RIK EMMETT Says First Leg Of TRIUMPH's 'Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded' Tour Was 'Unbelievably Great': 'I Did Not Expect It To Be As Good As It Was'

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, TRIUMPH singer/guitarist Rik Emmett spoke about the legendary Canadian rockers' recently completed first tour in more than 30 years. For the 2026 trek, TRIUMPH's original members Emmett and drummer/vocalist Gil Moore were 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 did not take part in any of the 2026 tour dates so far after revealing in December that he has "a problem" with his hand that "precludes" him "from being able to really play well."

Asked how it was performing with TRIUMPH again on the first leg of the "Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded" tour, Rik said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was unbelievably great. And when I say unbelievably, that's the truth. I did not expect it to be as good as it was. And I was surprised by it, and then I was just so energized and happy about it. It wasn't easy for me, and physically I was kind of feeling the grind of it, but after a while I was realizing... And it's not like I didn't know this. Peter Frampton had said, 'The 90 minutes I get on stage, man, best part of my day, like fountain of youth.' And that's the truth of it. The music kind of gives me back a sense of why I'm on the planet and why I'm here and who I am. And so that kind of reinforcement of identity, I think, is something that kind of makes you go, 'Yeah, yeah, this is a good thing. This is a great thing.' And you're making a lot of money. It's all going great. There's money being raised for charity. My kids are coming out to see the shows, and they're having the time of their lives... My grandkids came and went, 'Oh my God, Bubba, we had no idea you were this kind of a guy.' So there's all of these things that are spinning off and spinning out of it, but essentially it's just like a vortex of energy, and you're getting to go, 'Okay, I'm tapping in. Here we go.'"

Regarding the overwhelmingly positive fan response to the first leg of the "Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded" tour, Rik said: "You forget that that's something that happens, that when you're up there on stage and you get into something and you get that roar of sort of recognition and acceptance from the audience, and then emotionally they're going, 'Ah, this is why I paid the money, man. I wanted to hear this song so bad. I'm holding up my camera. I'm filming this with my phone, and I'm crying.' And you look at that person and you go, 'Wow.' That energy that you get from that is something where you go, 'I'm doing something that is valuable to people. I'm of use. I'm of service.' And those kinds of things, psychologically they tell you, 'It's a good thing. You should go and volunteer at the soup kitchen or you should go and help out at the bake sale at your church because it's gonna make you feel better about yourself.' Well, I get to do that on this gigantic scale of, 'Yeah, fire up that flamethrower. Shoot up that big screen 'cause we're gonna go out and play 'Fight The Good Fight' for everybody." And it really is something that I can't describe it in words. You can only sort of get into the emotional ballpark and hope that people go, 'No, no, I understand. I know what you're talking about.'"

Emmett also addressed Levine's absence from the tour, explaining: "He didn't make it out to the actual shows. His son came out and was at some of them, and his grandkid was out at one of them and hanging around and having some fun. And Mike — Gil and I saw him last week in the studio. He came out, 'cause there's a weird thing happening here in Canada where they're gonna put out a stamp, like a TRIUMPH stamp is coming out by the Royal Mint. And Mike wanted to be at that meeting, man. He didn't wanna miss that meeting. He wants to be on the stamp. So he can travel, and he can move, but I don't think he can handle what it takes to be on stage. He's still a little frail, but he's up on his feet and he's moving around. He doesn't need a walker or canes or any of that stuff, and he's looking pretty good. He'd had his mustache shaved off for a bit. It's grown back in, so he's not quite back to Sam Elliott territory. But I would say just give it a week — a week or two. And he'll be looking like his good old self. There's nobody more hirsute than Mike Levine."

TRIUMPH's leg two of the "Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded" tour will consist of 16 new shows across the United States. Special guest APRIL WINE will again join TRIUMPH for the newly announced dates.

The second leg will take TRIUMPH through major markets across the Midwest, Northeast, Southwest, and West Coast in November and December. The newly announced run will culminate with December 10 and December 12 performances at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles and at Viejas Arena in San Diego, respectively.

