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Darrin: Gil, I am going to start off by thanking you for being here,
and congratulations on the induction to the Hall of Fame this
weekend in Toronto. Tell me how this all came about.
Gil: We got letters in the mail, inviting us, that is how
it works. Then you have to accept the invitation. Because it was the
3 of us, we had to get together and have a meeting, which we did. We
all said, “Yeah, we’ll do it…let’s go for it.” So now here we are,
and it is this weekend. We are looking forward to it.
Darrin: I live on the wrong coast this time around.
Gil: **laughs**
Darrin: I guess the inevitable questions have to be asked. It
has been 18 years or so, for that meeting to happen. How did it go
from your perspective? I have read some stuff that Rik had to say
about it, and it sounded pretty darn positive.
Gil: You know, it was great to see Rik again. You know,
that is the best thing to come out off all of this. Finally, the
great thaw has ended. Now we are communicating, and I feel as though
I have a long lost brother back. That has been the big bonus in all
of this. I have been waiting for Mike to get back and see Rik also.
He has been at his house in Jamaica. He was only there for the one
meeting when we talked about going to the hall of fame. We are going
to get to spend some personal time with Rik this weekend. It is
going to be great.
Darrin: I think it is awesome. One thing Rik said awhile back is
coming to mind, after you mentioned being like a long lost brother.
That was that Rik felt that you guys had not seen each other in 18
years, and that is a whole lifetime. You guys have kids, families
and lives that are unknown to each other. It will be like getting
to know a stranger…It must be quite the impact to you.
Gil: Yeah, that is a great way to describe it. I am really
thrilled, I always felt that I never wanted to be one of the “band
breakup statistics”. It seems like most bands can’t escape it. There
is the odd one that manages to go forever, without changing members,
without having any fights, and I felt we were all such great
friends, that we would be able to extend our entire career, not
necessarily playing music, but our friendship..extended for a
lifetime. So I look at in now, like we have this one period,
unfortunately where we had our disagreements, but I hope we are
going to spend all of our time now building bridges, and that we
will never go back there, and be friends forever, from here on out
is my hope.
Darrin: What did you think, seeing Rik down at NAMM, to support the
Dean guitar release, with his name in lights, with Rik Emmett of
Triumph on the sign? You sent down some of the materials they used,
did you not?
Gil: It was cool to see, and I am glad we are all talking
again, and having fun. I spent 3 hours with Rik last weekend, just
sitting in a coffee shop talking. It was fantastic you know. It has
been too long. As far as I am concerned, it is all over. We never
have to go back there. We will do our best to support each other and
build our friendship that was so good for so long. Who knows, maybe
we will have a better friendship the second time around. I have had
fights with people, where we wind up being better friends, because
we both felt so bad about the fight. Maybe that will happen here, I
do not know.
Darrin: And, the best quote your last interview with me, was “I just
want my friend back..” Well, that seems very real now. Regardless
of you cutting new records, or playing together. 
Gil: Yeah, and the same holds true now. If we were ever to
play again, it would be a totally separate equation again. That has
nothing to do with being friends **laughs** The friendship is the
important thing, and the band is something that we all shared. It is
just going to be nice to feel good about it all.
Darrin: Which leads to the next inevitable question… How you guys
even entertained the thought of talking about doing anything as
Triumph, not a reunion tour as per say, but anything beyond the
awards show Saturday?
Gil: Not really, no. We have just been talking about
personal stuff, and trying to catch up on stuff like you said, kids,
parents and things that have affected us personally. That is really
what we have talked about.
Darrin: Are you looking forward to, and getting ready to grab a
copy of Airtime when Rik releases it?
Gil: Absolutely…yeah. I am dying to hear that stuff. Now,
I told him, I am going to come to a show and see him play. It is
great. I may try to get backstage and steal his beer!! **laughs**
Darrin: Maybe ask for an autograph?
Gil: **laughs** totally!!
Darrin: Well, it is great to see Triumph all speaking to each
other, and getting an award that you are very deserving of.
Gil: The thing is, when you play in a band, there is stuff
that is impossible to describe. It is the minutia of the daily life
on the road. The seemingly insignificant issues that are either
incredibly funny, which are the ones you want to remember, there are
a few that are incredibly painful, that you just want to forget. But
you just can’t describe it. You live your life in a bottle. You are
exposed to the same highs, and same lows and everything in between,
and it is all mixed with the grind of the travel. So you have these
situations that you will never have with anyone else in your life,
except maybe your wife. You are in the middle of Tennessee or
something, driving from one show to another, in the springtime, and
you had to get up at 8 in the morning, because there is an
interview, and you stop at some little truck stop or something, and
these are the things that stick in your mind. You never share this
with anyone else. Or little anecdotes that happen along the way.
