A Triumph of magic power and winning the good fight as Emmett (finally) puts the band back on the road

It’s been quite a few years of change in tone with our visits with guitarist Rik Emmett, whose Triumph music has lived in the vault of classic rock radio for four decades but the band that last toured in 1993 was brought back together again last summer through hockey and the magic power of the music. Now 72, along with Gil Moore and Mike Levine and some great musicians, they’re going back on the road this spring and Nestor has a lot of questions for his Canadian baseball friend and poet about this very unexpected reunion tour.

Rik Emmett of Triumph discussed the band’s upcoming tour, their first in 40 years, with Nestor Aparicio. Emmett highlighted the influence of a hockey event in Edmonton and the vision of bandmate Gil Moore for a large-scale production. He mentioned rehearsing with new musicians like Todd Kearns and Brent Fitz, and the positive impact of personal training. Emmett also touched on the band’s legacy, the importance of forgiveness, and his new poetry book, “Leaning Into It.” The tour will start in Hollywood, Florida, and end in Camden, New Jersey, with potential extensions based on audience response.

• [ ] Get back into regular gym workouts and into rehearsal with Phil X and the rest of the Triumph band before the upcoming tour to stay physically fit for on-stage performances.

Triumph’s Return to the Road

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the Maryland Crab Cake Tour and mentions the Harlem Globetrotters scratch-off tickets.
• Nestor reminisces about interviewing Triumph’s bandmate, Mike Levine, in the MTV era.
• Nestor expresses excitement about Rick Emmett and the original band touring again.
• Nestor mentions the hockey event that sparked the idea of reuniting Triumph.

Rehearsals and New Musicians

• Rik Emmett explains the momentum from the hockey event and Gil’s vision for a large-scale production.
• Rik describes rehearsing with Todd Kearns, Brent Fitz, and Phil X, who are experienced musicians.
• Jason Murray of Vector Management convinced Rik to join the tour.
• Rik’s wife encouraged him to get in shape, leading to personal training sessions.

Health and Personal Growth

• Rik discusses his health journey, including losing weight and getting in shape.
• Nestor compares Rik’s current energy to his past self and mentions Alex Lifeson’s health issues.
• Rik talks about the joy of playing music again and the legacy of Triumph’s songs.
• Rik mentions the possibility of Mike Levine participating in some shows.

Production and Technology

• Rik describes the state-of-the-art production elements, including double drummers and large screens.
• The show will pay tribute to Triumph’s 50th anniversary with updated technology.
• Rik mentions the creation of an MC character avatar for the show.
• The focus will be on rocking out while using technology tastefully.

Reconnecting with Bandmates

• Nestor asks about the reconnection with bandmates after years apart.
• Rik reflects on the positive feelings of playing music together again.
• Rik mentions the honor of being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in Canada.
• The band’s legacy and the impact of their music on new generations are highlighted.

Personal Reflections and Future Plans

• Rik discusses the importance of forgiveness and being a better person.
• He reflects on the band’s vision and the positive impact of their music.
• Rik mentions his poetry books and the themes of personal growth and forgiveness.
• The conversation ends with Nestor expressing excitement for the upcoming tour and Rik’s poetry.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Triumph tour, Maryland crab cake tour, Harlem Globetrotters, Maryland lottery, Rick Emmett, cancer recovery, hockey event, production ideas, personal trainer, rock band, music legacy, poetry books, baseball, Blue Jays, Rush tour.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Rik Emmett

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We’re taking the Maryland crab cake tour out on the road all month long. We will have the Harlem Globetrotter scratch offs, but a lucky batch so far, we will be on Tuesday at missoney’s in Perry Hall, doing it all on behalf of the Maryland lottery. GBMC and our sponsors at foreign and Dermer, they are the comfort guys. I’m comfortable around rock stars because I did it when I was a young guy in my teens. So lo these many years ago, I interviewed this guy’s bandmate, Mike Levine. Many, many years ago, Allied forces maybe somewhere. You know, back in the day the MTV era and the band triumph, I’ve been a fan of forever. I’ve had Rick Emmett on several times. And the last two times I’ve had Rick Emmett on. He was beating cancer, writing great music, staying in his studio, trying to get out and play an acoustic gig here. And again last year, he went out and did a little bit of that I had nothing on my dance card for in 2026 to have Rick Emmett and the original band going out with Triumph and rush going out on the road this summer as well. It is a, you know, I’m not going to make any 51st state jokes here, because you know how I feel about Trump, the Trump Rick Emmett, but it is great to see you guys coming out, and I can’t wait to chat with you and hear the whole story. I saw the hockey stuff happening last year, and sort of this inertia for putting triumph back together, but I think every triumph fan in the world is so excited to see you guys come back. And I have this. I have it circled in Camden, up in New Jersey. I’ll be with you that night.

