“When Geddy Lee said he’d heard this drummer the other day and her name was Anika, we should have been paying more attention”: One Rush fan’s journey from the last aftershow party of 2015 to the big comeback of 2026

Alex Lifeson, Anika Nilles and Geddy Lee of Rush — (Image credit: YouTube)

Lifelong Rush fan Philip Wilding, who’s been connected with the band for decades, recalls the backstage emotion of their final show with Neil Peart in 2015, and the events which led to the band’s upcoming return with new drummer Anika Nilles.

Geddy Lee said it wasn’t over. He told me that in the back of our car as we drove to the penultimate Rush show at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in 2015. A strangely glorious setting for a long goodbye.

I remember a roadie wandering past during soundcheck wearing a handmade R50 top, which must have seemed funny or hopeful at the start of the tour.

Alex Lifeson said it might be the end of the band; he doubled down on that later. And for Neil Peart, absolutely – he’d promised his friends one final tour, and this was it. You could see the finish line up ahead. His mood got brighter with each show, Ged’s a little darker as the road began to run out.

Not that Neil was talking officially. He said hello to me backstage at both those last gigs and at the final aftershow, polite and warm as always; but he didn’t want to do a formal interview. Why would he? What was left to say?

Rush | Tom Sawyer 2003-2015 (Megamix) - YouTube

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Earlier that hazy August day, rumours circulated that Neil had asked that his tour drums be shipped home after the show, and not back to storage for a next round of gigs. The circus was leaving town; the big top dismantled one last time.

I’ve written enough about that last show – not least in 2025’s gargantuan Rush 50 box set – about how the band travelled back in time during the performance, starting with Clockwork Angels and stripping away the layers, until two hours later they were playing Working Man before a set designed like the high school shows they’d played before Neil was even in the band. It was brilliant, a fitting end. “Not that it was meant to be,” said Geddy when I brought it up later that evening.

The only thing he asked me to do, when I helped present his My Effin’ Life UK book tour, was give him the opportunity to tell each audience why Rush hadn’t made it across the Atlantic for that last run. It was important to him that they knew it hadn’t been by choice.

Fast-forward to early autumn 2025, and a brief chat about Rush during dinner with Geddy in London. Our dinners rarely touch upon the band – they’re usually about baseball, and we’d debated what the Yankees and Blue Jays might do as our thoughts turned towards the World Series.

I knew he and Al were jamming together at least once a week (I’d written about it ) and I probably asked after Al and the stuff they were playing. “It,” said Geddy with a sideways glance, “is evolving.” And we went back to our bottle of excellent Riesling.

Rush: Distant Early Warning (R40 LIVE) | Cinema Strangiato 2019 - YouTube

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But that evolution had to be Darwinian: if it wasn’t going to be a reunion – how could it be? – then we were as sure as hell going to celebrate one of the greatest rock bands of the last four decades.

In a statement Lee said (I’m paraphrasing), “We’ve a lifetime’s worth of songs that we put our cumulative hearts and souls into writing, recording, and playing. After all that has gone down since that last show, Alex and I have done some serious soul searching and come to the decision that we fucking miss it.” Though possibly not as much as we did.

I think about one of the last things Geddy said from the stage that night – that they’d see us down the road some day

And what of that fabled drum stool? I once sat behind one of Neil’s unfathomable kits in a rehearsal room in Toronto. He was about 10ft away. I did my best to recreate the roll that ushers in The Temples Of Syrinx from 2112. Neil gave me a look that suggested he’d just stepped on a plug. I was never really in the running for the role.

Geddy has a mind like a steel trap. When he told The Guardian in 2023 that he’d “heard this drummer the other day; I think her name is Anika,” and added, “She played on the last Jeff Beck tour, and I thought she was terrific!” we should have all probably been paying more attention.

Since then, pieces began to fit into place, with talk of an extra keys player onstage – though Geddy will still be striking the familiar keyboard motifs of Tom Sawyer and Subdivisions – and a tribute to Neil making up a centrepiece in the show.

Rush | Far Cry - R40 LIVE - YouTube

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We’ve seen the initial run of shows across North America sell out and expand, with the internet shrieking about dynamic ticketing – though it appears most of those spikes in prices are in the resale seats, where opportunistic touts have bought up tickets and then instantly put them back on sale at an extortionate mark-up. (There’s a special place in Hell for those people, and let’s hope Old Nick charges them extra to get in.)

On a more personal level, my inbox has been noticeably busy, mostly from people who I’ve never met. Can I get them into the US shows to meet the guys? Not a chance. Can they take photos at the Toronto show? Keep moving. Why are tickets so expensive? See above. Are they going to play here? Who knows?

One thing I do know is that on August 1, 2015, standing among droves of people literally in tears at the thought of there being no more Rush, the Forum house lights coming up on their pain, as Neil waved his bandmates goodbye one last time… in my heart I knew it was over. The 15-year-old in me was crushed forever.

And now I think about one of the last things Geddy said from the stage that night – that they’d see us down the road some day. Somehow, somewhere around that far bend of blacktop and just out of sight, the unthinkable is being imagined. And now, before we even know it, that day will be here.

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

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Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.

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