They are unbelievably funny, but no one ever finds out about them.
Things that happen backstage, but also the craziness that happens
from being in that bottle so long.
I am reading Steve Wozniak’s book right now, IWoz and he talks a lot
in the book about pranks being fundamental in all aspects of his
life. And I have known him, and it is true. He is a prankster for
real. When we were on the road, we were always just looking for
something to make everybody crack up. That is part of what makes it
special. And other than a few guys on our crew that were around,
only the three of us knew about. When you spend hundreds of hours
together, you either wind up being like brothers or hating each
others guts. We were one of those bands where we were really like
brothers. We had a real fondness for each other. We never had the
scenario where there was one guy in the band, and the rest of the
band just despised that person. That is why there are a lot of
memories there that we share. It is good to be on the same page
emotionally together again though.
Darrin: Here is a question, semi related, but out there a bit.
Do you still have the lighting and stage gear you had back in the
day?
Gil: We still have a lot of it here at Metalworks, we
still have a couple of trailers of our stage gear. **laughing** It’s
funny..it just sits there. Talk about toys in your attic huh? You
just never clean it out or anything.
Darrin: The last time we spoke, you had also just drummed a
couple of tracks for Dolores O’Riordan . Have you drummed since?
Gil: Nope. Dolores was it.
Darrin: **laughs**
Gil: **laughs**
Darrin: That is a pretty spotty gig man.
Gil: Pretty spotty is right,
Darrin: Do you still feel that you can do it?
Gil: Um, yeah but it would require a LOT of wood shedding.
Darrin: I bet, and singing and drumming is not easy.
Gil: No, it’s not. That is the reason I don’t play now. It
was so bloody hard to do **laughs**
Darrin: As long as you do not wimp out, and go get a session
drummer and sit on a stool and sing. That would not be right.
Gil: No no…**laughs**
Darrin: I know you guys recorded a lot. What is there, if
any, tracks that were never released, that could feasibly be used to
make a new unheard Triumph album? Clippings from the studio floor
Gil: Maybe. It depends on what you call an album. There
are albums from other bands out there that rate from outtakes to
pretty well garbage. Certainly, yes there would be enough volume of
material to do that, but would we want people to hear it, that is
another question right there.
Darrin: It seems there are a few bands putting together stuff
like that. Billy Sheehan recently said he was trying to put
together a new album of material for Talas, as well as Mr Big.
Gil: What are those guys doing now? What is Eric Martin
doing?
Darrin: Eric Martin os part of a project right now, named Scrap
Metal, with guys like Kelly Keagy from Night Ranger, Gunnar and Matt
Nelson, Mark Slaughter, and a bunch of others that kind of revolve
through the lineup. It is cool and sounds amazing. Eric also has a
solo gig going on, and at times his wife Denise drums for him.
Gil: I loved Eric Martins voice
Darrin: Which makes me want to ask, on Sport of Kings, Just One
Night, was written by Eric Martin.
Gil: It was his voice that drew me to the song and want to
do it. It was the way he sang it. He is a great singer.
Darrin: I think he was surprised that you sang it, instead of Rik.
Gil: **laughs** Eric, is a better singer than most guys in
bands that are out there. He has got some great training and skill.
He is amazing.
Darrin: The Baltimore Triumph show, that was recorded on video, I
have heard talk of it, are we going to see that as a concert release
on DVD?
Gil: That is probably going to come out as a DVD. Yeah, it
will.
Darrin: There must be hours and hours of bootleg footage out
there. Any thoughts on an Official Bootleg series? Maybe a big
behind the scenes of Triumph DVD?
Gil: Yeah, we are actually talking about putting together
an authorized bootleg series. We do have tons of it, and it would be
cool to put it all together. We would want to make it in a way that
the fans would get a real charge out of it. Yeah, that is in the
works.
Darrin: You guys could write some lyrics on a dinner napkin, and
people would fight over buying it.
Gil: **laughs** Triumph fans are REALLY solid, that I can
tell you.
Darrin: The fans in your Triumphmusic.com forums are killer.
They have been on there, finding topics to talk about, scenarios,
anything Triumph to talk about. And they succeed. You need to drop
in there and say hi one of these days.
Gil: I do not even know how to log in there
Darrin: Well, maybe you should talk to Kendall that runs it for
you guys, and go in and have a read. I think you would be
pleasantly surprised.
Gil: Yeah, you know, I should go back in. This whole thing
lately has totally rekindled my interest in Triumph.