Rik Emmett  01:38

Good, yeah, great. Yes. It’s nice to be back on your show, and it’s nice to be healthy and have all of this kind of positive energy flowing forward. And, yeah, all

Nestor Aparicio  01:50

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good, all good. All right, so I saw the documentary a couple of years ago, and I’m a fan of the band, and I saw you had done the fan club experience and a little hanger surprised everybody. Your relationship with your bandmates. You’ve written a book about it. They all have at this point. What? What was the thing that happened since the last time we talked that that moved this thing in a direction to put this orchestration together and actually go out and do this?

Rik Emmett  02:19

Yeah, it wasn’t as simple as just one thing, because, you know, you mentioned about the hockey and the momentum of having that happen, and then that opened the door. Gil had always been sort of pushing, oh, I want to take triumph out, you know, do some sort of large scale production thing. And he was talking about it on multi levels, you know, it was going to have, you know, I don’t know 3d this, and hologram that, and, you know, all the things you can do with screens and stuff nowadays. And he has friends, of course, in the production world, and it’s like, oh yeah, you know, it’ll be cutting edge Gil. And so he was all into that. And that was always happening before I had a wind of anything, because I wouldn’t necessarily even have to be an active participant. But then the hockey thing came along, and it was like, Hey, you guys want to come up to Edmonton and play as part of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And was like, Well, geez, Mike Levine might not be able to do it. Well, don’t worry, we can put together other musicians. And so then I went and had a rehearsal with these guys, Todd Kearns, Brent Fitz and Todd Phil. X, so the Brent Todd Phil thing, I loved it. It was a real great kick in the ass of energy to play with these guys. And they’ve played with like slash and Bon Jovi, so they’ve, they’re pros. So it was nice to have, you know, rock star guys kicking your butt around the stage. It was like, No, this energy is so that was a big motivator. And then management, Jason Murray of vector, came and sat here in my studio having tea and talking me into it, you know? And it’s like, because I’d said I don’t know, man, like, I don’t need it, you know. And as you were talking about, I’ve done the little thing where I worked out my jazz pieces from the 10 Telecaster tales. And I’d done a little just like a showcase two nights at thingy in a local theater and kind of converted club. And it was, it was fine. It was enough. And so I was saying, I have enough. I don’t, I don’t need to do this. And he was kind of saying all of these lovely things, and the money’s not a huge motivator, but it’s a motivator, you know, I’m not going to deny that there’s, there isn’t this thing of, you know, how this is all going to play out, and it’ll help me sell my poetry books and stuff, you know, like, it’s just this part of the game. But the big thing was, I sat down with my wife, and I said, Okay, pros and cons. And she said, Okay, let’s do pros first. It’s fun. So I said, Okay, the first pro would be, I would have to get in shape. I would have to get a personal trainer. I would have to, you know, start losing weight, watching my diet. And she said, Let’s stop. Right there. That’s enough. That’s enough. Let’s just get you in shape. So for Christmas, she bought me a personal trainer, some sessions, and now I like the guy, and I’m going and I’m seeing him. He comes here once a week. I go see him two or three times a week. So it’s just been a kind of a new lease on life. And I think that was the biggest thing, was it was just, well, I can get my health turned around. And you mentioned about the cancer, like I had been in places that were darker, and it was kind of like I was moving towards the light. But it wasn’t necessarily the light of an oncoming train or the light of, you know, Hey, Rick, this is the end. Now you’re going to go meet your maker. It wasn’t that kind of light. It was much more positive kind of rock star concert lighting. And I went, Oh, okay, I’ll head towards that. You know, I didn’t know what I was going to

