October 6, 2025 • 6 mins
“Wait… Rush is touring without Neil Peart? How is that even possible?”That’s the question that kicks off a wildly entertaining and surprisingly emotional segment of The Ben and Skin Show, as hosts Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray dive into the massive news shaking the rock world: Rush is back on tour, and Fort Worth is one of only seven cities on the list.Krystina drops the bombshell and leads the crew through the details — including how fans can win tickets before they go on sale. But the real intrigue? The band’s decision to move forward without their iconic drummer, Neil Peart, who passed away in 2020. Enter Anika Nilles, a German drum phenom with serious chops and a résumé that includes touring with Jeff Beck. But can she live up to the legend?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you excited? Day Day featuring veteran news anchor Katie
fun tweets, well, why me when you could have this?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Let's throw it into the cockpit to where our music
correspondent Christina Ray is standing by.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Oh god, guys.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
We had huge news this morning at about nine am
because Rush an Now let's go. They are going on tour. Now,
there is so much to this, but let me just start.
They're only stopping at seven cities and fort Worth is
one of those seven cities, and we are giving away
tickets here on this station before you can even buy them,
(00:42):
which is just absolutely insane. So if you want to
win Rush tickets again before you can even buy them,
to see them in fort Worth, which is huge. Listen
to Teresa this week at eleven now. So this is Geddy,
Lee and Alex mainly because as we all know, they're
infamous drummer Neil Pert passed away passed away in twenty
(01:04):
twenty ye.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
It's tough news if you want to get some Neil
Pert up in you.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So that was one of my first thoughts was like, wait,
they're going to tour without Neil Pert? What how I.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Thought they were done? I thought there's no way that
Rush would ever play without him.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Can I guess? Because I don't know. Is it Ai drums?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
No, not Ai drums, which I don't even know if
they could do what he did, you know, but they have.
Her name is Annika Niles and she's been with Jeff
Peck Jeff Beck for over sixty shows. She's a German drummer,
composer and producer. She's even released some of her own
solo albums. So she's a badass. I've seen a few
videos over this morning, so go check that out if
(01:43):
you don't, if you don't think she can live up
to it, I think they did good.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
This is my Drew Carey theory.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Though you're following the greatest of all time, you never
want to do that. You never want to be the
guy who's the broadcast draft for Vincecully, Bob Barker's done,
Drew carry You're stepping into some big shoes. My friend
Seacrest is doing it with say Jack. It's a very
tough thing, you know, it's like, But because she's a woman,
hopefully they will take it easy on her.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And she's good looking too. I think that's gonna help.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Because she's a hot woman, a good looking German woman.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Strangely, Rush fans are the only ones that don't care
about how hot a chick is.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I I have not seen her.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I don't know anything about her, but I have been
to a Rush concert. You have, oh yeah, and I
would say unofficially, seventy percent of the audience or drummers,
like you know when the when the when the lights
shine out into the crowd. The lights shine out into
the crowd, and you see every arm in the air
(02:44):
is accurately and precisely air drumming exactly what the fill is,
including going over and hitting the rodo toms like. This
is a very particular group of people, and so the
Liam Neeson's a music fans. They are they have a
very particular set of listening skills, and so this is
a fascinating story to me. I have not seen Rush
(03:06):
since I was in junior high like Power Windows Tour.
But I very much want to go to this. I'm
sucked into this. I'm interested in this. I love going
to Fort Worth. I'm going bro. This is in June, right.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, So Wednesday and Friday, June twenty fourth and twenty six,
so you'll have two different dates that you can do.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
And the other thing. Two guys, you know why the
show is on a Wednesday and a Friday. They have
to rest. They're old. Yeah, exactly right, the Rolling Stones bit.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, we are separating their shows out by four days.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
But just smart what you do? Do y'all have any
interest in going and seeing Rush? Hi?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah? I do?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Sure, I mean it's uh, it's that song in particular,
is uh the Kerry von Eric intro song is one
of my favorite jams. Incredible, It's got such great energy,
and then I immediately think of I Love You Man?