Darrin: When the subsidiary of Polygram that you were with at the
end of Triumph as a functioning band imploded, is that the straw
that broke the camels back and killed you as a performing band? If
the record had kept selling, would you have continued on writing and
playing?
Gil: It is hard to say. I really liked the record, and I
thought the record was really strong. I loved Phil (X) he was a
great guy to work with. But the band, wasn’t Triumph. It was another
band, but there was only one true lineup of people that made
Triumph. So there was the realization at that point, that Rik is
irreplaceable. We could never replace him. It was a good band, but
it was not Triumph, and it was a strange situation. The other thing
was, was our heart really in it? That was probably the biggest
question of all. So the decision was sort of made for us when this
branch of Polygram the PLG group as they were called at the time,
literally blew up. It was the beginning of all of these corporate
implosions that we began to see in the record industry. I think we
were involved in the first one, when I think of it now. They just
come in and fire a bunch of people to save money, and you phone
extensions, and there is nobody there. Ridiculous stuff.
It was very frustrating, to have a record, without a record label.
Especially when you put a lot of effort into making an album which
we did, so to work a miracle with it, without a label was a physical
impossibility. My mother used to say, a lot of things are meant to
be. And that is kind of how I look back on it. I really look back
now, and I do not think my heart was in it then. I was here in
Toronto with my family, and did not want to continue to tour. So
maybe, it was a blessing that the record label exploded. And as much
as Phil was and is a fantastic guy, he is very successful in LA, he
is a go to guy and must be on a million records. As great as a
player that he is, it was a different band on that album.
Darrin: It was definitely a different sound. Heavier more edge,
and I personally liked it.
Gil: It has 2 or 3 songs that I am still wowed by. The
title track Edge of Excess, it was a great song. But, again, it
wasn’t Triumph.
Darrin: When we last spoke, you were still in deep legal mucking
over the ownership of the album. Any progress on that?
Gil: Boy, that is a good question. I don’t even know.
Darrin: Do you WANT it to come out?
Gil: Wow..hmm.. certainly not now, Triumph was Mike Rik
and Gil, and that is where my focus is right now. I would not mind
asking Rik what he thinks about it. It would be weird. I have not
heard Mike and Rik play with another drummer,
Darrin: Was there not a request from within the band, to have the
name Triumph retired, when Rik left to do his solo gig?
Gil: Yes, that was definitely one of the things that were
talked about. In retrospect, that would been a good idea I think. I
guess we will never know.
Darrin: It is what it is, and history is written.
Gil: You are right. It IS what it is, and we recorded the
album. And it was just not the same. I think Phil felt the same way
too. I don’t know. All these bands that replace somebody, is Van
Halen still Van Halen, as much as I love Sammy, without David Lee
Roth? Pick any band in the same scenario. And the fewer members
there are in that band, the more it becomes an issue.
Darrin: Rush with Billy Sheehan. It is a cool band, but not
Rush.
Gil: Yeah, exactly. I have talked to Alex Lifeson about
this, and any one of them not in the band, and it is not Rush. I
have LOVED listening to some of the drummers that Rik has had with
him over the years. Randy is a great drummer, and a great guy.
Darrin: Rik also has excellent chemistry with Dave Dunlop also.
You have Metalworks, but a guy has to marvel at the career Rik has
build out of the Rec Room at his house.
Gil: Yeah, he has done a great job.
Darrin: Tell me a bit about your family Gil
Gil: I have a 22 year old daughter named Lauren, she goes to
the University of Toronto, and is just about finished, getting her
Honors BA, and she works here at Metalworks all the time when she is
not at school. And then I have a younger daughter Holly, that is 9,
and a son Miles, and he is 8. My wife’s name is Sunny and we live
near here near the studio in Mississauga.
Darrin: I think people forget that you musicians are also full
time family guys a lot of the time
Gil: The question I get asked all the time is, if I liked
playing in Triumph the most, or what I have done since with
Metalworks. For me, I would never trade either part of it. They are
2 different lifetimes. When I was young and single, and wanted to
have a rock band, you could not trade the experience I shared with
Rik and Mike for anything. It was fantastic. But traveling, after
you have done it for 15 years really grinds on you. Talk to guys
like AC/DC. They have been doing it for over 30 years, and I have
no idea how they do it. You would have to get inside their heads. I
think it also came down to that I was very close to my parents, and
I always wanted to have my own family that was very close, and slept
under the same roof every night. That is what I wanted out of life.
