In a new interview with The Metal Voice, Rik Emmett of legendary Canadian rockers TRIUMPH was asked if he thinks there is “more of a demand” for the band now than ever. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, geez, that’s a lovely thing for you to say. I don’t think more than ever, but I do think that there’s a very lovely awareness that exists on a level that 45, 50 years after the fact, who would have ever expected it?”There’s this thing called the Coalition for Music Education in Canada,” he continued. “And these folks, music educators all across the country, they pick a song to be sort of their national song for the year. And they picked [TRIUMPH’s] ‘Hold On’ from the ‘Just A Game’ album of 1979. And you kind of go, ‘Wow, that’s great.’ So, I re-recorded a new version of it and they’re doing overdubs on it as we speak. They get people to write string arrangements for school orchestras and bands and choir arrangements and stuff. The woman who’s the executive director, Stacey Sinclair, she sent me this link. I got to see this choir in Chatham, Ontario of kids in grade two and three and four, and they’re all singing my song. And it just blows my mind that such a beautiful thing can happen while I’m still around to enjoy it. It’s a cool thing.”When interviewer Jimmy Kay noted that it’s “a reboot for TRIUMPH” in a way, Rik said: “I think that there are things about what TRIUMPH was that makes it so that it can still have validity now for people like me. Some of it, not all of it, but some of it has aged very well, and especially given the crap that we’re having to go through now in terms of politics and the COVID things we’ve gone through and isolation and mental health and stuff, music is something that has always had a therapeutic value, a spiritual value. And I don’t care what kind of music. I would say metal might be a type of music that has more of that value than maybe other stuff. The more it gets towards pure pop, the less interesting I find it. And that was always true. In TRIUMPH I was always trying to say, ‘How do we reach those people in the seats? And how can I talk straight at them?’ I don’t wanna be lecturing at them or hectoring them,’ and I don’t think, ‘Oh my god, I must try to find a way to reach the commercial market.’ It was, like, ‘Well, no. I’m a musician and I’m gonna do what I do to satisfy myself.’ I was in a band with a couple of guys that, they were pretty strong-headed, strong-willed — they knew what they wanted to do and how they were gonna try to do it. But I do think that we picked this name TRIUMPH that was supposed to be about the spirit of reaching those people and giving them something that mattered, a soundtrack for their lives. Not every song, but every album, there had to be songs that tried to do that.”Emmett added: “I don’t like to come off like I’m bragging or that I’m full of myself ’cause I do think that as an artist, as a musician, you do have to have a humility. There has to be a modesty all the time, because what you’re chasing is an infinite thing. So you can’t get so full of yourself that you go, ‘That’s right. I [can get] cocky.'”Somebody sent me a clip today and it was, like, a thing that we’d done in 1987. And I wrote him back and I said, ‘Oh, the cocky vanity of youth.’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah, but when else are you gonna have it?’ When you’re 71, there’s not much cocky vanity left.”Emmett, who quit TRIUMPH — acrimoniously, in 1988 — over music and business disputes, went on to pursue a solo career, while TRIUMPH carried on with future BON JOVI guitarist Phil X for one more album, 1992’s “Edge Of Excess”, before calling it a day the following year.Emmett was estranged, both personally and professionally, from the two other members of the legendary Canadian classic rock power trio for 18 years before they repaired their relationship.Rik’s memoir, “Lay It On The Line – A Backstage Pass To Rock Star Adventure, Conflict And Triumph”, came out in October 2023 via ECW Press.Gil Moore (drums),Mike Levine (bass) and Emmett formed TRIUMPH in 1975, and their blend of heavy riff-rockers with progressive odysseys, peppered with thoughtful, inspiring lyrics and virtuosic guitar playing quickly made them a household name in Canada. Anthems like “Lay It On The Line”, “Magic Power” and “Fight The Good Fight” broke them in the USA, and they amassed a legion of fiercely passionate fans. But, as a band that suddenly split at the zenith of their popularity, TRIUMPH missed out on an opportunity to say thank you to those loyal and devoted fans, a base that is still active today, more than three decades later.After 20 years apart, Emmett, Levine and Moore played at the 2008 editions of the Sweden Rock Festival and Rocklahoma. A DVD of the historic Sweden performance was made available four years later.[embedded content]