Rush are set to make their return to the stage this June for the Fifty Something Tour, and according to frontman Geddy Lee there was no hesitation to continue using the band's name following the death of long-time drummer Neil Peart in 2020.
In the new issue of Classic Rock, the singer/bassist defended his and guitarist Alex Lifeson's decision to keep playing together as Rush with new drummer Anika Nilles.
“When the band ended, we said it’s only Rush with Neil in it, which, of course, is true,” Lee said. “But over [every] five gigs [on this tour], we will be playing 40 Rush songs, so what the f**k should we call it, Iron Maiden?”
“It just seems silly to go on as ‘Lee and Lifeson Present the Music Of…’" he continued. "Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? Let’s just be who we are and have been for over 50 years… We were twisting ourselves into a pretzel to try to avoid using the name that we have had for fifty years, and even before Neil came.”
Still, Lee was quick to note just how integral Peart was to the band's chemistry throughout their 40-plus years of playing together as a trio.
“Without Neil… I’ll be frank. There are some songs you play where it kind of hits you, it’s bad, and it feels weird," he said. "And it’s appropriate that that happens.”
“If we just picked up and went on without feeling any tug of anything, that would be absurd, that would be a whole other thing," he added. "And there’ll be moments in both sets where we’ll pay tribute to him. We’re working hard on that, making sure that it’s appropriate.”
Lee, Lifeson and Nilles made their live debut with a suprise performance of "Finding My Way" at last month's JUNO Awards.
In the same interview, Lifeson explained that he and Lee weren't initially on board with hiring Nilles.
"We rehearsed for four days, and on the fourth day Ged and I sat down and we weren’t sure," Lifeson said. "It wasn’t quite working with the three of us. We were thinking that maybe we should continue with someone else, just to see how that might feel. And on the fifth day, on the last day that we rehearsed, she took all our comments about feel, about Neil’s feel and the way he played, and being very cognisant of the ability that he had, and bang! She nailed the songs all day. It was a real ‘Wow!’ moment."