So, I have that now. Career wise, this life is very exciting. Not to
put it down, but being in a band can become very one dimensional
after awhile. Metalworks is a three headed monster. We have the
educational division, and the excitement of teaching young people
and developing new curriculums, we have our live production company,
and we have a new sound and lighting system that is out on the new
Tom Cochrane tour, and we have corporate shows that are booked in
the spring. The studio is not just doing the bands that you hear
about all the time, like Alexis on Fire, but we are also doing work
for AOL, and developing stuff for the internet. That is also an
exciting frontier. I can’t wait to get to work in the morning. I
have the best job in the world. I just love it.
Darrin: And at work, you can always sit back and have some
cool memories in retrospect…
Gil: That is why I say the biggest thing I missed about
Triumph, was Rik’s friendship. I have always been friends with Mike
Darrin: No one ever heard about scandal, bad blood, booze..drugs
or anything like that with Triumph. Just a very recurrent theme of
very positive things.
Gil: We were not a rehab band. We never had any interest
in screwing up like that. We watched a lot of bands self destruct,
and do a lot of drugs around us, we had fun and partied a bit, it is
still all about what you want to do with your life. Me, it is not
important if a person sells a lot of records, if he is face down in
a bowl of coke in a bar somewhere. He might as well be a skid row
bum. What is he doing/thinking or contributing?
Darrin: You guys never put on a bad show…
Gil: We would like to think so. It was very
imperative to what we were trying to do, to go out there, and have
amazing live shows, and leave people wowed. We never wanted to let
the fans down and have a bad show. It was harder on us than the
fans. We were way harder on ourselves, than the fans ever were.
Darrin: I have never read about a bad show either. Tell me about
the time the band did play, without Rik. He was sick, but you
decided to go on with the show, and had Rick Santers play?
Gil: I am trying to remember **laughs** What was wrong
with Rik? I think it was in Michigan. I remember that. I forget what
tour it was. We did what we thought was the lesser of 2 evils. We
could let everyone down and pull the plug, or play the show, and
just be honest about it. You sho uld
ask Rik about that one. He probably has a clearer memory about that
one. We had unbelievable fans in Michigan. There was
something in the water in Michigan. The loyalty in that region was
unbelievable. We were worried people would pitch tomatoes at us. It
was a credit to Rick Santers, and to the fans, that they did not
hate us, and that we got through the show.
Darrin: Why did you not go to Japan or Europe?
Gil: We were always so worn out when we would finish our
North American leg. We booked tours in Japan, but kept canceling
them. We would be so fried by the end of an American tour, that we
would just cancel it. Mike and Rik also wanted to spend time with
their families too, so it just happened that way. That is ultimately
what it would come down to. We used to drive our booking agents
over there mad.
Darrin: Did you hear about the Bang Your Head festival in
Germany that Rik played? I hear they pulled out some Allied Forces,
and Rock N Roll machine and others. I am not sure, but I think Rik
may have sang on some of that. I know Dave did Rock N Roll
Machine…
Gil: Oh man, if Rik sang something I used to sing, it would
be AWESOME to hear that.
Darrin: Do not quote me on it, I am fuzzy on that, and not quite
sure…but there is ALWAYS bootlegs of everything out there, if you do
some research…
Gil: This is very true. I am going to ask Rik later today
if I see him, if he did and if there is a bootleg
anywhere…**laughs**
Darrin: Did you get the Metalworks Institute online lessons
launched?
Gil: It is in development. We have the curriculum built,
but we are testing it to make sure it delivers, and is a great
product. We would not want to have that available without it being
an incredible experience for the user. It is like wine, you have to
test it with time. Education is much the same. We are setting the
bar really high with it. We want to see how it will work online, and
how interactive it will be. How rich the content will be. We have to
beta test it to make sure we are doing everything right. We have to
make sure it functions correctly. Our brick and mortar studio has
about 210 students enrolled, there is 152 on campus full time. It is
growing bigger every day.
Darrin: Has Mike been involved in the school?
Gil: Not yet, we are hopefully getting him into to do a
lecture. Rik was interested in the school, as he teaches at Humber,
so I brought him to the school to have a look.
Darrin: Gil, I know you are super
busy getting ready for all of this. I want to thank you for
spending this much time with me...I hope the next time we talk,
things are as positive this and maybe talking about a tour
date..**laughs**
Gil: You are welcome, and it was fun to
talk to you again. |
Almost
2 years ago, when I first interviewed Gil Moore of Triumph,
Metalworks Studios and Metalworks Institute, I never thought our
next discussion would be talking about himself and Rik Emmett
sitting in a coffee shop, talking about families, careers, and other
things that old friends catch up on over the years apart.