RIK EMMETT On TRIUMPH's Recently Launched Reunion Tour: 'Every Night It Gets Better. It Just Keeps Resonating And Growing'

In a new interview with Tuning In With Thom Jennings, TRIUMPH singer and guitarist Rik Emmett spoke about the legendary Canadian rockers' recently launched first tour in more than 30 years. For the 2026 trek, TRIUMPH's original members Emmett and Gil Moore (drums, vocals) are being joined by guitarist Phil X, drummer and keyboardist Brent Fitz and bassist Todd Kerns. Phil X, whose real name is Theofilos Xenidis, is a member of BON JOVI and a former member of TRIUMPH, while Fitz and Kerns are both members of SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS. Original TRIUMPH bassist Mike Levine is not taking part in most of the 2026 tour dates after revealing in December that he has "a problem" with his hand that "precludes" him "from being able to really play well."

After podcast host Thom Jennings noted that "it's gotta feel good" for Emmett to be "making a lot of memories for a lot of people" who never got to see the original TRIUMPH, Rik said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It does. In some cases it's a little overwhelming, and in other cases it's just a beautiful celebration of joyful noise with these new guys, and the harmonies and the songs and the hard work that we all put in, and now we get this payoff of having these audiences that… And every night it gets better. That's the thing, too. It just keeps kind of resonating and growing."

He continued: "You can imagine when you're inside a band and you're playing these songs that have such a long history, you're still looking for a way to kind of have them come alive and this building of a rock 'n' roll machine reloaded, you're always tightening up the screws and adjusting the fan belt or whatever. It's very rewarding, that process, but I'm not a young man anymore. And holy cow, I wonder what I'm doing to my body. The arthritis is kind of complaining. It doesn't happen during the show — the show is this energizing and revitalizing kind of thing — but then, oh, boy, I come off stage and I go, 'What did I just do to myself?'"

Emmett added: "I've got four days off here. Tomorrow's a travel day back to Chicago, but, man, I've been sleeping, like, 11, 12 hours, and taking naps. So my body is clearly going, like, 'Uh, what are you doing?'"

When Jennings pointed out that "it's gotta be overwhelming" and "a whole other animal" to be back in arenas after performing at mostly smaller venues in recent decades, Rik said: "Yes. That is very accurate. A whole other animal, but a lot of fun. It's a big safety net, those three new guys. And the truth of it, too, is that Gil really kind of buckled down, and I don't think he ever practiced as much and rehearsed on his own and just got his chops up as much as he has for this tour. So [it's] extremely rewarding to be on stage with him, where he's making an effort like he never made before. And then here's these other guys — I call them all the young dudes. They actually even play a little thing in the set now — before I sing '24 Hours A Day', they do this thing, and it's 'All The Young Dudes'; it's this weird little thing. But it's so enjoyable. It's such a beautiful safety net, but at the same time, [it's a] huge challenge because I gotta try and keep up with them. I have to walk out on stage after Phil X has done a guitar solo that's, like, insanely good, and you go, 'Oh, man. I better not try to compete with that. I better just try to be me, the best me I can be.' And then I go, 'Well, that's good because now the audience gets Phil X, and then they get Rik, and that works.' But, yeah, different animal."

Rik clarified: "It's not what TRIUMPH was. It's TRIUMPH, but it's kind of this 'über TRIUMPH', like this kind of TRIUMPH on 'roids. So the reload actually seemed to give it a lot more — I don't know what you call those things — cylinders in the engine. Let's call it that, yeah. So, I don't know. I'm still kind of trying to… How would I describe it?

"When I was teaching songwriting, I used to say to kids, what you're doing is sort of unpacking baggage," Emmett added. "And if the song is right, you've done a really nice job of sort of bundling it all together in this thing, but it's easy for people to unpack it. But I'm still unpacking this TRIUMPH thing, and I think it'll take me a few months after it's all over to figure out exactly what it is that I got myself into."

