TRIUMPH Tribute Album To Feature NANCY WILSON, JOEY BELLADONNA, SEBASTIAN BACH, NITA STRAUSS And Others

Ex-SKID ROW frontman Sebastian Bach, ANTHRAX's Joey Belladonna, HEART's Nancy Wilson and STARSHIP singer Mickey Thomas are among the musicians who will appear on the upcoming TRIUMPH tribute album. The effort is being overseen by producer Mike Clink, who helmed TRIUMPH's 1986 album "Sport Of Kings" and also worked on early GUNS N' ROSES recordings. Other musicians who will appear on the album include longtime John Fogerty touring drummer Kenny Aronoff and BON JOVI guitarist Phil X, who previously played with TRIUMPH in 1992 and '93 after founding singer/guitarist Rik Emmett left the band.

In a new interview with Metal Mayhem ROC, TRIUMPH drummer Gil Moore said that the tribute LP should arrive "third or fourth quarter this year" via Round Hill Music. He added (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That's been in the making for a number of years now, through the pandemic. We have some tremendous singers on there. Joey Belladonna from ANTHRAX is on there; our buddy Sebastian Bach, of course; Phil X from BON JOVI; Larry [Lawrence Gowan] from STYX; Nancy Wilson from HEART; Mickey Thomas from STARSHIP. There's tremendous musicians, especially drummers. For crying out loud, we've got Tommy Aldridge on there; Kenny Aronoff, another fantastic drummer, from John Mellencamp. I could go on and on about… Nita Strauss, a beautiful female guitarist who just knocks it out of the park. There's so many great musicians on there, I can't even tell you how thrilled we are."

Asked if he and his TRIUMPH bandmates were involved in putting the tribute album together, Moore said: "Mike Clink did the whole thing. I've gotta give him full credit."

TRIUMPH bassist Mike Levine previously discussed the tribute album in a 2021 interview with The Metal Voice. At the time, he said: "We were talking with [Clink], and we were talking about maybe doing a tribute album. So [we told him], 'You can produce it, but you're the guy who's gotta wrangle all the tributees; it's not gonna be our job to do that.' And the record company bought in and gave us a budget to do it.' So Clink has been slowly amassing the talent and getting the tracks done. It's being recorded in L.A. There's gonna be some great guest artists on it — great musicians. It's gonna be a really cool project when it's done."

As for the various musicians' approach to covering TRIUMPH material, Levine said: "Our only parameter from a band point of view is don't do it like we did it. Do your own take on it. We don't wanna hear somebody just copy what we did. We might as well just send you the bed track to put a vocal on it. We want an interpretation. And a lot of the money is going to a charity called MusiCares. It's a huge, huge organization that supports artists in trouble. It's kind of like a charity we have here [in Canada] called Unison that supports industry people that are having a hard time."

TRIUMPH's long-awaited feature documentary "Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine", premiered in the U.S. in May 2022 via Nugs.net.

"Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine", produced by Emmy and Peabody award-winning Banger Films (ALICE COOPER, IRON MAIDEN, RUSH and ZZ TOP),covers TRIUMPH's humble beginnings as staples of the GTA circuit in the mid-'70s to their heyday as touring juggernauts, selling out arenas and stadiums all across North America with their legendary spectacular live shows — and way beyond.

Levine, Emmett and Moore formed TRIUMPH in 1975, and their blend of heavy riff-rockers with progressive odysseys, peppered with thoughtful, inspiring lyrics and virtuosic guitar playing quickly made them a household name in Canada. Anthems like "Lay It On The Line", "Magic Power" and "Fight The Good Fight" broke them in the USA, and they amassed a legion of fiercely passionate fans. But, as a band that suddenly split at the zenith of their popularity, TRIUMPH missed out on an opportunity to say thank you to those loyal and devoted fans, a base that is still active today, three decades later.

Back in 2016, Moore and Levine reunited with Rik as special guests on the "RES 9" album from Emmett's band RESOLUTION9.

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.