Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / This Isn’t a Nostalgia Tour – Rik Emmett on Triumph Reloaded [Highlight From Episode 361]

Transcript

This Isn’t a Nostalgia Tour – Rik Emmett on Triumph Reloaded [Highlight From Episode 361] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's just a part of a recent episode of book
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Don Rock Our guest Rick Emmett is back on the podcast.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I believe this is the third time he's been on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the show, and he's got a brand new book out,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: his second collection of poetry titled Leaning Into It Poems.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: It's duebout April seventh. He's also preparing for Triumphs, a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary reunion tour.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Right now in the studio, there has to be this
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: stage where what you've written a script and consulted with
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the guys in the band and Gil and the lighting
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: designer and the sound man, and now the script has
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: to get turned into certain things where you have pre
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: record stuff that has to get you. Like today I
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: was doing stuff for I was literally like an actor
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: doing voiceover stuff through a harmonizer, so that this character
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: that we've created for the screens that's kind of like
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: an MC character guy. We used to have a thing
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: in the old days on the tour where in the
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: early days of lasers, we had a thing we called
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: him Laser Face. He was like a guy that kind
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: of went are you roady? For the greater show triumph
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: You know, it was like blah, blah, this character. So
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: he's going to get upgraded to twenty twenty six. Oh wow,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: you know, the whole reloaded thing. But now he's going
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to sort of be like a I don't know, you know,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Star Trek, space Man, the Mandalorian, like, you know, he's
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: going to be a character. I haven't even seen him
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: in his final stages yet, but I've got to do
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: his voice before. So it's all, you know, there's these
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: levels of things that technology, you know what exciting.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: But you're going to be on the road more now
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: than you have in a long time. How does that mean?
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, and there's conversations about that, are we flying, are
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: we going in the bus? What's what's going to be like?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: And of course, back in the old days, we didn't
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: really do bus. You know, we flew everywhere, and we
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: flew first class and we treated ourselves well. Because there
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: are only three of us, it was, it was relatively
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Now there's at least five ors could be six, but
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I think at least five five of us, so it's like,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: oh a little bit different now, you know. Anyways, these guys,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: they're all Canadians. I mean a couple of them are
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: living in Vegas, now and Phil X is living in
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: la But these guys are they're Canadians, and there is
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: a thing about you know. I think when you scratch
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Canadian you get down to this thing where we're a
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: relatively humble, modest kind of folk. You know, we're self effacing,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: and we kind of go, yeah, but this is the
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: way you should be. And I think it's probably goes
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: back to this is the only way the village survives
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: the winter. They're all going to have to cooperate. Nobody
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: can be you know, egomaniac here. We have to you know,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: we have to get along. So we all have to
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: wear our mittens and our scarves.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Sure, you know. Yeah, so's Todd Kerns and Brent Fitz
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: from Slash's band, and Phil X, like you put on
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the website on loan from the Mighty bon Jovi, Yes,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: and yeah, yeah, and then the three three originals.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: And it's not like these they've been around too, I mean,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Alice and all of them have resumes that are very long,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: you know, and they've done a lot of things. And
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: of course phil had replaced me in Triumph when I
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: left it, that's right in nineteen eighty eight, eighty nine.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: He was the guy that they hired and he he
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: did an album with him and stuff, and you know,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I can remember meeting Phil at some guitar workshop thing
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and the guy that ran it was very concerned, you know,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: he was having this guitar symposium or whatever it was,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and said, it's the new guy from Triumph. Are you
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: gonna be okay with that? Well, of course I'm gonna
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: be okay. When I first met him, I was shaking
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: his hand and I pulled him in close to me
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: and I said, Phil, there's nobody else on the planet
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Earth that knows better what you're getting yourself into than me,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: And I just wish you all the luck. Yes, I've
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: never had a problem with Phil.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's Fridday. Totally forgot about that. Yeah, Now this
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: is the tour, is the first with the classic lineup
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: since nineteen eighty eight. But you've added these guys. Now,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: this is really to bolster the sound, to make sure
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: that the audience is going to get the complete sound, right,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: that's the reason for adding these three guys.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, yes, but also so that it will evolve,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: you know, like maybe it'll sound different, maybe like when
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: I'm doing the arrangements. Now I go, hmmm, you know what,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I think, maybe I want to stretch this little moment.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: You know, Phil says, uh, we're working on spellbout is,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: can we make the guitar solo twice as long? And
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: I went, if you want to play that solo twice
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: as long, buddy go. You know it's all yours, go
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: for it. So it's not going to be like listening
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: to the old records. That's not the idea. The idea
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: is to make these songs. It's called rock and roll
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: machine reloaded. When you reload, you know, we can load it, however,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: we like this time and I want to reloaded so
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: that it's twenty twenty six, not nineteen eighty two, not
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy nine. You know, I think that's way more important.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I think that music lives in a place where it
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: has the ability to float in the air and evolve
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: and change. That's what makes music so great.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: It starts in Florida, Canadian dates, US dates, as I mentioned,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and then due to high demand, they added a second
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: night in Boston, and then the Chicago gig has moved
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to a larger venue. I mean, what does that say
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: about Triumph's legacy. How does that make you feel?
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Well? It feels pretty good right now. But we haven't
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: played a show yet, so I don't want to get
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: prematurely cocky about anything. Let's wait until we get out
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: there and start playing.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I still love you guys, man, Yes.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: And it is what you've described as a lovely thing.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: And I'm feeling lucky. I'm feeling kind of blessed that
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I'm in this position. I'm hoping I'm not going to
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: blow it. I'm hoping what I'm going to do is,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: you know, justify everybody's you know, hunger for it to
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: happen well, and I think it will. And I really
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: like these younger guys that you know, they're not so young,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: but they're younger than I am. And I think that's
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: gonna put a wrinkle on it. Not not even to wrinkle,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: but you know, like a whole other layer that is
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: going to make it more meaningful and more fun for me,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: better for an audience. I mean, my wife and I
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: at dinner we were talking about that. How I just
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: enjoy you know, rehearsing with these guys now and talking
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: with them, and I'm going, this is this is awesome.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: This is a lot of fun, you know, and it
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: takes me right back to when I was in bands
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: as a teenager and in my twenties, you know, before
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: the business started getting in the way and making it harder.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: This time, it seems like the business has actually made
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: it so that, hey, it's it's enabling, it's making this
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: so that it can be more fun than it can
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: be great. And you know, that's a lovely thing. I
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: think we see that now with bands that are doing
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: these reunion kinds of tours, that you can do it
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: with creature comforts and you know, you know, God bless
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the Rolling Stones and you two showing us the way.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: The places we're playing on this tour they're more like
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: sheds and amphitheaters, and they're not huge. They're not the
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: giant hockey rinks. But like, I kind of like that.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: I think it makes it so that we can get
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: a big production and you know, have it up and
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: it'll you know, do it on a large scale. But
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: you know, you're not working to people that are a
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: football stadium away.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: And April Wine is on the road with you, right, yes, awesome, Yeah,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: all right, so people can go the best places people
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: can go to get the tickets for the show you
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: mentioned the book. They can go to ECW's website.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, e c W Press for the book for leaning
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: into it. And the Triumph tickets are like Triumph dot
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: com if you just go there, or maybe it's called
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Triumph music dot com. We better check that. I think
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: it's dot com. And if you just go to the
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: I think the opening page is going to say, yeah,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: you want tickets for a show.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Right, Triumph music dot com. Yeah, nice beautiful logo there,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: there you.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Golden Thunderbird is making it. It's a phoenix rising from
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: the action.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I love it. Listen to the full episode wherever you
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: get your podcasts.