward a heavier, more forceful approach. “I have to play more out of muscle power,” she stated.
Studying the legendary drummer’s techniques deeply impacted her playing style. “Now, I have a little bit of Neil in me,” Anika admitted. “WWhat I learned for myself the most is the compositional part. He was brilliant in that, really. He constantly builds, and builds, and builds the drum part to a point where you think, ‘What the hell is going on?'”
The intense pre-tour anxiety finally subsided when Carrie Nuttall, the widow of Neil Peart, personally contacted the new drummer before the opening concert.
“I got a nice message from her, a really lovely message,” Anika recalled. “It was really nice to hear that she is on board and looking forward to this whole journey.”
After successfully conquering those daunting opening shows, the drummer admitted feeling “really energized, and relieved.” When questioned about her immediate thoughts walking off stage, she simply laughed and responded: “I made it through!”
During a recent interview with musician and educator Rick Beato, Anika discussed the immense technical difficulties of mastering the patterns left behind by the late Neil Peart.
When asked directly how she managed to learn that many songs for the band’s “Fifty Something” tour, her initial reaction was one of disbelief.
“I have no idea,” Anika admitted at the time. “Sometimes I was sitting there and thought, ‘I have no idea how I’m learning that,’ but somehow it’s working because I learned those songs in a completely different way. My preparation was so different to how I prepare myself usually.”
The drummer went on to explain that her standard learning routine, which relies heavily on visual transcription, proved entirely ineffective when confronting the fluid, highly expressive compositions of Rush.
“Usually I just listen, then I make a quick chart for myself to have it visually in front of my eyes and then I just listen, read and play. And I figured with this, it doesn’t work right. So sometimes you cannot really write it out because a lot of it is also kind of a feeling,” she explained.
“And technically you can write it out, but I would have spent so much time with just that. And I thought, I don’t have that time. I just have to listen, make chunks for myself and just learn it step by step and then this is how I did it. But just memorizing all the parts is one thing and then learning the feeling is a different thing,” Anika added.
Stepping onto the drum riser for Rush is widely considered one of the most intimidating assignments in rock history. Anika secured the gig after connecting with the camp through John “Scully” McIntosh, the longtime bass technician for Lee. Knowing the monumental expectations ahead of her, she completely immersed herself in the band’s history to capture the nuances of Peart‘s style.
“I was diving directly into the Rush rabbit hole and just listened to everything I could catch — the music, videos, interviews, live shows, everything you can find online, basically, just to get to know the songs a bit better,” she continued. “Because I just knew a bunch and also not in detail. So I started my whole research, but we also prepared, I think, six or seven songs for the first rehearsal. And as I got those titles, I was just focusing on those songs because they have a huge catalog.”
While the challenge was massive, Anika noted that the timeline worked in her favor. Because Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson had not toured together as a unit in over a decade, the entire band had to dust off the tracks collectively, creating a supportive environment that helped alleviate her initial anxiety.
“We all kind of started a little bit together from scratch,” Anika noted. “I mean, they didn’t really start from scratch, but as a trio, we had to find a way to come together. And it’s one thing when you come into a band and everyone knows everything and it’s just like playing, it’s smooth because they’re doing it every day onstage and you’re the newbie [who] has to adjust and learn all this. It didn’t feel like that. So it was also taking the pressure a little bit away because they’re kind of like, ‘Okay, how does this go?’ ‘Cause they hadn’t played it in 10 years. Definitely took the pressure a little bit off my shoulders.”
The rigorous preparation has clearly paid off. The initial performances of the “Fifty Something” tour have been met with overwhelming critical acclaim from fans and peers alike, with massive praise specifically directed at Anika‘ precise and passionate execution behind the kit.
Anika recently told “Thomann’s Drum Bash” that the Rush catalogue was almost entirely unfamiliar to her when the offer arrived, despite a childhood spent on rock and progressive music.
”Actually, I was familiar with Neil as a drummer, especially in combination with the song ‘Tom Sawyer‘. That’s a classic in the drum community, of course. But I haven’t really listened to Rush music, even if I was growing up with rock music and progressive music. But for some reason I never stumbled into the Rush catalog,” Anika said at the time.
That meant starting from nothing on every song, and deciding, one at a time, where to reproduce Peart exactly and where to play as herself.