Nestor Aparicio  05:49

find with you. I haven’t watched any of your videos lately, and I saw the and I knew you’re coming out on the road. I said, maybe Rick will come on. And I wrote two weeks ago to your pub assistance. But you come on. And I like, you look great, dude, you look excited. You You look the way I want you to look and and I’ll bring a friend of yours into this, because you know, what a rush fan I am as well. Alex Lifeson, when this tour happened, and I saw the image showed up that they were doing the 10 cities, or whatever, originally, I knew Alex had some health issues, and I said to my wife, how did Getty talk Alex into this? And is Alex going to be able to do this? Then they added more dates, and they added more dates, and then they add Europe and and then I see the video with them, and Alex and Getty talked about going to Austria and getting in shape and physical. And I have, I’m 57 now, and in the space that I’m in, people come to me and say, a shot of this or this, and I’m in pretty decent shape. But I think when you get the energy to go back out and do this, your friends and family must be astonished to see you tackle this, because I’m just a fan on the outside, and I know you said fun, this will be fun. I don’t know that you looked at touring in a rock band as being fun for long stretches of your life, right?

Rik Emmett  06:59

No, that’s true. But there’s another thing that I didn’t mention when I was listing all of the things that kick your ass, and this is the so I’ve seen Alex and Getty talk about this too. It’s the music. It’s the songs. And there’s this kind of legacy thing that’s built into it, that here’s the songs, and when you start to play them again and you reapproach them, and you go, oh yeah. You know, not only are the songs finding like in life, they’re showing they’re fine, they’re getting into TV shows and movies and that, you know, baseball, the World Series that plans my songs. And so there’s all this stuff where the songs are making a comeback, and kids are going on Shazam and going, Whoo. What band is this? You know. So there’s all of that, but there’s also, then what you getting out together ahead of rehearsal, and they just jam, and then they go, Hey, you want to play a song, and then they play a song. And I think that’s the thing, like, I look so forward to the idea of, whoa, I’m going to get to play magic power with Todd Kearns and Brent Fritz and Phil X and Gil, you know, Mike Levine probably won’t make a lot of the shows, but, you know, even if he shows up, like he’ll be on the screens playing keyboards, or like, Michael be there in spirit. You know, he might even show up and give us a wave and sit at a keyboard and play something, but he’s having some issues with mobility and so, but the idea of having the other guys to be able to reinterpret the songs, and, you know, I mean, I’m not getting any younger. So guitars are down a step. Songs are changing keys, you know, okay, you know? So what? We’ll reinvent the song, and we’ll see what happens. And there’s a kind of a real energy in rediscovering the songs in a new way. And I go, all right, I’m embracing it, you know, not afraid. I’m gonna overcome my fear, and I’m just gonna go for it.

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Nestor Aparicio  08:52

Rick Emmett is here, and in great, great spirits. He, of course, is one of the founding members of tri. If they’re going back out on the road here in the spring into the summer, is this going to get extended? You play the rush game and you still be on the road here, you don’t know. You’re never, you’re not saying no to anything at this

Rik Emmett  09:08

point, though, right? No. And I think part of it too is you sort of have to see how it goes. You know, we’ll go out there and we’ll play some shows. And I’ve never really ridden the busses ever in my life. We flew everywhere when we were, you know, a trio. Now there’s more people involved, and there will be some busses, and so I’ll be riding some busses and seeing if I can sleep on busses. I don’t know, you know, I’m going to find out. I the way that the pre sales have gone, and the way the the energy that exists from people being curious about it, that leads you to believe. Well, you know, of course, it will happen. And you know, I’ve said this before, many times in interviews, Rush has pretty big coattails. And there are other bands out there that have created kind of coattails too. I got a friend that sings with sticks, Lawrence Gowan, and great guy, yeah, and I went out to see him play. He was doing his own little tour of dates. Canada recently, and he was wearing a kiln, he was jumping around, and he was giving Gil really good advice about this is how you make sure that you have an instrument, your voice, that can sing night after night after night. You know, this is what you got to do. This is the kind of training you have to have, and diet you have to have, and blah, blah, blah. So anyways, there’s people there where you go, all right, sticks and journey and Def Leppard, these people have made a kind of a thing where, you know, older folks are going out and buying tickets for them and their kids and their grandkids, and you go, Okay, there’s a business model here that, in all likelihood, yes, promoters will come and say, We want some of that. Can we buy some dates? Hey, will you come to Rio? Will you, you know, will you come to Puerto Rico? You know, it’s like,