Jennings also opined that the current TRIUMPH stage production has an "authentic" feel and is in line with what TRIUMPH was known for in the 1980s, to which Emmett said: "I think part of that is it there was a very conscientious attempt between Gil and me and the lighting guy, Paul Dexter, when we were putting the script together to try and honor this thing that TRIUMPH was, is, can be, because there's a spirit to TRIUMPH, which is a kind of the celebration of the rock and roll, but the songs of hope and faith and the spirit of what rock music can be. And I think the management we got, Vector, Jason Murray in particular, he would come and sit here with me in the studio and we'd have conversations. And he helped focus it. And it's not like he hasn't had an experience in the past where they… His management company handles LYNYRD SKYNYRD's estate and the band that goes out and does that. He handles Peter Frampton. So he's had experience with bands that are honoring a legacy. And one of the meetings where he came to try and talk me into doing it, he'd just been out to see the GRATEFUL DEAD and how they were handling the whole thing of Jerry Garcia, and he's not there, but how do you handle that? How do you make it so that it's not cheesy, it's legit. You're doing it with a kind of a... You're honoring the past in a way that true fans can go, 'No, they did that with taste. They did that with, with class. It's good.' So, that was a big part of the development of, of the 'Reloaded' thing. And, yeah, what you're saying, I think fans get that. You talked about having some tears. I see them. They turn on the audience blasters and I can see faces in 'Magic Power', 'Hold On', people are crying. But those are tears of joy. They're happy that this has paid off, the expectations and the hopes that they had. They go, 'Man, they did it. This is so great. I'm so happy to be here in this moment and have this happening.' And that's a big thing for me, too. I go, 'Holy shit, the emotion in the air, it's significant.'"

Last month, Rik was asked by Mike DiGiorgio of Rochester, New York's 13WHAM if he thinks the people buying tickets for TRIUMPH's 2026 tour are fans who had never seen the band before or if they are longtime followers  who want to see TRIUMPH again and "relive some great memories," Rik responded: "It's a little bit of both. I think that there are people that — I think there's grandfathers that wanna bring their grandsons and their grandchildren. We're literally sort of three generations in. And honestly, I think it's a question of the music being — the songs are the things that are dragging us all out. So I think that's the biggest thing that I feel, that people are kind of going, like, 'Oh, you haven't lived until you've seen TRIUMPH do 'Magic Power' or 'Fight The Good Fight' or 'Lay It On The Line' live.'"

Rik continued: "But the pressure from fans is an interesting thing because, of course, I can't do what I did when I was in my thirties, which is what most people remember. And so if they think they're gonna get to relive this guy in his red spandex pants or his jumpsuit or something, that's just not gonna happen. But I do feel like the resurrection of the band as a concert touring act is because there's these songs — and I really look forward to the chance of getting to play with different musicians and in a different kind of a circumstance. I mean, it's gonna be a big show. So there's gonna be a crowd that has lots and lots of different people with lots and lots of different expectations in every market. But I don't know.

"Back to your question, I think that there's probably gonna be much more repeat customers than there are people experiencing it for the very first time," Emmett added. "But, like I said, if they're dragging along the next generation or two, then there will be new fans. And so — I don't know. In some ways, I guess I'll have to mind my Ps and Qs a little bit."

Rik also talked about TRIUMPH's decision to hire Phil, Brent and Todd for the current tour, explaining: "Well, first of all, we felt like we had to build a bit of a safety net for ourselves. There are certain notes that I just can't hit, but there's this guy, Todd Kerns, a good Canadian boy from Saskatchewan, and he's been out with Slash and Alice Cooper. And he's a tremendous musician — guitar, bass, singer. And then Brent Fitz on drums, just because there are some songs where Gil goes, 'Well, I wanna come down front and sing.' So Gil Moore is from the original lineup. But there are gonna be double drummers. We're gonna be like the ALLMAN BROTHERS and the DOOBIE BROTHERS, and I'm sure that more than half of your audience doesn't even know who I'm talking about. But we'll have that for some stuff. And then Gil's gonna come down and sing a couple things. And Brent is amazing. He can play keyboards as well, so we kind of get a double-threat kind of guy there. Oh, and he can sing harmony too, so a triple threat. And then Phil X, who replaced me in TRIUMPH when I left. And Phil, he goes out with BON JOVI and plays all kinds of different things. And he's a tremendous guitar player with this absolutely unbridled enthusiasm for rock. So that's really good for me. It's kind of, like, I get this Phil X cattle project; it keeps giving me bursts of energy."

Addressing Levine's absence from the TRIUMPH tour, Rik said: "Mike Levine, his health has been up and down, in and out. I'm not sure he's gonna be able to join us for a lot of shows. The invitation is open, and there's a place for him whenever he feels like he might wanna do it, even if he just came and sat at a keyboard for a bit."