In a recent interview with WNST and Baltimore Positive founder Nestor Aparicio, Moore stated about the first leg of the "Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded" tour: "I can't tell you how excited the band is and how the first leg was just, it was overwhelming how positive the vibe was in the audience, in the dressing room, on the bus, everywhere that you can imagine, in the airports. It was a love fest, the whole thing. And it was hard to say 'no' to Live Nation when they wanted to extend it, because we knew there were great cities that have been really loyal to TRIUMPH that we hadn't played yet. And it'd be nice if we could just play every single city and retrace our entire history. Of course, we're doing our best. We added 16 more. We did 27 the first round. So, yeah, we're getting up there in numbers. It's close to 60 shows."

Regarding his own expectations for the first leg of the tour and the fan response to the initial 27 dates, Gil said: "I think for me personally, it wasn't part of my game plan to get back and do a rock and roll tour. But then I got into it, and it was kind of like it grew on me so fast, and I thought, 'Wow.' If we weren't having such a blast, it would be different. If we were out there slogging it out, and people aren't getting along, and that kind of crap, I wouldn't be there. It's the fact that we had our families with us, and the band was just having a blast the whole time. And the audience, too. I mean, there were people crying at certain songs, and multi-generations in the audience. It was overwhelming, when you looked at the audience. The emotion coming to the stage from the audience was crazy, crazy different than… Back in the day, when it's all kids and everyone's cheering, and now you're seeing, hey, we've all spent decades together on the planet, but this music is pulling us back together in a positive way. So it was kind of overwhelming, honestly."

Asked what he could not have known about this a year ago that he knows now, Gil said: "How perfect the shows would be. And I don't mean perfect like we never made mistakes. Of course we made mistakes. We'd just laugh it off and grin at each other if somebody made a mistake. Perfect in the sense of the harmony of the audience, the band and our families. The total feeling of this one love that's in the venue that's unmistakable. I've never seen Rik Emmett as happy ever in my life. The guy hugged me a couple of times, and it brought tears to my eyes on stage. I couldn't take the emotion. Watching Phil X and Rik Emmett feed off each other. These guys are monster guitar players, but they have such respect for each other's playing. As a drummer, getting to work with Brent on every aspect of the drum kits themselves, of stick control exercises backstage, discussing this drummer and that drummer, and this type of rhythm and that type of rhythm. I've never had another drummer to collaborate with. Guitar players get this all the time, 'cause tons of bands have two guitar players. That's nothing new. But two drummers, pretty rare. And thankfully, to fill Mike Levine's shoes, you had to have somebody that was a monster stage presence, and Todd Kerns is that monster. And what a singer. I mean, Todd's vocals are incredible on top of how he plays bass, and a super human being. So I guess I'm going on and on here, but that's just what I really think."

As for what fans can expect to see during the second leg of the "Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded" tour, Gil said: " Well, we've got a lot of kind of three-dimensional or what we call two-and-a-half-D content, which I think is really, really cool, effects in the show. And we're gonna have some more upgrades on this leg, too. We had a lot of lasers back in the day, and we didn't have lasers on the first run. We just didn't have enough truck space. But with this tour or this run, this part of this tour, yeah, we're putting in a major laser infrastructure into what we're doing. So I think we're gonna have some really, really cool lasers. I'm working on trying to put in a couple old-school effects that we didn't carry on the first tour, 'cause they were considered too clunky and old school. And I'm, like, 'No, I think you need the old and the new.' I think you need the fancy video or I'll call it the the 3D or the two-and-a-half-D video. You need that. You need archival footage. Of course we have to have Mike involved in that footage as well if he's not playing. So all of that stuff combined, it's a great learning experience, and we're just polishing it a bit more. And like I said, we're adding some more pyro effects and some more laser effects and organic old-school stuff that I think is gonna be even better on this run."

Moore also confirmed that TRIUMPH is working on a new documentary about the legendary Canadian rockers' first tour in more than 30 years. It will follow TRIUMPH's first documentary, "Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine", which premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The 97-minute film, directed by Sam Dunn and Marc Ricciardelli for Banger Films, was in pre-production in 2019 with plans for a 2020 release, but the COVID-19 pandemic stalled those plans. But finally in 2022, TRIUMPH devotees around the world were able to see the documentary, which mixed interviews with the band, archival footage and ecstatic and emotional responses from the fans.