Nestor Aparicio  10:49

you know, we’ll find out. Well, you’re going to Hollywood, Florida and Orlando to start things off, and you come to Camden up here in Jersey at the end of May. Rick Emmett is our guest from triumph. So peel back the onion a little bit here, because last time, couple times I had you on, you’ve had all acoustic guitars behind you. I see you got little flying electric going on behind, picking up guitars. And your craft, and what you’ve done jazz wise versus Hold on a magic power and fight the good fight, and all that good stuff that you’ll be doing, the putting a show together. And Gil always has big ideas, which, if anybody’s watched the band, they know that you and Gil and getting together again and talking about this and working through what the mature adult tour would look like as a fan. What can I expect? What am I looking forward to that night?

Rik Emmett  11:37

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Well, first of all, you know the the lighting designer Paul Dexter, has had a lot I’ve been in script conversations with him practically daily. And, you know, sending him pictures of my wardrobe and blah, blah, blah, double drummers. So you’re going to have two double kits on stage. So there’s this large sort of riser thing with the triumph, four triumph logos looking at you off the drums, huge screen so side ones and a big and they fly in and out, they move around.

Nestor Aparicio  12:10

You were doing that when it wasn’t easy back in the day, right? I mean, you guys had the biggest touring kit. There was

Rik Emmett  12:16

yes, but you know, part of the wonder of that is we and again it we’re paying tribute to the Triumph on its 50th anniversary. So you can go back to old tours and say, Hey, remember the rig we had, where we had all the chaser lights, around the amps and around the stage and stuff. Will we be able to use the screens and the rig to be able to simulate that? Oh, hell yeah. Oh, digitally. Oh, there’s a million things you can do. It’s almost infinite. So you go, Oh, okay, what about the Triumph sign? The giant triumph sign. There was a, it was a huge chunk of hardware that required half a truck of its own. Oh, yeah, yeah. We can do that on the screen, no problem. And how much wattage Do you want the sign to shoot? Because we can make it be as bright as you like. And you go, Okay, this is pretty good. We will be able to touch on history, but it will be updated by technology so it makes it so that these things can morph and change and turn into different things. I’ve created a character. I don’t know if you remember the thunder seven tour. We had a guy laser face, and he was kind of like this, I put my voice through a harmonizer. He’s like, Oh, you’re welcome to your night of triumph, you know. And so that guy is going to show up on the screens, and he’s going to be this kind of MC character avatar, kind of guy that has his moments, and that won’t be a lot, because in the end, people buy a ticket because they want to come and see a rock band, rock out that you know, they want to, they want to see a rock band, Jen and so, and I’ve got some of the best musicians to work with, so I am not going to get to Gil. Would love to get lost in the production and the game the toys and the games of toys. And I go, okay, but let’s dial that back. We’ll use it tastefully. We’ll use it to enhance the drama of things, but let’s just rock, you know, let’s just be a rock band, and let’s just really do that. So there’s going to be that dynamic of, yes, you’ve got the state of the art production, but you know, I’ve also got, have you ever seen Todd Kerns live? Have you ever seen him with slash, and he goes out and he does the hand clapping thing, and he’s like a he’s like, six foot five, and so when his arms go like this, it’s like, Oh my God. It’s like, he’s a rock star with all this charisma. And I go, I am going to take advantage of that. I’m going to be standing back and going, Yes, sir, you do your thing. That’s a good thing.

