FTV: Lay It On The Line
There are plenty of rock stars out there who climb to the top of their profession by being outrageous, bombastic, colorful, and sometimes, just plain weird. Sure, there has to be enough talent on board for one to write and/or perform music, but it seems like some are trying a little too hard to be noticed. The trade magazines often amplify the ‘rock star image’ to sell more copies which in turn leads to more record sales. It isn’t a new phenomenon. From Elvis to the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust phase, Alice Cooper, and (insert your favorite over the top rock star personas here), many musicians make a pretty good career honing their image. Some get so deep down their own mythical rabbit hole, they get lost physically, mentally, or both. Then there is Rik Emmett, the guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter from the Canadian band Triumph.
Researching an article about Triumph (FTV: Triumph 8-7-24), I found a reference to Rik Emmitt’s autobiography Lay It on the Line (Rik Emmett, ECW Press (2023)). My book buying agent (otherwise known as my wife, Christine) surprised me with a copy for my last birthday. The first impression about the book I got from the subtitle (A backstage pass to rock star adventure, conflict and TRIUMPH) was at best a little misleading. The Rik Emmett story turns out to be less about ‘Rik Emmett – rock star’ than it is about Rik Emmett the normal person who got to play music. He explains that even though he has shared the stage with many major stars, he always viewed himself as being more of a ‘B-list’ rock star. Having seen Triumph in concert twice back in the day, I would disagree, but that is my outsider’s opinion.
Before we go all the way back to the beginning, let’s start with ‘Rik the family guy’. Emmett acknowledges that most people who buy his book will do so because, “I had some fame and fortune, maybe wrote some songs they’ve heard. But the more important thing I can convey in this book is that my career enabled my family life, and that was the best thing we ever did. I got to live my life.” He notes that family and friends remain his life’s greatest gifts. “Hardly earth-shattering but the most fundamental truth I have to offer.” He and his wife Jeanette have raised four children and have grandkids to add to the mix these days, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
Running late for her job at the A&R department of Capitol Records in Toronto, Jeanette was navigating a stretch of snow covered roads. For some reason, she undid her seatbelt a few blocks from the office just before spinning out on a patch of black ice. Her car met a truck head on and her forehead made a softball size hole in the windshield. She suffered what is known as ‘the hangman’s break’ – a fracture of the C2 vertebra in her neck. The emergency room doctor told Rik, “She is going to be fine.” Noting the large bruise on her shoulder, he noted, “That is where the guardian angel was sitting.” She spent six weeks on a Stryker frame bed with screws in her temples to stabilize the break.” Emmett continues, “A few millimeters either way and she could have been quadriplegic, or dead. Instead she recovered and we’ve made forty-three years of history.” He visited her daily and his life became a six week pattern of, “Smoking dope, eating bad food, shooting snooker, and practicing guitar.”
The accident took place in 1980. The Emmetts welcomed their first child, Shannon, in 1982. The day they brought the baby home, their domestic bliss was interrupted buy a loud carload of fans who found their house and proceeded to knock on every door and peer in every window. With the safety of their new family member in mind, he called a home security company about a full package of cameras and sensors for the house. Instead of cashing in on a big pay day, the man on the other end of the phone said, “This would cost you a lot of money and still not offer you the security you are looking for in your case.” He recommended a privacy fence in the backyard, a doorbell intercom, and an imposing German shepard. Rik says the dog was a wonderful addition to the family unit and all of these things (plus his wife’s ability to lie convincingly, “No, he doesn’t live here any more”) were enough to keep fans at bay. Privacy is something not all rock stars seek.
Emmett credits his wife for, “My life, my career, and the very existence of my creativity. She was, and still is, the best partner I could ever have had along for the ride. She was steady and calm when I was flailing, solid and practical when I was coming apart.” He also gives his wife kudos for being the family’s financial foundation: “By 2000, Jeanette was our family’s more consistent breadwinner, with medical and dental benefits, which allowed me to indulge myself creatively, If she hadn’t been such a selfless, hard working spouse, there’s no way I would have been able to sustain any kind of indie music writing and recording career. Whatever successes I may have enjoyed have all been built upon my dependence on her – a dependency that was unfair and one sided.” It sounds odd that a famous musician would not be the sole support of their family but we need to go back to the beginning to examine how Rik Emmett got to this point in his life.
