In a recent interview with Rock Show Critique, Triumph guitarist/vocalist Rik Emmett was asked if he was planning any book signings to promote his recently released memoir ‘Lay It On The Line – A Backstage Pass To Rock Star Adventure, Conflict And Triumph.’ He replied:
“There’s nothing in the immediate future. There’s one that’s in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, in April – April 9th, I think, is the date. And I’m gonna be interviewed there. I’m not like Geddy, where I can book a 14-date tour and get somebody that’s a celebrity, or media person to interview me in every market. ECW Press (which published his memoir), they don’t punch at the kind of weight that HarperCollins (which published Geddy’s memoir) does. But that’s all right. I wouldn’t wanna ever seem like I’m envious about Rush. It’s all good. It’s funny how some people think of the bands in the same league, but we were never in the same league. Rush was a band that was above the stratosphere, up there with your Pink Floyds and your Led Zeppelins.”
Afterward, although he did not deny some of the similarities between the two groups, he continued to point out the differences. He said:
“We were three-piece bands with lead singers that sang really high. And the guitar player was blonde in both bands. Those are fairly superficial and shallow kinds of similarities. Beyond that, the bands were pretty different”
It’s Not The First Time Emmett Rejects The Comparisons
Rik Emmett has been dealing with these comparisons for some time. About a month ago, Rik mentioned Triumph-Rush comparisons in another interview with Ultimate Guitar. He said:
“The bands were not really that similar – except for the fact that there was a high male vocalist guy, they were both trios, and both from the same geographic location. Beyond that, the bands didn’t really have a lot of similarities – in terms of the music that was being made and the albums and stylistically.”
He even had some nice things to say about Rush afterward. He continued:
“I’ve always said it and I’ll say it again now – they had nice coattails. And there were nice things – Triumph was able to get a second look by radio people because of the fact that Rush had been there before, concert promoters, all the rest of that kind of stuff. So, they did make our life easier in some respects. And then on another level, they sort of entered into a stratosphere of your Pink Floyds, and almost like a Led Zeppelin-ish kind of…they were huge. And they were international. And they would go on concert tours-even South America, they played soccer stadiums. And you’d go, ‘OK. They’re on another level.’ Triumph was never a band on that level.”
Rik sees Rush as higher up in the rock world than Triumph.
Rik Emmett On Working With Rush’s Alex Lifeson
In fact, some of the Rush and Triumph members are close enough to make songs together. Rik’s album ‘RES9’ (2016) with RESolution 9 features two songs that feature Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson. In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited in 2016, Emmett talked about the song ‘Human Race’ which features Alex Lifeson and James LaBrie. He said:
“When I played some of the stuff for Alex, he gravitated to ‘Human Race’ right away. He said, ‘I want to twelve-string Rickenbacker rhythm on that. I want to be on that track.’ And I went, ‘Okay. That’ll be great!’”
When he was asked when he first hung out with Alex Lifeson, his answer was:
“Triumph was playing at The Gas Works on Young Street, which was a crap-hole bar that every rock band coming up had to play. I had seen Rush there myself in maybe ’73 or ’74, when they had [John] Rutsey as the drummer. He came and he was at the bar and he had a couple of beers and he came and introduced himself after a set. We got to chat for a while. That was the first time I got to meet him.”
You can watch Emmett’s full interview with Rock Critique below.