Is that what it was? Yeah? I think of them
those dudes being.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
At that show. Underrated movies, that's yeah, it's uh, it's
you know, they're they're talented.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Yeah. Have y'all ever watched the outtakes uh from I
Love You Man?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
You can on the DVD? What do you?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
You can?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
And they posted them. But basically there's a whole scene
that didn't make it in the movie where Paul Rudd
and Jason Siegeal snuck back into Russia's dress dressing room
and then and then Rush walks in and so they.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Have this interaction with them. Think I've seen that.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
If you want to go online, you can find it.
But they had a whole thing that just didn't make.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It into the movie where they're interacting with Rush and
they're dressing.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Rush is kind of weirded out right, Yeah, super fans. Yeah, Okay, dude,
don't they play Did they play that at their shows?
Am I just making that up?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, Okay, I could be making that up over ten years, yeah,
because uh money huh.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
And and you know, Piert was having other issues and
for a while, like when they would tour, there's this
whole if you want to go see it. There's a
pretty good Rush documentary that followed them around on tour,
and I think it was their last tour with him.
But he actually would ride a motorcycle from city to city.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, like he just had his own thing.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
And then what happened was he physically it was hurting
him to perform. So I think they stopped touring even
before he died.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
But I'm fascinated by this. I want to see it.
I want to see this. This goal kill it.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
And I love a lot of their music, so I'm
excited about this. There's like he is the key to
the whole band, right, Like he's like his proficiency, he's
the best of it. Like some bands, Okay, our lead
guitarist is the best in the world. Some bands like
our bass player or whatever, we've had a bad askues.
Like for them, it's their world class drummer, right. It
informed the personality of the band. The old joke was,
(05:42):
think about how different the Beatles would have been if
Neil peartt was their drummer.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
They probably would have sucked.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
But it's just a different thing, and so their prog
rock and so the intricate rhythms work their way into
the music. If you've ever listened to their first record,
which is a little more borderline like early heavy metal,
that had a different drummer. If you've ever heard the
song working Man, you can hear the drums are different
and they became more proggy and and just more out
(06:07):
there when Neil Peart started playing, because he played in
such a.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Unique way, you think plasana do.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I don't think that this guy's deal?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
All right?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
There you have it.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
There's the weekly Weekday update coming up next in the
big finish, the movie everybody's talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Should you go see this movie, we'll tell you, we'll
talk about it next
Are you excited? Day Day featuring veteran news anchor Katie
fun tweets, well, why me when you could have this?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Let's throw it into the cockpit to where our music
correspondent Christina Ray is standing by.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Oh god, guys.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
We had huge news this morning at about nine am
because Rush an Now let's go. They are going on tour. Now,
there is so much to this, but let me just start.
They're only stopping at seven cities and fort Worth is
one of those seven cities, and we are giving away
tickets here on this station before you can even buy them,
(00:42):
which is just absolutely insane. So if you want to
win Rush tickets again before you can even buy them,
to see them in fort Worth, which is huge. Listen
to Teresa this week at eleven now. So this is Geddy,
Lee and Alex mainly because as we all know, they're
infamous drummer Neil Pert passed away passed away in twenty
(01:04):
twenty ye.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
It's tough news if you want to get some Neil
Pert up in you.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So that was one of my first thoughts was like, wait,
they're going to tour without Neil Pert? What how I.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Thought they were done? I thought there's no way that
Rush would ever play without him.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Can I guess? Because I don't know. Is it Ai drums?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
No, not Ai drums, which I don't even know if
they could do what he did, you know, but they have.