Nestor Aparicio  14:48

Rick Emmett is our guest. Tea is with the Rock Band triumph. They are touring all over the place, here, all over Canada as well, going up and spending some time with their people. In the early part of May, they make their way to this part of the world. They’re going to play. Pikamed New Jersey with April wine just between you and me, May 28 at the freedom mortgage pavilion. I want you come a long way from Rams Head on stage with an acoustic guitar to what we’re talking about here, which makes me feel very like, makes me feel like the night I saw you and Saxon at the Towson center when the MTV videos were rolling about two miles from where my studio is right now, was triumph dead to you at one point. If I would have asked you, two years ago, five years ago, it that’s over. I’m older. It’s that’s never going to happen. Did you use the word

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Rik Emmett  15:35

I said that in interviews? Many, many times, although it, it was more of the aspect of the touring of it, I would think, no, no, no, that’s never going to happen. You know? Why?

Nestor Aparicio  15:46

What was it? I’m too old. It’s not it. Mike, what was it that made it won’t be fun? Yeah, you knew that we could make money, that that was always there. But what? What was it that was that

Rik Emmett  15:58

it wasn’t, it wasn’t what my ambition was pushing me towards there were other things artistically, creatively that I wanted to do. And you know, you mentioned Ram’s Head like I when I played those kinds of gigs, I really enjoyed them because they felt like they were special. Because it wasn’t triumph in an arena, it was me playing in a nice little club. And I would go and get to play these nice little clubs, you know, the the wineries and the city wineries and and every city had one. And you could go to Atlanta and do one, or Chicago or New York and, and they were nice gigs. They were civilized. It was something that creatively, I had a lot of latitude. I had a lot of freedom to be able to be me. Now, when you’re in triumph, you’re stepping into a persona you’re

Nestor Aparicio  16:47

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doing triumph is what you’re doing, right? Yeah,

Rik Emmett  16:49

and, and I never thought there would be a public hunger to make it happen on a level where I where it could be done the right way. But, you know, apparently I was dead wrong. And then, you know, the other thing is, and I want to make sure that I touch on this, you know, it really is a sweet thing to be sitting with kill and just, you know, shooting the shit and talking about being in a band again. You know, that’s something that, when it went away, I thought that would never come back. I really felt that was dead and gone forever. But, you know, the road back on that one is like, you know, somebody goes, come on, we’ll give you an award. Come to the award show. And so you kind of make peace, and you go, okay, we can do and so you go, and you do that, and then you go, Well, maybe they’re not so bad. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing. And then, slowly but surely, these things. So, I mean, we went into the soccer Songwriters Hall of Fame this year and in Canada, and it was a beautiful honor. It was a and it was a sweet thing to stand on stage with those guys. And then I played. They had a house band, and Phil x and I got up and played late on the line with the house band, but it was just such a great feeling to be playing. And I looked down, and there’s Gil with his face shining, and Mike Levine in the front row watching me, and they’re just digging it. And I’m going, okay, like, you know this is this could work, because we can get all the way back to that feeling that when you’re just young guys and you’re full of piss and vinegar and testosterone, and you’re thinking you’re going to take on the world, and you go, Okay, now we’re old and but it’s that you can you’re getting to touch that feeling again, of, Yeah, yeah. This was what it was like to be a, you know, a young guy that was gonna take on the world, you know, and you go, I like that feeling. Why should I do how many 72 year olds I’ll be 73 relatively soon. How many of those kind of folks get the opportunity that I’m getting? You know, okay, getting Alex, okay. But you know what I’m saying? Like, it’s a pretty rare, wonderful thing to get the chance to do.

Nestor Aparicio  19:12

So it’s a joy that I’ve lived this long to not only spend time with you. And I think Getty might be coming on before they go out on the road, and we’re going to get to baseball and your Blue Jays in a minute, in a general sense, to see all of you healthy, happy, just seeing your face on my spirit, anybody that’s watching right now, you can go back and see what you look like last year and the year before that, and you look 20 years younger. You look like the new lease on life. But I do want to talk about something a little deeper with you and Gil, which is being 72 and surviving it all, and knowing that there was a lot of bad blood for whatever and for whatever Re and 40 years ago and all of that, but fixing it, that’s a hard thing for any human to do. You know, I had partners 20 years ago that I look at if they came to think that 10 years from now, oh, I’d be back together with that person again when you have that. Vibe. That’s a human thing that I think fans cheer for, that we root for, that we all want you to love each other and and get along and, you know, but it’s that’s not reality, but also time right, time changes that tell me a little bit about the GIL thing, as much as you want to offer, because I think that that’s that’s different than Alex and Getty, who were always kind of together to see this. It it’s, it seems even more far fetched to think that triumph is doing this from where maybe you were five or 10 years ago. Yeah. But there,

