TRIUMPH's RIK EMMETT: 'If We Don't End Up Killing Each Other,' We Will Tour In 2009

Joe Matera of Ultimate-Guitar.com recently conducted an interview with Rik Emmett (guitar and vocals) of the reunited classic lineup of TRIUMPH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Over the years there has been a lot of bickering between you and the other two TRIUMPH guys that saw any sort of reunion seemed high unlikely to ever happen. So what were the circumstances that finally led you to rejoining your TRIUMPH bandmates?

Rik Emmett: To put it in a nutshell, my brother was dying of cancer and the whole thing about putting your life into some sort of perspective and coming to terms with certain things, came to the fore. And for him, he was facing it in an ultimate kind of way. He and I would have these types of conversations about any unfinished business we may have and for the need to put it in order. And one thing he mentioned during all of this was that it would be great to see TRIUMPH back together again before he died. And so he said to me that maybe I should put all that stuff aside and just put things into perspective. In the end he passed away and so it was very difficult for me and still is, but it was therapeutic as I realized that I should take the opportunity that came along with the Hall of Fame thing. So for the first time, I actually acted upon it and wanted to see if we could get something going again. And so far it's been great and has been very therapeutic. And hopefully everything will continue to work out.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: After this Sweden Rock Festival appearance and some other shows, there are plans to do a world tour in 2009?

Rik Emmett: That makes it sound a lot more organized and premeditated than it actually is. The Sweden Rock thing got tossed at us and we went, "Okay." And then somebody said, "Do you want to do Rocklahoma at Tulsa, Oklahoma on the 11th of July?" And we went, "Yeah." And so in interview after interview after being asked about this, you finally get to the point where you give a stock answer. If we don't end up killing each other and things work out, then the long-term plan for TRIUMPH is to take it out on the road and to go from Memorial Day, 2009 through the summer months in North America. But we want to do it right and see how it all works out.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: All the legal issues that underlined much of your anger over the years with the band, have those particular issues been finally resolved? Or are you going to tread carefully from here on in?

Rik Emmett: Yeah, tread carefully is a fair way to put it. A lot of that stuff has not been resolved at this point either. We have to still figure out exactly what we're going to do. I'm no longer a member of TRIUMPH. I'm no longer a partner in that enterprise. And when it comes to the catalog of records and all that stuff, well, after I left, at a certain point, they [Mike Levine and Gil Moore] took the entire publishing catalog and sold it. And so they're not necessarily participating in the publishing catalog anymore as far as I know, but I could mistaken about that. So we have to sit down and have these conversations. Part of what led to my years of bitterness was in the way it was financially structured and how things worked. And what had happened to me in the last few years that I had been in the band where I was still in the partnership. But much of that now is just water under the bridge it doesn't matter to me anymore. We just need to reformulate now. Like, what are we going to do about those kinds of things? What are we going to do about merchandising money? But there is no definite answer to it as yet. But the good thing is, there is a collective will on getting it done, and so, it will be done right.

Read the entire interview at Ultimate-Guitar.com.