Rik Emmett thinks if his new album does well, more pressure for Triumph to reunite
Rik Emmett thinks if his new album does well, more pressure for Triumph to reunite
Triumph guitarist Rik Emmett, who last month released a new album called RES 9 with his group Rik Emmett & RESolution 9, was interviewed by Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited and spoke about the often raised topic of another Triumph reunion.
Emmett was asked whether working on a new song together with his former Triumph bandmates Gil Moore (drums, leas vocals) and Mike Levine (bass) rekindled anything to which he replied: “First of all, it’s stupid to speak in absolute terms and say no it’ll never happen because I never thought I would get the chance to make a record like this one again.”
Emmett added: “Now look at me. I’m doing interviews three times a day. If you ask me right now in this moment do I think Gil Moore wants to make another album or go out on tour and play shows again? My answer would be no. I don’t think he does. I think he kind of feels like… I think I asked a lot of him to play on the one song on the record.
But for me, that was kind of like closing the circle. I think for him when we played Sweden Rock and Rocklahoma I think Gil felt like he’d closed the circle and that everything was good again, we were all back on even ground. But for me I kind of felt like 
ah, you know, when we get in the studio one more time and we just record one more song then I think that’ll close the circle for me. Now, circles close and circles open again, you know what I mean? I don’t think there’s anything you can say that’s definitive. I know that Mike would probably go along with anything…
But I think it’s Gil that’s the one. And really, in the end, Triumph is his. He owns it. It’s his brand. Those are his masters. He’s the guy that has it for posterity. So he’s the one who’s kind of deciding what his posterity is going to be.”
Emmett went on to link the potential success of his latest album RES 9 to a Triumph reunion when he stated: “…I just want to tie back to your question before and say this: If this album becomes really successful, don’t you think there will be pressure? People will be phoning Gil saying, “Hey, hey. Come on! We should get another Triumph album now. Don’t you guys want to do another whole new album? Come on, you should do it!” So if, and that’s an if, RES 9 turns out to be something important in the marketplace, well then Triumph will become important in the marketplace again and he’ll start to feel the pressure that he hasn’t felt for a while.” Emmett went on to agree that Triumph fans need to support his new album RES 9 so that Moore can get some pressure for a Triumph reunion.
You can read the entire interview with Emmett at Classic Rock Revisited.