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No matter the drummer, whoever was to step onto Neil Peart’s lofty drum riser in a reprised Rush was always going to have a massive task on their hands.
Jeff Beck-approved Fusion drummer Anika Nilles’ first shows with the prog giants have been met with widespread acclaim, but getting Rush back on stage wasn’t exactly smooth sailing – nor was Nilles’ rollercoaster 'audition'.
Her first sessions with the band, Rush bassist Geddy Lee says, were “casual.” But for two musicians who spent the best part of half a century playing with one of the world’s best drummers, there was a difficult musical and personal adjustment period to weather.
As Lee remembers in the new issue of Guitar World. “We said to her, ‘We’re not auditioning drummers, but your playing really interests us. So just come and let’s see what happens.’”
Lee says he and bandmate Alex Lifeson had no expectations during the first four of their initial five days together. Lee wanted “to work through all these songs and see her reactions and her gut feel.”
“We didn’t know her. She was a complete stranger,” he develops. “She was a bit intimidated at first because she’d heard of the band, but she wasn’t a Rush fan.”
By the time the sessions neared an end, both Lifeson and Lee realized they harbored reservations about going forward with a reunion.
“There’s no drummer on the planet that doesn’t know who Neil Peart is and doesn’t revere that name,” Lee acknowledges. “It was a tall order for her, but we were so busy working through these songs that we hadn’t chatted.”
So, before their last session, Lee called Lifeson over to his house.
“He came over, and I said, ‘What do you think?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know. What do you think?” Lee remembers. “I said, ‘I don’t know. What the fuck are we doing?’
“There was a sliver of doubt,” he admits. “Her technique was incredible. She nailed the fills, [but] there’s a lot more to playing a Rush song than the fills. It’s the feel. It’s the nuances. Our music is idiosyncratic, and that takes time.
“We’ve played Rush songs with maybe five or six different drummers over the last few years. Every time you sit and play a Rush song with a drummer, I don’t care who they are, there’s an adjustment.
“But we just weren’t sure because this was all new to us. So we went to that last day with an open mind. And song after song, she killed it. She understood all those little things that Alex and I had been telling her all week, processed them, and delivered.
“That’s when we looked at each other in the studio and went, ‘Yep, we have a real problem, because now we have a drummer and we’re going to make a commitment.’”
“There was something that was just not quite there,” echoes Lifeson. “It wasn’t really until the last day that suddenly she sort of blossomed and understood better what we were kind of looking for or going after.”
The band are so committed to Nilles that they aren’t discounting writing music together, and the praise for Nilles has been flooding in since the tour began.
For Rush, replacing Peart was difficult for a number of reasons, but despite a long line of drummers vying for the gig, Nilles was their only choice.
Rush’s full chat can be found in the latest issue of Guitar World. Head to Magazines Direct to pick up a copy.
