Geddy Lee says the search for a drummer after Neil Peart’s death felt wrong from the start, and that some of the approaches he received after Rush lost its longtime sticksman were “completely inappropriate timing.” Rush is set to hit the road next month for the first time since Peart died, with former Jeff Beck drummer Anika Nilles filling the spot behind the kit.

Lee said many drummers reached out in the aftermath of Peart’s passing, but he said the overtures crossed a line. “There were many other drummers who reached out to me in the aftermath of Neil’s passing that were pushing themselves, and that was most distasteful to me,” he said. “It was completely inappropriate timing.” He added: “That was most distasteful to me.”

The comments underline how sensitive the drummer search has been around a band whose future once seemed finished. Rush retired in 2015 after the R40 tour, and the decision was driven by Neil Peart’s deteriorating health. Peart died five years later, and for a time the band was widely assumed to be done for good.

That changed after the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in 2022, when Lee and Alex Lifeson played Rush songs with Dave Grohl. Lee said that performance helped spark their reunion, and two years later Rush played on stage again at a Gordon Lightfoot tribute show. Lifeson later said the pair had been jamming, setting off fresh speculation that the band might return.

The path to Nilles was unusual but direct. A tech who had spent time on the road with Jeff Beck’s 2022 tour recommended her to the band, and Lee and Lifeson eventually approached her. Lee said people close to Rush and successful drummers would never have suggested replacing Peart because they understood the respect owed to him and to the moment.

That is what makes the current reunion different from the rumors that surrounded the band for years. The timing and the right drummer mattered, and now both boxes have been checked. Rush is not coming back to revisit the past; it is coming back because Lee and Lifeson found a way to move forward without pretending Peart’s shadow is anything other than part of the story.