“We Were Torn”: Geddy Lee Opens Up About Neil Peart and Why Rush Is Reuniting
Photo by Enrico Frangi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Facing the “R” Word Again
For years, the idea of Rush returning to the stage felt unlikely. The band had played what was billed as its final show on August 1, 2015. In 2018, guitarist Alex Lifeson said the group was officially done. When drummer and lyricist Neil Peart died in 2020, that sense of finality deepened.
Still, fans continued to wonder. Each time bassist and singer Geddy Lee and Lifeson appeared together, questions followed. They performed “Closer To The Heart” at the South Park 25th Anniversary Show and later took part in the Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts. Even then, both men avoided clear answers. They had many reasons not to reunite, including the simple fact that Peart was no longer there.
Now, sitting in a suite at Claridge’s in London, Lee says those reasons no longer outweigh the pull of the music. Rush will return for what is being called the Fifty Something Tour. The dates, first announced for the United States, have expanded to include 2027 shows in the UK, Europe, and South America. The aim is not to replace Peart, but to honor him.
“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.”
The lineup will include drummer Anika Nilles and keyboardist Loren Gold. Lee believes having four players onstage will make this version of Rush different from the trio fans knew.
The Weight of 2015
The roots of this reunion stretch back to 2015. Peart had decided to retire after the R40 Live Tour. For Lee and Lifeson, it was hard to accept.
“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.”
The R40 tour had celebrated four decades since Peart joined the band in 1974. The shows were strong, and fans around the world wanted more. Yet Peart agreed to only 30 concerts.
“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 says any frustration faded quickly. The band members stayed in touch. Then came Peart’s illness and death. Everything shifted.
“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.”
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Life After Rush
In the years that followed, both musicians found other outlets. Lifeson formed Envy Of None and explored new sounds. Lee wrote his memoir, My Effin’ Life, and took part in various projects. They even launched a Rush beer. The music, however, stayed mostly untouched.
Then came the 2022 tribute shows for Taylor Hawkins. At the Forum in California and at Wembley Stadium in London, Lee and Lifeson played Rush songs with several drummers, including Dave Grohl, Chad Smith, Omar Hakim, and Danny Carey.
“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.
“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.”
After those nights, the idea of performing again no longer felt wrong.
“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.”
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Health, Doubt, and a New Start
Plans stalled at first. Lifeson faced health issues, including arthritis and digestive problems. Touring would demand strength and focus.
“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.”
Lee had finished his book tour and returned to his bass. He began writing again and getting his hands back in shape. Then Lifeson called.
“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 had not played a Rush song in years.
“We fucked it up, of course,” says Lee.
The mistakes did not matter. They kept meeting. In early 2025, they visited a wellness clinic in Europe to help Lifeson focus on his health.
“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.”
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