Rik Emmett  20:30

you know, oh, so many thoughts crowded into my head. So, you know, I’ll try to sort of get at this piecemeal. So first of all, you know, I wrote a song fight the good fight, and I write poetry, and I have poetry books in but we’re ostensibly, we’re here because I’m supposed to be talking to you and mentioning that my book and leaning into it is out you can if for pre order on ECW press. Okay, so we’ve taken care of that. Okay, good. So fight. The good fight is the poem I wrote about being the guy that wrote the song the good fight. And how do you define the good fight? What is it? And of course, some people think of it as a religious thing because of, you know, the Bible and St Paul and his letter to the Corinthians. But the concept of a good fight was around a lot before that. And then, in truth, Benjamin Franklin was somebody that sort of redefined it in people’s minds over the course of time, about finding the person inside you that is better than the person you were a week ago, a year ago, 10 years ago, and forgiveness is a big part of that. For me, that, and, you know, I’m not Christian, I’m a humanist, but, but, and, you know, an agnostic leaning much more towards atheism. But I feel like we all have an obligation to ourselves, to each other, to try and be a better person as you go forward in life, not to become worse, not to become harder, not to become meaner. We live in a world now where there’s way too much of that, you know, negative kind of spirit. Triumph was not a band that dealt in that side of the rock and roll equation. We said, Believe in yourselves. Folks, hold on to your dreams. Fight a good fight. Never surrender. There’s magic power in music. And we really meant, I did. I really meant it. And I think over time, Gil and Mike came to understand he really means it like that. That’s really what we are. And then the history of the band has become a thing where there’s no doubt about it. They get it hammered in their face all the time. No triumph was the band. They were the good guys. Triumph was the magic power guys. Triumph was the fight to good fight guys. And they go, okay, okay, Rick wins, like, you know, I think they might have wanted the band to be a heavier, darker, you know, heavy metal kind of a band. And I was like, no, no, that’s not, that’s not what I want it to be. I want our music to be its own thing. And, you know, I mean, you, you’re a rush fan. We’re talking about rushing a lot. We’re not the same kind of we’re three piece bands from Canada, okay, but we were very different kinds of bands. Triumph was a different kind of a band than rush, and that was obvious to anybody that spent any time with their music, not to anybody that saw it shallow, superficial from a distance. Was like, Oh yeah, okay. Trios from Canada. Sure, they’re all the same, okay, they’re not, you know. And music is not the same, you know, once you start to get into it, it’s its own universe. It’s its own infinity. Anyway. So all of that being said, you know, I think that over the course of time, I think the like Gil and Mike came to understand. Rick had a vision for this band that works whether we’re in it or not, whether we’re out on tour or not, somehow or other, these songs have had this ability to just keep crawling legs and walking around in the world, you know. And I go, I like that. I want to go out on tour again. And I want to remind people that this is not necessarily a world of in honor Republican presidents going to war. You know, this is a this is a place where poets and musicians have things to say that matter about the lives that people have to lead every day. You know, just every day getting along kind of stuff. And so I go, I can, I can play guitar to make that happen. I can sing songs that can make that happen. I want to do that. And so here I am.

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Nestor Aparicio  24:33

Well, the definition of triumph is a great victory or achievement. So of the name, the name of the band itself wasn’t failure, it was triumph, right? Like, literally, you’re blue jays, gettysblues, everyone. You’re so close. I began, I was an opening day last year. I called you and invited you out. You were doing stuff I think you had gigs that weekend. As I remember it, the notion that bass. Ball was such a big part of your life. I never really knew that Getty sort of leads with it. And I think some people that like baseball lead with it. You’re a baseball guy, and every time I drive by Memorial Stadium, I don’t think of my dad or anything. I think about your brother and Cal Ripken because of the stories you’ve told me. And this is