Richard Gordon Emmett was born on July 10, 1953 in Toronto, Ontario. His parents were products of the Depression / World War II era. They lived a simple working family life much like their parents. Rick was the middle child and says there were three distinct parts to his life, the first emerging around age seven. This first phase was what he calls his ‘Ricky Golden Boy’ era where he was determined to anything and everything to please ‘all aspects of authority’: “He (Ricky the Golden Boy) had a drive and ambition, wanting to finish first, be the smartest kid in class, the quickest in the race. Academically, until grade seven, he was top of the class. (Sports, music, and girls were my downfall. By the time I graduated high school, that order had reversed to become girls, music, and lastly sports).”
The next personality to appear was the Jock. In hockey crazy Canada, he naturally gravitated to the sport but also competed in track, soccer, and baseball. Once The Beatles Invasion began in 1964, the now girl crazy seventh grade Rick also began his path toward becoming a rock guitarist. With his father working double jobs and his mother doing in-house clerical work, the one-pickup Kay guitar they financed for him was now considered a ‘manageable expense’. With no amp, he plugged it into a used radio. Emmett explained the direct result: “[The 60s] hit me like a cultural tsunami. The cocky rebel rock star in me no longer wanted to try and please adults. Like so many of my peers, I was beginning to question authority. My inner Peter pan was born – and my grades fell off. I fought bitterly with my parents over the length of my hair.”
When his grandfather died, Rick began questioning God and religion which caused a larger rift with his mother. His mother had never really understood his need to go all out when he played sports. When Rick hit puberty and decided church was no longer for him, the generation gap between them widened. “Eventually,” Emmett says, “she accepted but never really understood my inclination toward an agnostic, humanist view of life. She did have a more open mind about a generation that was saying, ‘Make Love, Not War,’ believing that ‘God is Love,’ and so there were some things about hippie culture that aligned with my mom’s own religious, spiritual values.” Rick’s father was ‘quietly supportive’ of his sports ambitions but, “He distrusted everything about music, hippies, and the 60s counterculture, booting me out of the house just before I turned eighteen when I refused to cut my hair.”
What followed in his music career is pretty typical of most wannabe rockers starting at square one. Bands came and went as Rick’s network of fellow musicians expanded. Each new group built on the last and he grew to be a proficient player. By the summer of 1974, he was playing in a band backing Justin Paige. They dressed in Alice Cooper type makeup and no doubt shocked Rick’s parents when they came to see them play: “Justin wore a lot of chains, a garter belt, and thigh high boots (and little else). The two background singers were wearing chastity belts. The whole show was about counterculture gay behavior, loaded with references to drugs and booze.” Surprisingly, they were supportive and recognized their son was making a living doing something they really didn’t understand. He would punch his ticket to the big time ‘music career carnival’ only four years later when Triumph formed.
Drummer Gil Moore and bass/keyboard player Mike Levine were the founders of Triumph. When their previous project folded, they decided to put together a power trio and went in search of a guitar player to fill out the lineup. In August of 1975, they went to see Emmett’s band (Act III) perform and decided on the spot he was the guy they were looking for. A jam session / audition told Rick they would be savvy and ambitious partners but it was apparent they were also in need of a strong creative partner. Before he signed on the dotted line, Rick had a few conditions that needed to be met: “[Gil and Mike] needed to commit to conscientious rehearsing, to develop our gig stamina chops. I’d get an equal third say in band affairs. And importantly, they agreed to pay me $175 a week whether we played bookings or not, which meant I could move out of my parents’ home into a tiny little house with my girlfriend Jeanette.”
They each added something extra to the plot. Moore had a light and sound company that provided extra income to the group. His business smarts included planning, finances, and bookkeeping. Moore would also found Metalworks Studio which would become their homebase. Levine had a knack for public relations and ‘wheeling and dealing’. With these necessary tasks already taken care of, Emmett was freed to concentrate on the creative side of the band. Rick became ‘Rik’ when Moore and Levine made a production error on their first Triumph album cover and misspelled his name. Rather than recalling the album and/or confusing their fans, Emmett decided to change the spelling of his first name.