"The 'Rock & Roll Machine' documentary did really great things for us, and I felt like it was a great payback, too, to people that were kind of after us, 'cause we hadn't toured," Gil said. "But the documentary ends with a big question mark, as you know, and it's, like, 'Okay, what's next?' Well, that's why we're doing a part two, which is, 'Well, here's what's next. It's this band.' This is the 'Reloaded' band, and you're gonna see it full on. We've recorded it from the point of view of a fan. In other words, I went back to when I was a kid, and I wanted to be kind of backstage. I wanna see how did you set the drums up? Where did you guys come in the building? What's it like to be in the dressing room? All the stuff that you don't get to see when you're a fan. Well, I can remember being like that as a kid, so I thought, 'Okay, be a kid.' This is something that everyone's gonna wanna see, is wanna get on the tour bus with us and see what we talk about, listen to the jokes, all the things that you don't really get to see, the backstage maze, all of that. So as well as the actual show itself, there's gonna be all this behind-the-scenes footage, which I think's gonna be really special. I'm hoping we get it out in 2027, and we're continuing to record it on leg two, so anybody that comes to leg two, hey, you might end up in it. [Laughs]"

TRIUMPH has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every ticket sold will support the SoundsUnite Charity — providing free music learning resources, music wellness, and collaboration tools to marginalized and at-risk youth.

Formed in Mississauga in 1975, TRIUMPH — Rik Emmett (guitar, vocals),Mike Levine (bass, keyboards) and Gil Moore (drums, vocals) — 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 were at the forefront of the definitive spectacle of arena rock.

Blending hard rock metal power with progressive intricacies , TRIUMPH sold over 15 million albums worldwide and earned 27 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", "Allied Forces", "Magic Power", "Fight The Good Fight" and "Follow Your Heart" — combined with pioneering stage productions that set the bar for rock spectacles 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 2025, 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),Canada's Walk Of Fame (2019) and Metal Hall Of Fame (2021).

TRIUMPH "Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded" tour leg 2 2026 North American tour dates with special guest APRIL WINE:

Nov. 17 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
Nov. 18 - Cincinnati, OH @ Heritage Bank Center
Nov. 21 - Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
Nov. 22 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Petersen Events Center
Nov. 24 - Green Bay, WI @ Resch Center
Nov. 25 - Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Arena
Nov. 27 - Indianapolis, IN @ Fishers Event Center
Nov. 28 - Springfield, MO @ Great Southern Bank Arena
Nov. 30 - Albuquerque, NM @ Rio Rancho Events Center
Dec. 01 - Las Vegas, NV @ Fontainebleau Las Vegas
Dec. 02 - Reno, NV @ Grand Theatre at The Grand Sierra Resort
Dec. 05 - Portland, OR @ Theater of the Clouds
Dec. 06 - Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater
Dec. 08 - Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
Dec. 10 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Kia Forum
Dec. 12 - San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena

TRIUMPH is the legendary Canadian hard-rock power trio formed in Mississauga in 1975, featuring Rik Emmett, Mike Levine and Gil Moore. Known for musical mastery, innovation, and an unwavering connection to their fans, TRIUMPH's anthems — marked by hope, empowerment, and resilience — helped shape a generation and continue to resonate worldwide.

From local Ontario venues to sold-out arenas around the globe, TRIUMPH achieved international acclaim through headline tours and iconic festival performances, including the 1983 US Festival before 500,000 fans, the Texas World Music Festival, The World Series Of Rock and Day On The Green. Their hits — "Lay It On The Line", "Magic Power", "Follow Your Heart" and "Fight The Good Fight" — combined with pioneering stage productions featuring pyrotechnics, laser lighting, and theatrical flair, were defining features of arena rock.

Selling over 15 million albums worldwide with 27 gold and platinum certifications, TRIUMPH has been inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall Of Fame (2007),the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame (2008),Canada's Walk Of Fame (2019),the Metal Hall Of Fame (2024),CMW Legends Of Live (2024) and the Canadian Songwriter's Hall Of Fame (2025).