Legendary Canadian rock trio Triumph has officially returned to the stage for their first major tour in over three decades. The 2026 trek features original members Rik Emmett and Gil Moore, backed by an expanded live lineup that includes Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X, alongside drummer and keyboardist Brent Fitz and bassist Todd Kerns, both of whom currently play with Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators. Original bassist Mike Levine is sitting out the bulk of the dates due to a hand condition that “precludes” him “from being able to really play well.”
During a recent appearance on the “Tuning In With” Thom Jennings podcast, Emmett opened up about the experience of performing classic Triumph material for massive audiences once again. When talking about the feeling of creating new memories for fans who never saw the band in their prime, the vocalist and guitarist was candid.
“It does. In some cases it’s a little overwhelming, and in other cases it’s just a beautiful celebration of joyful noise with these new guys, and the harmonies and the songs and the hard work that we all put in, and now we get this payoff of having these audiences that… And every night it gets better. That’s the thing, too. It just keeps kind of resonating and growing,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
He elaborated on the physical demands of hitting the road at this stage in his career:
“You can imagine when you’re inside a band and you’re playing these songs that have such a long history, you’re still looking for a way to kind of have them come alive and this building of a rock ‘n’ roll machine reloaded, you’re always tightening up the screws and adjusting the fan belt or whatever. It’s very rewarding, that process, but I’m not a young man anymore. And holy cow, I wonder what I’m doing to my body. The arthritis is kind of complaining. It doesn’t happen during the show — the show is this energizing and revitalizing kind of thing — but then, oh, boy, I come off stage and I go, ‘What did I just do to myself?'”
“I’ve got four days off here. Tomorrow’s a travel day back to Chicago, but, man, I’ve been sleeping, like, 11, 12 hours, and taking naps. So my body is clearly going, like, ‘Uh, what are you doing?'” he added.
Emmett also touched on the dynamics of playing with the newly expanded lineup. He praised Moore‘s dedication while acknowledging the high level of musicianship brought by Phil X, Fitz, and Kerns.
“Yes. That is very accurate. A whole other animal, but a lot of fun. It’s a big safety net, those three new guys. And the truth of it, too, is that Gil really kind of buckled down, and I don’t think he ever practiced as much and rehearsed on his own and just got his chops up as much as he has for this tour. So [it’s] extremely rewarding to be on stage with him, where he’s making an effort like he never made before. And then here’s these other guys — I call them all the young dudes. They actually even play a little thing in the set now — before I sing ‘24 Hours A Day‘, they do this thing, and it’s ‘All The Young Dudes‘; it’s this weird little thing. But it’s so enjoyable. It’s such a beautiful safety net, but at the same time, [it’s a] huge challenge because I gotta try and keep up with them. I have to walk out on stage after Phil X has done a guitar solo that’s, like, insanely good, and you go, ‘Oh, man. I better not try to compete with that. I better just try to be me, the best me I can be.’ And then I go, ‘Well, that’s good because now the audience gets Phil X, and then they get Rik, and that works.’ But, yeah, different animal,” he explained.
Addressing the upgraded live sound, Emmett noted that the current iteration of the band feels completely revitalized.
“It’s not what Triumph was. It’s Triumph, but it’s kind of this ‘über Triumph‘, like this kind of Triumph on ‘roids. So the reload actually seemed to give it a lot more — I don’t know what you call those things — cylinders in the engine. Let’s call it that, yeah. So, I don’t know. I’m still kind of trying to… How would I describe it?”
“When I was teaching songwriting, I used to say to kids, what you’re doing is sort of unpacking baggage,” Emmett continued. “And if the song is right, you’ve done a really nice job of sort of bundling it all together in this thing, but it’s easy for people to unpack it. But I’m still unpacking this Triumph thing, and I think it’ll take me a few months after it’s all over to figure out exactly what it is that I got myself into.”
The conversation eventually shifted to the stage production, which heavily honors the legacy of the original group. Emmett credited management and crew members, including lighting director Paul Dexter and manager Jason Murray, for capturing the band’s essence authentically.
“I think part of that is it there was a very conscientious attempt between Gil and me and the lighting guy, Paul Dexter, when we were putting the script together to try and honor this thing that Triumph was, is, can be, because there’s a spirit to Triumph, which is a kind of the celebration of the rock and roll, but the songs of hope and faith and the spirit of what rock music can be. And I think the management we got, Vector, Jason Murray in particular, he would come and sit here with me in the studio and we’d have conversations. And he helped focus it. And it’s not like he hasn’t had an experience in the past where they… His management company handles Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s estate and the band that goes out and does that. He handles Peter Frampton. So he’s had experience with bands that are honoring a legacy. And one of the meetings where he came to try and talk me into doing it, he’d just been out to see the Grateful Dead and how they were handling the whole thing of Jerry Garcia, and he’s not there, but how do you handle that? How do you make it so that it’s not cheesy, it’s legit. You’re doing it with a kind of a… You’re honoring the past in a way that true fans can go, ‘No, they did that with taste. They did that with, with class. It’s good.’ So, that was a big part of the development of, of the ‘Reloaded’ thing. And, yeah, what you’re saying, I think fans get that. You talked about having some tears. I see them. They turn on the audience blasters and I can see faces in ‘Magic Power‘, ‘Hold On‘, people are crying. But those are tears of joy. They’re happy that this has paid off, the expectations and the hopes that they had. They go, ‘Man, they did it. This is so great. I’m so happy to be here in this moment and have this happening.’ And that’s a big thing for me, too. I go, ‘Holy s**t, the emotion in the air, it’s significant,'” he concluded.
The 50th-anniversary tour kicked off on April 10 in Orlando, Florida, with support from April Wine. The North American run consists of 10 Canadian and 17 American cities, wrapping up on June 6 in Boston.
This reunion trek follows a massive year of accolades for the group. In June 2025, they were celebrated with Magic Power: All-Star Tribute To Triumph, a 15-track tribute album featuring prominent artists like Sebastian Bach, Slash, Nancy Wilson, Joey Belladonna, Dee Snider, Lawrence Gowan, Deen Castronovo, Alex Lifeson, Jeff Keith, and Mickey Thomas. The project was helmed by renowned producer Mike Clink (Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, Whitesnake). Adding to their storied legacy, Triumph was also recently inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame.