Her name is Annika Niles and she's been with Jeff
Peck Jeff Beck for over sixty shows. She's a German drummer,
composer and producer. She's even released some of her own
solo albums. So she's a badass. I've seen a few
videos over this morning, so go check that out if
(01:43):
you don't, if you don't think she can live up
to it, I think they did good.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
This is my Drew Carey theory.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Though you're following the greatest of all time, you never
want to do that. You never want to be the
guy who's the broadcast draft for Vincecully, Bob Barker's done,
Drew carry You're stepping into some big shoes. My friend
Seacrest is doing it with say Jack. It's a very
tough thing, you know, it's like, But because she's a woman,
hopefully they will take it easy on her.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And she's good looking too. I think that's gonna help.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Because she's a hot woman, a good looking German woman.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Strangely, Rush fans are the only ones that don't care
about how hot a chick is.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I I have not seen her.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I don't know anything about her, but I have been
to a Rush concert. You have, oh yeah, and I
would say unofficially, seventy percent of the audience or drummers,
like you know when the when the when the lights
shine out into the crowd. The lights shine out into
the crowd, and you see every arm in the air
(02:44):
is accurately and precisely air drumming exactly what the fill is,
including going over and hitting the rodo toms like. This
is a very particular group of people, and so the
Liam Neeson's a music fans. They are they have a
very particular set of listening skills, and so this is
a fascinating story to me. I have not seen Rush
(03:06):
since I was in junior high like Power Windows Tour.
But I very much want to go to this. I'm
sucked into this. I'm interested in this. I love going
to Fort Worth. I'm going bro. This is in June, right.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, So Wednesday and Friday, June twenty fourth and twenty six,
so you'll have two different dates that you can do.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
And the other thing. Two guys, you know why the
show is on a Wednesday and a Friday. They have
to rest. They're old. Yeah, exactly right, the Rolling Stones bit.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, we are separating their shows out by four days.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
But just smart what you do? Do y'all have any
interest in going and seeing Rush? Hi?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah? I do?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Sure, I mean it's uh, it's that song in particular,
is uh the Kerry von Eric intro song is one
of my favorite jams. Incredible, It's got such great energy,
and then I immediately think of I Love You Man?
Is that what it was? Yeah? I think of them
those dudes being.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
At that show. Underrated movies, that's yeah, it's uh, it's
you know, they're they're talented.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Yeah. Have y'all ever watched the outtakes uh from I
Love You Man?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
You can on the DVD? What do you?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
You can?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
And they posted them. But basically there's a whole scene
that didn't make it in the movie where Paul Rudd
and Jason Siegeal snuck back into Russia's dress dressing room
and then and then Rush walks in and so they.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Have this interaction with them. Think I've seen that.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
If you want to go online, you can find it.
But they had a whole thing that just didn't make.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It into the movie where they're interacting with Rush and
they're dressing.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Rush is kind of weirded out right, Yeah, super fans. Yeah, Okay, dude,
don't they play Did they play that at their shows?
Am I just making that up?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, Okay, I could be making that up over ten years, yeah,
because uh money huh.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
And and you know, Piert was having other issues and
for a while, like when they would tour, there's this
whole if you want to go see it. There's a
pretty good Rush documentary that followed them around on tour,
and I think it was their last tour with him.
But he actually would ride a motorcycle from city to city.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, like he just had his own thing.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
And then what happened was he physically it was hurting
him to perform. So I think they stopped touring even
before he died.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
But I'm fascinated by this. I want to see it.
I want to see this. This goal kill it.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
And I love a lot of their music, so I'm
excited about this. There's like he is the key to
the whole band, right, Like he's like his proficiency, he's
the best of it. Like some bands, Okay, our lead
guitarist is the best in the world. Some bands like
our bass player or whatever, we've had a bad askues.
Like for them, it's their world class drummer, right. It
informed the personality of the band. The old joke was,
(05:42):
think about how different the Beatles would have been if
Neil peartt was their drummer.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
They probably would have sucked.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
But it's just a different thing, and so their prog
rock and so the intricate rhythms work their way into
the music. If you've ever listened to their first record,
which is a little more borderline like early heavy metal,
that had a different drummer. If you've ever heard the
song working Man, you can hear the drums are different
and they became more proggy and and just more out
(06:07):
there when Neil Peart started playing, because he played in
such a.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Unique way, you think plasana do.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I don't think that this guy's deal?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
All right?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
There you have it.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
There's the weekly Weekday update coming up next in the
big finish, the movie everybody's talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Should you go see this movie, we'll tell you, we'll
talk about it next
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