Emmett also talked about the skepticism from some fans about classic rock bands touring with, in some cases, one or two original members, or even no original members. He said: "I don't know. There are bands that are out there — JOURNEY, STYX, REO [SPEEDWAGON], DEF LEPPARD — and they have a catalog that is so strong that it becomes this compelling thing. So it's kind of like jukebox rock, if you're being cynical or skeptical. But what's wrong with a really great jukebox, if the songs are done with respect and they remain true to the spirit of the original? But I will deviate from that, because I feel like I'm a musician and a writer before I'm anything else. So a performer is part of it, and people wanna, 'Hey, I'd love to see [former JOURNEY singer] Steve Perry be able to sing 'Don't Stop Believin' in the original key and hit all the high notes.' But life is the way that it is. You don't get any younger. And so, from my perspective, I go, yeah, but these songs — I get a chance to reinvent them as I reinvent myself, given my circumstances. I'm 72 years old.

"The management company we work with, they also handle Peter Frampton, and Frampton went, 'Okay, I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna do just a farewell tour,'" Rik continued. "And he got out there and he told them, 'That 90 minutes I get on stage is the best part of my day. As long as I can keep doing it, please keep booking me. I wanna go back out.' And I feel like I'm already sensing that, when I'm in rehearsals. I mean, I tire more easily than I did. I'm working hard to have the same level of chops. I practice now more than I've ever practiced in my life. It's kind of, like, the veteran hockey player goes to the camp and he's gotta work way harder than the rookies just to be able to, compete. And I feel that. But I also feel like, how lucky am I, at 72 years of age, that I'm getting to chase this thing? How many other people my age get this opportunity? A friend of my wife said, they were talking on the phone, and she said, 'Most people when they retire,' and I retired about four or five years ago, but she said, 'Most people, when they retire, their lives get smaller. They kind of intentionally, they kind of shrink their lives to make it simpler and easier when they're retired.' She goes, 'Look at Rik. He's trying to make his life bigger.' And I think that's an easy way to say it, that that's the most fun of all, that I'm kind of going, 'Yeah. I'm gonna see if I can keep up with the 60-year-olds.'"

TRIUMPH kicked off its 2026 tour on April 10 in Orlando, Florida.

TRIUMPH's 2026 North American run of shows are celebrating the band's 50th anniversary, and feature support from APRIL WINE. The 2026 trek continued with a series of dates in Canada, beginning April 22 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and running through a May 8 show in Calgary, Alberta. From there, the band hit the U.S. starting May 13 in Rosemont, Illinois, and wrapping up June 6 in Boston. In all, 10 Canadian and 17 American cities are included on the tour.

Formed in Mississauga in 1975, TRIUMPH rose from playing high school auditoriums and rock 'n' roll bars to selling out iconic arenas, from Toronto's famed Maple Leaf Gardens to Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. Their virtuosic musicianship, soaring vocals, and dazzling, high-production live shows helped define an era of arena rock. Blending hard rock power with progressive ambition, TRIUMPH has sold over 15 million albums worldwide and earned multiple gold and platinum certifications, building a global following through headline tours and landmark festival performances, including the 1983 US Festival before 500,000 fans. With hits like "Lay It on The Line", "Magic Power" and "Fight The Good Fight" — combined with pioneering stage productions featuring pyrotechnics, laser lighting, and theatrical flair — TRIUMPH became arena rock legends, securing a permanent place in Canadian and international rock history.

The band's return to the road follows a defining year honoring TRIUMPH's impact across generations. In June 2025, the band was celebrated with "Magic Power: All-Star Tribute To Triumph" (Round Hill Records, June 6, 2025),a 15-track tribute album featuring rock luminaries such as Phil X, Sebastian Bach, Slash, Nancy Wilson, Joey Belladonna, Dee Snider, Lawrence Gowan, Deen Castronovo, Alex Lifeson, Jeff Keith, Mickey Thomas and produced by the world-renowned Mike Clink (GUNS N' ROSES, MÖTLEY CRÜE, WHITESNAKE).

Further solidifying their celebrated status, TRIUMPH was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame in October, a prestigious honor recognizing their enduring influence, masterful songwriting, and contributions to Canada's cultural legacy. This induction adds to their long list of accolades, which includes membership in the Canadian Music Industry Hall Of Fame (2007),the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame (2008),and Canada's Walk Of Fame (2019).

Emmett, who quit TRIUMPH — acrimoniously, in 1988 — over music and business disputes, went on to pursue a solo career, while TRIUMPH carried on with future BON JOVI guitarist Phil X for one more album, 1992's "Edge Of Excess", before calling it a day the following year.

Emmett was estranged, both personally and professionally, from the two other members of the legendary Canadian classic rock power trio for 18 years before they repaired their relationship.

After 20 years apart, Emmett, Levine and Moore played at the 2008 editions of the Sweden Rock Festival and Rocklahoma. A DVD of the historic Sweden performance was made available four years later.