There were some who compared Triumph to another Canadian band, Rush, because Rik’s vocal range and style resembled that band’s bassist / lead vocalist Geddy Lee. Emmett and Moore split lead vocal duties in Triumph but the majority of what Rik calls their ‘evergreen hits’ were written and sung by the guitarist. This, in turn, led to some friction when the suits at their label suggested they wanted to hear more of the same on future albums. As confident as he appeared performing on stage, Emmett admits to having some bouts of anxiety during his life, some episodes stemming from conflict within Triumph. As strong as the trio’s partnership was in the beginning, Emmett says, “By the time the characters in a partnership like ours got past the itchy seventh birthday, there were as many plan Bs developing as there were band members. Our trio of musketeers had our own personal lives, with growing responsibilities. In our particular rock and roll machine, the all-for-one-and-one-for-all ethic began to erode with individualized choices and priorities.” There wasn’t a big blow out or major revolt in the offing, but Rik knew it was time for him to start looking for the exit door from Triumph.
Emmett takes great pains to praise his former bandmates for the heavy lifting they did to build the band’s reputation and portfolio. He says, “From day one, the other guys worked double overtime on their priorities. Gil’s abiding passion was for a razzle-dazzle stage production, and once we could afford to compete in the big leagues, Triumph’s presentation kept evolving toward world-class – as was the marketing, promotion, and negotiating that my partners doggedly pursued. Gil also took justifiable pride in business administration, accounting, and bookkeeping, embodying his dad’s business background. Mike worked the record company, radio, promo, and the industry. He was a salesman, comfortable in the disarming T-shirt and jeans uniform of a hippie rock star, looking to make a deal.” As his partner’s business affairs began to consume more and more time, Rik began pursuing some creative outlets outside the band.
In 1980, he was asked to begin penning the “Back to Basics” column in Guitar Player Magazine. The increased exposure attracted more attention to ‘Rik the guitarist’ which in turn brought him endorsement offers from brands like Yamaha. He would be featured on the cover of GP in January of 1985. For a time, GP came with a plastic ‘soundpage’ that one could take out of the magazine and spin on a turntable. The July 1987 issue contained a concept Emmett had pitched and was allowed to co-produce. It featured Beyond Borders, an all-Canadian guitar quartet of Ed Bickert, Liona Boyd, Alex Lifesone, and Rik. He was pleased that his notoriety beyond Triumph remained even after he left the band. He also noted Triumph’s self contained business method of running the band was not universally admired (jealousy, perhaps?). Fortunately, none of the fallout followed him when he went out on his own.
I was fortunate to see Triumph perform in Marquette, Michigan at the peak of their career. They certainly put on a spectacular stage show replete with pyro and the promised Blinding Light Show (the title of a song Rik brought with him from Act III). Emmett’s ability to hit some very high notes and his skillful guitar playing were certainly highlights. The band as a whole was, as advertised, a Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine. The arrangements, set list, and stage patter were typical 1980s rock but they also harmonized flawlessly while performing live without a net. Look up their sets at the 1983 US Festival or the 1980 Day on the Green (both held in California). These shows were presented in broad daylight with no light show. They depict a band on top of their game and not just one relying on gimmicks to entertain the audience. The audience reaction also refutes Emmett’s comments about them not being ‘A list’ rock stars.
In 1988, after releasing nine albums, Rik gave notice, negotiated his exit, and walked away. He honored the band’s legacy by playing four major gigs in 1988, but then he was done. He had other creative outlets he wanted to follow and he closed ‘The Triumph Chapter’ in Lay It On The Line by saying, “1983 to 1988 were crazy times in my life and music career.” Unfortunately, he admits he let things build up and left the band angry. It would take many years and a request from his brother Russell (who was dying of cancer at the time and urged Rik to bury the hatchet and have a reunion for all their fans) to mend broken fences and reconnect with Triumph. They found time had given them perspective and enjoyed a couple of one off festival shows that helped the old wounds heal. Rik Emmett’s career outside of Triumph has satisfied his creative impulses but he can now look back and appreciate what the three of them accomplished together.
Top Piece Video – The title of Rik’s book performed at the 1983 US Festival in California