Rik Emmett  25:15

my give me two seconds, because I’m going to bring I got to get something. Oh, he’s going to get me something. Here he goes baseball. What do you got for me? You got baseball? Okay, he’s got problems. First of all, this would have been in the 90s. I’ll hold this up. Oh, this is my my brother, Russell, and my dad and me in a men’s softball slow pitch League. My dad, C stands for, is that a bar? What’s C? What is that? It was a Cadillac’s. My brother sold Cadillacs at a car dealership, and so we were the purple Cadillacs. And yeah, so there we are, and that was the in the 90s. And I wish I had a picture of me and my son. Here’s the coaches of the Mississauga tigers. Mississauga North tigers, Don Maroney, here me in the middle, Jack, Cara, John and and then Lino candata, this is baseball, not

Nestor Aparicio  26:10

softball, right? This is baseball. This was hard ball. This was hardball. And that was

Rik Emmett  26:13

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really more of a bench coach. And my job was the outfielders, you know, more than than but this was one of the greatest summers of my life. You know, coaching with those guys. Now, I had coached on other teams. My son had gravitated to that team, and then he went on and he played in the Blue Jays, Ontario Blue Jays organization after that. But, yeah, baseball’s always been a big I played when I was a kid and and I was pretty good at it, but probably who’s some people would say, Well, he was a little bit better at music. You made more

Nestor Aparicio  26:48

girls with music than you came with baseball. I tried to do both as well for you, with the Blue Jays in the and last year World Series and all, um, was that a fun run for you from a I mean, we haven’t had a whole lot of that around here. We’ve only had a couple playoff years. Playoff years to see the country come together. I thought it was an amazing thing. And I I was there on opening day, and I the second game back in March of last year. There was not one moment where Luke and I went up to cover the game where I thought, well, they’ll be in the World Series. The Blue Jays will be in the world. I mean, it really kind of was a shocking year, and I think it sort of reinvigorated the country about baseball, right?

Rik Emmett  27:24

It did. And in a weird way too, it was very Canadian that it was not necessarily like, Okay, we got Guerrero and we had Beckton. There’s guys that were, you know, Primo, top level players on the team, but that had never brought us the success that it was more like the bench guys that they got, that that were that were coming through, you know, like guys that were even part time players that would hit an important home run or make an important play at the right time. So there was an awful lot of, I wouldn’t call it serendipity, but I would call it sort of, you know, the big mo things start to happen, and then you believe, well, we’re not going to lose, we’re going to find a way to win. And they did that kept happening, you know, the Dodgers proved to be a little bit maybe too much.

Nestor Aparicio  28:14

You know, glad you spend more money well.

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Rik Emmett  28:17

And we, you know, we had, we had some bad luck, you know that the ball got stuck under the pad. If that ball doesn’t get called a dead ball, which it never should have been called a dead ball, that’s a different story to that world series, you know. But sometimes that’s what happens on a certain play. You know, the the outfield catch that their center fielder made over top of their left fielder, right at the wall it, you know, that ball’s one inch higher, it’s off the wall, and runs are scoring, and that game’s a different story, you know? So it game of inches, and that’s why we watch and it was a beautiful thing to watch. And, you know, I don’t know if it can happen again, because, as I said, it was serendipity. It was kind of like, I’m not sure we’re going to be able to get to see a run like that through the playoffs. But you know, baseball is the kind of thing where stranger things always happen. So you never know. You know. That’s why you enjoy watching it for nine innings one

Nestor Aparicio  29:21

day, the Maple Leafs will win for you, Rick. Rick Emmett is here triumph. They’re going out on their Hey, dude. The good news is your tour ends June 6. You have the whole summer you can, you know, catch on to the pennant race and do all of that stuff. Watch the baseball. I want you to get back in the gym. I want you to get back into rehearsals with Phil and all of these guys, bring the show out on the road. If I, if I could, I would sneak down to Orlando for the first night, or how I thought about it, but my wife’s going to be in Italy, and I’ve got the cat, so I’m kind of hanging out, but I will be in Philadelphia with you. You just

Rik Emmett  29:49

told me you’re going around the world and chasing Brian Adams like, what’s all that? How long does that last?

