Jimmy Kay From Canada's The Metal Voice recently spoke to Triumphs guitarist Rik Emmett about his upcoming book Reinvention: Poems via ECW Press, on September 14. Emmett also talks about the upcoming Triumph Documentary that will premiere on Friday, September 10 at the TIFF.

In the book, Emmett talks about being outvoted by the other Triumph members on numerous occasions:

"In Triumph when we first started it was a trio and that is like a perfect little democracy, it's as small as you can get and still have a perfect democracy. In the early stages there would be discussions, my voice would be taken seriously and we were building something. But once it got built to a certain point there was an imbalance that existed. Gil Moore was the general manager of the band, it was really his thing. Mike Levine was the guy that dealt with the record company, he did the marketing and the promotion. 

“So then when there were musical direction talks, I was going, hang on for a second I think direction wise we should be doing this, then it was like sorry Rik you are getting out voted. And I was getting outvoted on too much stuff. I think the other guys wanted it to be a very metal/ hard rock kind of thing but I was the guy that was saying how about a little more progressive. And later on we weren't even a hard rock band anymore because of what was happening at MCA/Universal. So there wasn't even that integrity that metal/hard rock has and we were turning into a pop band. I don't think any of us liked it but the other guys were going kind of like well this is where the bread is buttered and I was like I don't care about butter.”

On Triumph’s success and his reason for leaving:

"Triumph we managed ourselves, so there wasn't a big slice coming off the top like the 20% of the gross that is going towards a management company. So we didn't need as big a pie as other bands did. There was money from merchandising, there was money from touring. In fact Triumph probably made more money from then that stuff then we ever did from selling records. 

“In Triumph Mike and Gil were very astute business people they really knew from the get go what it was that they were trying to achieve on a whole bunch of levels. So there wasn't an ignorance or a naivety to what was happening, no way, there was an awareness. I have learned a lot at the feet of those masters. I think at a certain point they were going to run the Triumph Rock and Roll machine the way they were going to do it and I went I got to go, see yeah."

Vision Merch and Rik Emmett recently launched a pre-order for Rik's new poetry book, Reinvention. On the new episode of The Creationists (Episode 36), Rik talks to Steve Waxman about Reinvention. Read an excerpt below:

Steve Waxman: So, can you talk a little bit about the creative process of how you went about putting this together in poetic form?

Rik Emmett: "Well, I've always been a songwriter, I've always been a lyricist, and I've always had a gift for playing guitar and I always loved the sort of lyrical poetic approach to music making. So it's not a giant leap to slide over into poetry, and in many ways it's kind of liberating because in some ways you don't have to be striking the same forms, the same rhyme schemes. Poetry writing gave me a little bit more license. And it's not like I didn't do poetry writing from time to time. In the course of my life I did, but it was this side thing that every now and then I might do one in an old notebook because I keep spiral notebooks all the time for my songwriting. So, the real catalyst, there's a few, and my grateful acknowledgments are in the book. I had a lot of help, and I have a lot of support. So, one of the first ones was I was in some therapy with a lady in the west end of Toronto Janice Carrera and just as part and parcel of the therapy, I wrote a poem that's in the book called Geologia Hominum, and it was about, sort of trying to figure myself out. And she didn't tell me to write it, it was just in the course of the thing I thought I should write this and send it to Janice and see what she thinks. And when she got back to me, she said, it's really good. You know, there's a lot of insight there that really functions on a lot of levels. It's good work. Of course, you know, I'm the seven year old kid in the pool going 'Hey mommy, mommy watch me.' And mommy's 'Oh you're great.' There we go. I'm great. And I think to a certain extent, a lot of artists, they have that in there, you know, it's like you're just looking for approval or you're looking for peer group acceptance, all of those kinds of things. So you know, we're all damaged kids to a certain extent, one way or another. So I know that thus began my journey. Now, another thing, I have a members forum on my website where people can send me emails and ask me anything they want. There's sort of annual membership allows them to be able to get directly to me by email and I'll answer in a public way on the forum. It's not really public, it's kind of private, but it kind of moderates itself because it's in that medium. If there's something I don't want to answer, I find a way around it. Anyway, there's a guy in there named Scott Michael Anderson, and he's a poet. He writes poetry almost every day, or at least twice a week. I think he's also a photographer. He's a really good one. And he posts up his work on the members forum and I get to see it. And the guy is prolific and he's disciplined. His shit's on there all the time. So, you know, I thought he's doing it, why can't I do it if he can do it I can do it. So, one thing led to another and then I started, and of course COVID had come, I retired from the road, I retired from teaching at Humber. So it wasn't like I didn't have time to kill and what can you do in the privacy of your own room. So, I was writing songs and stuff too but the poetry started to kind of take over, and it kind of became my priority. For the first time in my life writing poetry kind of became a priority thing."

Listen on Apple Podcasts here, on Spotify here, or find a link to your favourite podcast platform here.

Poetry from beloved lead guitarist of the multi-platinum record selling band, Triumph. Reinvention is a largely autobiographical collection of poetry - a project that followed on the heels of Rik Emmett retiring from a touring musician’s and college educator’s life in early 2019.

Inside all of the slashes that define him - singer/songwriter/guitarist/rock star/teacher/columnist - writing has always been his strongest avocation, and the poetic style of “Ultra Talk,” in particular, offered a welcome spark for a songwriter’s freedom of expression. This creative license is organized under seven headings - The Humanities, Life & Death, There’s Politics in Everything, Double Helix, Soapbox Sermonettes, Time Time Time, and Ars Nova 2020.

Rik’s poetry (literally) reinvents his own retirement, and it’s not just some aging dilettante’s bucket list fancy. He discovered a sincere way to tie up a lot of loose ends, fulfill dormant promise, and eschew show biz tangents. Reinvention, his first book, makes some sense of a life that always went in a lot of different directions at once. Finally, he’s given himself permission to chase a mode of self-expression with less commercial potential... than jazz guitar recordings.

The book can be pre-ordered here in t-shirt/autographed book bundle, standard book, and t-shirt.

Rik Emmett is in three Canadian “Halls” and two “Walks of Fame.” After 12 platinum LPs in his Triumph years, Rik produced 20 indie projects, from rock and blues to jazz, folk, and classical. His latest release is Folk Songs for the Farewell Bonfire. An avowed family man, he’s been married for 45 years; he was also a Guitar Player magazine columnist for more than a dozen years and an educator for a few decades at Humber College. Rik is Artistic Director Emeritus of the SongStudio Workshop, and a published poet and cartoonist. He lives in Burlington, Ontario.