“I treat the music with great respect to the guys and also to Neil‘s parts, because Neil is a big part of the music,” Anika continued. “And so I try to make careful decisions with a great deal of sensitivity of what I’m playing original and where there is room for me to play more free or more me or more improvising. But I go from song to song and make these decisions. And this [was] actually my preparation at home. So my homework [was], first off, to learn the songs because every song is kind of a blank page to me. So I really [had] to start from zero, learning the arrangements and learning the drum composition within the actual song arrangement. So Neil‘s way to play the drums is basically an own composition, and this is what I mean. I treat it with great respect because that’s a huge skill he brought into it, and I wanna honor that. And so I have to make these decisions really careful song by song, what I’m playing on original and where I go more free. And this [was] my preparation at home, but when we rehearse[d], then it [was] kind of a thing that we [had] more attention to the energy and to the feel of the song. And then we look[ed] back if my decisions were working out or if there [was] anything to adjust.”
Asked which song gave her the most trouble, she declined to single one out: “Every Rush song is complex and difficult to learn. It’s so rich of details in every way. I mean, the arrangement itself is full of details, but the drum parts are full of details, so it’s complex and a lot of things to learn and to memorize.”
Studying Peart that closely has started feeding back into her own writing.
“To be able to play Neil‘s parts needs to have a research on his playing and really study his playing and his feeling and the way he organized himself on the drums. Like, if it’s the colors he’s using, like the different drum sounds he’s using or the musical approach to this instrument. And while studying all of that, I learn a lot, of course. Especially about his way of composing the drum parts is really interesting to me, because I love doing that on my own music, too, and he is really, really good in that, and I learned a couple of things already which I might adapt to my music at some point. So, yeah, [I was] definitely learning things while studying his parts and the music,” she explained.
The musical distance closed quickly once she met Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, and she was blunt about why.
Anika said: “If you know those two guys, they are so funny and they’re so human. And that made it really easy to connect to each other. So they treated me immediately, from first minute on, on the same level. I mean, they are legends. They could be whatever — whatever, arrogant or whatever. They are not. They are funny. They are so human. And this is a way where you have easy access to each other. But also they love to play music. They are very enthusiastic when it comes to play music. They love working on details. They are detailed when they work together, and you see them having fun and the energy they both have together, and I really can connect with that attitude. So I love energetic music. I love when someone is really focused on music and working on details. These are all points where I see myself also with my music. So it’s a way, I think, which made it all easy for us to connect with each other. And that happened, actually, I would say immediately.”
Her lack of history with the band was never a problem for Lee and Lifeson, who have explained that they deliberately avoided hiring a famous rock drummer for the reunion.
“Well, there’s a few reasons for that. First of all, I think Alex and I wanted to stay away from the obvious comparisons. When you are working with a drummer from this famous band or that famous band, it’s just too easy to make comments. You know what the Internet’s like, you know what fans could be like arguments. So I think what appealed to us about Anika — first of all, we were so thrilled to see how well she plays and her technical ability. And it never really occurred to us that she came from a different genre of music. So I think we wanted somebody fresh, someone that had a story, someone whose story would be welcomed by our fans. And I think Anika fits that bill completely,” Geddy said at the time.
Lee had already seen her play. She toured with Jeff Beck in 2022, and the following year he told The Guardian that she was terrific on that run.
Anika has more than 280,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 600,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts her drumming videos. Keyboardist Loren Gold, a touring member of The Who and Chicago, rounds out the current lineup alongside Lee and Lifeson.
Prior to the massive Los Angeles kickoff, the new iteration of Rush made their live public debut in late March at Canada’s Juno Awards in Hamilton, Ontario. During the ceremony, the group performed “Finding My Way” from their 1974 self-titled debut album, Rush, notably the only full-length studio release in their catalog that did not feature Peart. Before the “Fifty Something” tour, Lee and Lifeson‘s only live performances together since 2015 were under their own names, participating in high-profile tribute events for artists like Gordon Lightfoot and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
The “Fifty Something” tour is running across Canada, the United States and Mexico in an “evening with” format, two sets a night, with a different setlist at each stop drawn from a working pool of around 35 songs. The dates announced in October 2025 sold out immediately, the run was doubled, and further shows were added after that. Anika is booked with the band through 2027.
Peart died on January 7, 2020 in Santa Monica, California at 67, after a three-year illness with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. The band announced his death three days later.
Earlier in February, Rush shared a statement of support signed by Carrie Nuttall-Peart and Olivia Peart, Neil‘s widow and daughter.
“We are thrilled to support the ‘Fifty Something‘ tour, celebrating a band whose music has resonated and inspired fans for generations, and to honor Neil’s extraordinary legacy as both a drummer and lyricist. Neil’s musicianship was singular. Compositions of intricacy and power that expanded what rhythm itself could express. As both drummer and lyricist, he was irreplaceable. Inimitable in his artistry, and unmatched in the depth and imagination he brought to the lyrics that inspired and moved so many, he profoundly shaped how fans connected with him and the band, giving voice and meaning to their own lives. As the band enters this new chapter, it promises to be truly unforgettable. We are excited to see how their new vision unfolds, and to hear this legendary music played live once again.”
