The New York Times published a new article (subscription required) today on Rush's upcoming Fifty Something tour where they chat with Geddy and Alex about Rush's reunion, the upcoming tour, rehearsals and their new drummer Anika Nilles, who was also interviewed for the piece (thanks Carlos T). The interviews took place late last month at Toronto's Barberian's steakhouse following one of the band's rehearsal sessions nearby:

... Throughout the afternoon, Rush tore through around 11 of the 38 songs the band is relearning, the titles all a closely guarded secret. Between takes, the musicians prioritized rapid-fire comic banter. ("That song has so many words," Lee mock-groaned after one rendition. "This guitar has so many strings," Alex Lifeson, also 72, and Lee's best friend and bandmate of around 60 years, deadpanned back.) The next day, during an extended sit-down along with Lifeson at Barberian's - a historic steakhouse in the band's Toronto hometown where Lee's favorite booth features a small gold badge bearing his birth name, Gershon Weinrib - Lee summed up Rush's M.O. "The way we work best is to be intense and pay attention to detail," he said, "and then the minute the song is over, get as ridiculous as you can be." ...

Anika Nilles also shares some of her experience on how she became Rush's new drummer:

... Nilles, who found online fame in the early 2010s with tasteful playthroughs of her own jazz-fusion originals, had barely heard Rush before Skully tipped her off that Lee and Lifeson wanted to chat. (Growing up, her drumming hero was Jeff Porcaro, the Toto member and studio legend known for his sleek, hard-grooving style.) She crash-coursed on their music, then jumped on a Zoom while on tour in Germany, staying in a subpar hotel. "I'm having a call with the two most iconic guys in a really trash room," she recalled with a mortified laugh during a separate interview at Barberian's. They invited her to Toronto in the spring of 2025 to play a handful of Rush songs across five days. After the fourth day, Lee said, "There was a sliver of doubt," not about her overall abilities but about her grasp of the tiny nuances of Peart's style - as Lifeson put it, the "stuff in between all those big rolls." But, Lifeson added, "something clicked with her that when we rehearsed on the fifth day, she just nailed it." The official invite came at the end of the trip, but Nilles, 42, said she only really realized the magnitude of what she was stepping into on the flight home. "I had a sip of wine in the airplane," she said. "I flew over Toronto and I saw the skyline and everything. I was like, 'Crazy.'" ...

They also spoke separately with Neil Peart's widow Carrie Nuttall-Peart, who we learn will be writing an essay for the official tour program:

... [Nuttall-Peart] endorsed the run in a joint statement with their daughter, Olivia, and she will contribute an essay to the official program. In a video interview, Nuttall-Peart contrasted Lee and Lifeson's continued verve for live performance with a reluctance on Peart's part that developed near the end of his touring days, when Rush's standard of note-perfect three-hour shows - which Peart once likened to "running a marathon while solving equations" - was "really taking its toll physically," she said. "He was the one that was ready to retire, anyhow, and they really were not," she added. She also mentioned Rush's 1981 classic "Limelight," which frankly addressed Peart's conflicted relationship with fame. "'Limelight,' Olivia and I have always said, is Daddy's theme song," Nuttall-Peart said, "because he really did not enjoy being in the public eye and he was quite an introvert and it was hard on him touring." Speculating on how Peart might have reacted to Lee and Lifeson touring without him, she said she could imagine him asking, with good-natured exasperation, "Why?" "Or, 'You guys are just nuts,'" she said, laughing. "But in a loving way." ...

You can read the piece online here (bypass the paywall here).