Nestor Aparicio  29:54

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15 days to get back in time for opening day? So I’m in America. Who was had a father born in Venezuela. So I’m interested in testing my passport with the Trump administration here at this point at the Miami Airport. So Rick em, if they will let you into America, I hope you know you are the 51st state here. Do you have anything you want to say politically? Because you said some stuff last year that got up in me, because I don’t often have international people on. I mean, most people I have on are American, and there’s plenty of us who hate Trump enough that I don’t need to hear that from the outside. But I just, I’m about to travel internationally. My wife’s going to be traveling next month. I’m, I’m ashamed of all of it, you know. And I think, you know, wearing a Canadian hat in other places makes you a little bit safer if you’re rolling through, you know, Argentina or someplace. But from my perspective, I can’t imagine on your side of the border, as much as you all have loved America and where this is that this can be palatable for you. It’s not palatable for me, and I’m in on it, and I hate

Rik Emmett  30:54

it, yeah, well, and you know, you just got to hope that at some point more people come to their senses. And you know, the way your democracy functions, you know. And I say all this as an outsider, you know that the whole thing of him being able to carry a certain number of states and therefore have a majority in Congress, and it’s just it, it’s, it’s not a good system, you know, and it needs revision, and he’s loaded the Supreme Court. That’s another you got lots of issues when you’re traveling Nestor, you might want to consider getting yourself a little red maple leaf and just put it on your back.

Nestor Aparicio  31:30

Hold on a second. Hold on a second, because you’re playing games with me. Now, come on here. There you go. All right. Is that you like that?

Rik Emmett  31:39

Did I do? That’s your disguise. Now you’re perfect. Everybody in every country will get along with you and like you and find you to be like, you know, the best comedians in the world, the best songwriters, the best musicians Canadians, the best artists. So, you know, I have

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Nestor Aparicio  31:56

to learn how to say sorry and a and do all of the, you know, the Canadian stuff for you. Hey, dude, I’ve always loved your band, and I am thrilled that you’re coming out. I am very honored that you spend time with me and joke around with me, talk some baseball and all of that, but get back in. Get yourself together. You look great, and I can’t wait to see you. I really can’t. And all my triumph fan friends that are watching this, go see the band, go spend the money, buy the ticket, and take the journey, and I’m

Rik Emmett  32:24

looking forward to it. Oh, yes, and my poetry books too. Let’s do that. The poetry

Nestor Aparicio  32:29

books tell everybody how to get that, because that’s important to you. Obviously, rock star stuff’s nice, but you’re really a poet at heart, right?

Rik Emmett  32:35

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Well, and you’re asking me about, like, political questions and stuff. And I go, Well, you know, my poetry, I covered pretty much everything that I can, you know. So the My first book was called reinvention. The second one that is now available for pre order is called leaning into it. It’s actually out, you know, April is when they’ll start shipping things. But, and I do get into that because I actually wrote a lot of that poetry during covid, you know, the first sort of shutdown. And so there was a lot of frustration about about Trump. And I thought, Well, the book will be dated, and then, oh, geez, you get reelected. And it’s like, okay, well, that stuff is going to all be pertinent again. It’s going to have, you know, an impact in in a sociological, cultural kind of way. And I get into that when I write my poetry. Poetry is a place where, when you’re writing songs for a band, there’s a certain narrowness to it, but when you write poetry, it really opens things up and gives you an opportunity to be more expansive in your content and your you know, your pontificating.

Nestor Aparicio  33:45

Alright. Well, I’m not going to ask you about another triumph album down the line or any of that, because you’re too old for that. And we’re going to get you through the tour, keep you in shape and all that, but, but you are writing all the time, and once a writer, always a writer. So don’t buy the book ECW press. And my thanks to everybody who Emily and everybody at the staff there that made that happen, Rick, take care of yourself. I can’t wait to see you up in the bright lights and to see what triumph has. And I loved seeing you guys play at the at the NHL out in Edmonton. And I thought maybe there’s a seed that I will enter a room with, with your beautiful music fill in the air. I’m looking forward to it. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Nestor. Rick Emmett, rock star, forever back in shape, ready to take the road with all these other Canadian bands coming down here to America and and rocking us the proper way, just like we did in our childhood. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stopped talking Baltimore. Positive. You.