Rik Emmett is sharing his thoughts on the forthcoming Triumph documentary, “Lay It On The Line”, in a new interview with The Metal Voice.
Produced by Emmy and Peabody award-winning Banger Films, "Triumph: Lay It On The Line" is a Crave original that details the story of one of Canada’s biggest rock acts of the 1980s – from their humble beginnings as staples of the Toronto club circuit in the mid-'70s to selling out arenas and stadiums all across North America with their legendary live shows.
"Banger, they're very good at what they do,” says Emmett. “And they've done so many — everybody from Iron Maiden, Metallica and Rush to… They've got one that's on Netflix right now; it's a ZZ Top one. These guys are consummate pros, and they know what they're doing when they're telling a story. When somebody's digging around in your life… They come to my house and they do an interview, and then they come back a few months later and do another one, and then they come back another couple of weeks later and do another one, because they're going deep. And you're going, 'What are they gonna find? I'm a little bit concerned.'
"There's a surreal nature to it — you're going back in your life, and they're reminding you of things that you'd completely forgotten," he continued. "And you're going, 'Oh, yeah.' And then they're digging deeper, and they're going, 'So, when the band broke up…' And you're going, 'Okay, this hurts, actually.' I don't wanna have to go back to that, because the rise and the fall and the rise again, it's the fall that hurts. I don't wanna go there. I thought I'd put all this behind me. It was ugly, heavy baggage."
The film sees Emmett reunite with drummer Gil Moore and bassist Mike Levine to play a three-song set that marked the band’s first performance in 11 years, as well as its first as a pure three-piece power trio in 31 years.
"[Banger] did a really extraordinary thing," explains the guitarist. “I hope I'm not giving too much away here. They flew in fans from all over the world. They created an event. And the fans didn't know that we were gonna actually play three songs. So, they brought 'em all to the warehouse, and they're wandering, and they're looking at this Triumph museum-y kind of thing. They've got dummies with my old spandex jumpsuits on.
“And then they send them down and they were gonna show them a few little clips on a scrim. The scrim drops and there we are and we play. And these are the people that love us the most. And there was only a couple of hundred of 'em. But it was so intense; it was so amazing. And, of course, they've got, like, 15 cameras around the room capturing every angle of this. And then you go, 'Oh my God. This is heavy duty.'
"So it's really good," Rik added. "It really gets to the heart of, you're a band, you create some music, you make a connection to people, and then here's these people, you're the soundtrack to their lives, and it matters to them.”
Formed in Mississauga, ON as a four-piece outfit in 1975, it was Emmett’s addition to the lineup a few months later that led to Triumph re-launching as a trio that would see the release of a self-titled debut album in 1976 before 1977’s follow-up, “Rock & Roll Machine”, began to gain some attention from US radio.
Triumph would go on to release 9 studio albums ahead of Emmett’s departure in 1988; a tenth record, 1992’s “Edge Of Excess”, rounded out the catalogue before the group essentially disbanded the following year.
Emmett went on to launch a solo career that produced more than a dozen records; the rocker has just reissued a series of 11 albums from his catalogue.
See also:
Triumph guitarist Rik Emmett reissues solo albums
Rock News Story Of The Year No. 8: TRIUMPH
AUDIO: Rik Emmett joined by Rush and Dream Theater members on new song
AUDIO: Rik Emmett streams new album preview
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