Triumph guitarist Rik Emmett recently spoke with Music Life Magazine about his decision to retire from touring in early 2019, and his latest endeavour, The Bonfire Sessions. Following is an excerpt from the story.

On retiring from the road

Emmett: "I was just getting old and burned out. I mean, I have retired. I am 67 on my next birthday (July 10th) and I just got to a point where I still love to play, and I don’t mind performing although there is a little more anxiety now than there used to be. And I had some personal physical challenges in terms of arthritis in my neck and back and arthritis in my wrists and my fingers and stuff. It’s not debilitating to the point where I couldn’t perform, but it changes the nature of the challenge.

But the big thing was travelling. I just didn’t want to have to go to all these airports and in and out of hotels and in and out of taxicabs and whatever. I didn’t want to have to stand in line at the rental car booth. I had enough. And it’s not like I need the money. And it’s not like I was a rock star who got divorced three or four times – I am still with the same lovely lady. There was nothing compelling to drive me to want to keep beating myself up on the road. I do miss sometimes the fun of it or the glamour of it. I certainly wondered how I would be ego-wise because, well, I am addicted to instant gratification of a crowd saying, 'Yeah, you’re wonderful; and we love you.' How am I going to do if I don’t have that? But I have adjusted, and I found out that I was not as egomaniacal as I was concerned about.

The other thing is whether it’s a hiatus or whatever you want to call it, I have retired from the road, but I haven’t retired from creativity. That’s the big thing. I kept writing songs and I wanted to do this Bonfire Sessions stuff. Over the last six months I also wrote a book of poetry and have sent it off to a publisher, although I don’t know if they’re actually going to accept it or not. I am waiting to hear back. I guess I am becoming a little more self-indulgent as I get older. I am realizing there are bucket list things that I kind of want to do, creatively speaking. So, that means a lot less or maybe none of the road. There is a part of me that’s going, 'I don’t think I want it anymore.' But honestly, I don’t know. Another thing is that I used to love to play Hugh’s Room (in Toronto) once a year and it’s no longer there so what would replace that? I am not sure. Couple that with Covid and when all these things kind of happen you look and wonder maybe it’s a sign from the universe telling me that it’s probably a good idea to hang it up.”

Read the complete story here.

To pick up The Bonfire Sessions go to Emmett's official website here.