Last month, YouTuber Rick Beato teased an upcoming appearance with Rush on his popular YouTube show by posting a photo of himself with Geddy and Alex to Instagram with the caption, Just had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Geddy and Alex from Rush. Beato finally dropped the hour-long interview earlier this week, billing it as The Geddy Lee Interview, although Lerxst crashes the party towards the end, and Beato indicates that there will be a separate Alex Lifeson interview as well. From the YouTube description:
In this interview, I finally get the chance to sit down with Rush frontman and legendary bassist Geddy Lee. We talk about some of my favorite songs from Rush's prolific catalog, his ever-evolving bass sound and going on tour for the first time in over a decade. Keep watching and you might catch the hilarious moment when Alex Lifeson crashes the interview.
Here's Ged discussing new touring drummer Anika Nilles:
... She's an amazing talent, but she's such a great person. She's got the right attitude. She works hard. She's not afraid to work hard. And she loves to play the same way we love to play, so we have that in common. She brings something fresh. She brings a different story to our story and I think that's really nice. I think our fans have responded to the fact that we didn't get someone from another famous band and all that, 'Well, you should've got this guy or that guy.' This is a whole different feeling. It's non-competitive. And we're very lucky, because she's the only drummer we thought of. We tried out one drummer. ... We added one extra song recently [to the tour setlist] and she freaked out. I knew she would freak out, but she freaked out. She said, 'My hard drive is full.' And this song has a lot of complicated time signature changes. So, we made a deal. We pulled two songs out in exchange for this one song. She said, 'Okay.' But she's up for it and that's a very difficult seat to sit in. And some people will never forgive us for going on with somebody else. And she has the guts to sit in that seat, to accept that gig and take whatever fans are going to dish out. And that's not a small thing. That's a huge thing. And it's not out of arrogance. It's out of confidence and respect for Neil. When you hear her talk about Neil, she really understands and appreciates his greatness. And none of this that happens is diminishing his greatness by one iota. ...
You can check the full interview out below or on YouTube.
Rush's Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee grace the cover of the latest edition of Guitar World magazine for a new interview where the pair discuss their unexpected reunion and upcoming Fifty Something tour, which gets underway next month. John at Cygnus-X1.net has transcribed the article and made it available online here. The interview conducted by Joe Bosso is titled Re-Enter...Stage Left and focuses on how the pair decided to crank up the Rush machine once again. Here's Alex Lifeson's recollection:
... I remember Ged saying, "We should get together. You should come over, have a coffee. There's some stuff we need to talk about." I went over and we did exactly that. We kind of talked about, "Why don't we just play one of these days? Just play some stuff, maybe work on some stuff or whatever." That's what led to that. I think Ged knew I was not really enthusiastic about even considering going back on the road, doing a tour, especially something that's turned into this size of a tour. I think he was cautious and just wanted to have... I mean, we've been playing together for 60 years, and he just wanted to play together. That's what we did the first day, and we were laughing and smiling and really enjoying it.
Like he said, we were jamming. We were playing bluesy stuff and whatever, and that led to playing a Rush song or two. That eventually led to playing maybe more Rush songs, and then the ball started rolling and it started to grow on its own, and it seemed to have a life of its own and an energy of its own. Everything started falling into place and moving toward ultimately getting together and doing this tour.
I needed convincing, for sure. Once I felt better - I got my health in order at the beginning of 2025, and that was one big hurdle for me. I was not feeling well enough health-wise to go back onto the road or to commit to doing anything with that sort of thing in mind. But as the time went by and I felt good, and we started playing more and other ideas came up, it seemed natural that we would follow through with this and really start playing together. It's one thing to do one song, but it's a whole other thing to do 40 songs. And I'll tell you, it's hard. It's hard, hard, hard, but it's really exciting, and it feels really good when the songs start coming together, and the fingers start going to the right places and it all comes back to you. Muscle memory is a mysterious thing, but it's beautiful. ...
The feature also includes a piece titled Closest to the Heart where Ryan Reed counts down The 20 greatest Alex Lifeson guitar moments from Rush's studio catalog, and an interview with prog-rock duo (and HUGE Rush fans) Crown Lands titled Heavy Lies the Crown where they describe their love of Rush and how it has influenced their music. Their latest album Apocalypse officially released last week via InsideOutMusic), and both Geddy and Alex showed up at their release party as seen in this Instagram post:
The Quietus posted a piece this past week where Megadeth's Dave Mustaine counts down his 13 favorite albums, and coming in at #10 was Rush's 2112:
One of the bands that I watched in a backyard party that made me decide I wanted to be a musician had played the song '2112'. I heard that weird pedal effect at the beginning and thought, "Are you kidding me?!" That was the opening of a whole new world. I lost track of them after Permanent Waves when I started doing my own thing, but you can't ignore their legacy. Alex Lifeson is another with a really bizarre approach to guitar playing. It sometimes seems that his solos don't have a direction because they are like spurts of energy, almost like solar bursts. It's all so progressive to the point that when they do a comparatively straightforward song, it almost seems like they are dumbing things down - something like 'Working Man' for example, which is a simple rock track.
But generally they are progressive rock at its very best and bands like Dream Theater owe a lot to them. Although Megadeth has progressive elements, I'm not a huge fan of pure prog as such. I respect the players because they are so talented, but to me it might feel like you're in a straitjacket. Incidentally, people have referred to Rust In Peace as being a progressive record, but in truth it was just where we were at the time. In fact I always saw it as a thrashy little metal record, as opposed to sounding like early Genesis or King Crimson where you dropped acid and went, "Whoa dude..." Not that I've ever done that, I should add...
Back in late 2021, Modern Drummer magazine in partnership with the family of Neil Peart announced the creation of an annual Neil Peart Spirit of Drumming Scholarship for up-and-coming drummers. Since then they have awarded scholarships to 4 aspiring drummers, and they just began accepting applications for the 2026 Award yesterday, with a submission deadline of June 20th:
... Presented by Modern Drummer, Neil's wife and daughter Carrie Nuttall-Peart and Olivia Peart, the scholarship was created to celebrate Neil Peart's extraordinary musicianship, creativity, integrity, discipline, and lifelong commitment to artistic growth. They, along with David Frangioni CEO, Rob Silverman MD director of Worldwide Education, and Dennis Wolfe of UMe will be reviewing the applications. The selected scholarship recipient will receive a comprehensive prize package designed to support their development as a drummer, including:
* One full year of private drum instruction with internationally recognized Modern Drummer director of worldwide education, drummer/percussionist, Rob Silverman
* A Modern Drummer All Access subscription
* Rush special edition box set releases from Universal Music Enterprises
* Official Modern Drummer merchandise and educational materials
* Recognition through Modern Drummer platforms and community initiatives"The Neil Peart Spirit of Drumming Scholarship is more than an award," said David Frangioni of Modern Drummer. "It is an investment in the next generation of drummers who carry forward the passion, curiosity, discipline, and creative spirit that Neil represented throughout his life and career." Legendary drummers Mike Portnoy and Alex Gonzalez were both directly inspired by Neil and in his honor have created video messages urging drummers to apply and go for it! ...
You can get all the details at ModernDrummer.com, and interested contestants can apply at this link.
That's all for this week. Have a great Memorial Day weekend everybody!!
