{"id":21414,"date":"2018-08-22T19:21:49","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T23:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21414"},"modified":"2018-08-22T19:21:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T23:21:49","slug":"triumphs-rik-emmett-is-uncomfortable-with-the-legend-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/triumphs-rik-emmett-is-uncomfortable-with-the-legend-label\/","title":{"rendered":"Triumph\u2019s Rik Emmett is uncomfortable with the \u201cLegend\u201d label"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the t-shirt has \u201clegend\u201d emblazoned across its chest, Rick Emmett will wear it \u2013 albeit reluctantly.
\nEmmett, who co-founded the band Triumph alongside Mike Levine and Gil Moore, underscores his point, recalling a recent trip to the grocery store.
\nHe and his wife had just settled in for a bit of a wait in the checkout aisle, when she suddenly remembered she forgot to get the chicken. It was left to Emmett to finish the job.
\n\u201cI go back and grab it, and as I am taking it out, the chicken grease slops out of the plastic lid and goes all over my hands,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, I am walking back and am extra-grumpy and a guy comes out at the end of our aisle and says, \u2018Oh, my God! You\u2019re Rik Emmett, right?\u2019 Yep. \u2018Oh, man, this is so great to meet you. Can I just shake your hand?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah,\u2019 and I gave him all the grease. Some people see me as extraordinary in circumstances \u2013 but it really doesn\u2019t spill over into all aspects of life!\u201d
\nBut, music is Mr. Emmett\u2019s life \u2013 and he brings his unique talents to Aurora this Friday, August 24, headlining the first night of Aurora\u2019s Ribfest.
\nThis Aurora gig is the last date this latest long-running tour, which has taken him from coast to coast, accompanied by RESolution 9.
\nFriday\u2019s concert will be a mix primarily of Triumph\u2019s greatest hits, peppered with the music he has developed as a solo act.
\n\u201cMusic is an infinite challenge, it always has been and it always will be,\u201d he says. \u201cThe interesting thing of it is how do you keep adjusting to the fact you can\u2019t necessarily hit the high notes that you used to hit and you can\u2019t run around and slide on your knees like a Rockstar? And that you don\u2019t look that good in Spandex pants anyway? What are you willing to do to try and chase that infinite quality of music, that deep spiritual value it has?
\n\u201cI think people can quite rightly say, \u2018Come on now, Rik, don\u2019t climb up on too high a horse. It wasn\u2019t exactly spiritual to be on MTV in Spandex pants,\u2019 but there were songs that were at the heart of what we did.\u201d
\nAt his heart, however, was classical guitar. He says he tried to sneak in classical guitar pieces, and maybe even a little bit of jazz here and there, to bring an \u201ceclectic\u201d flair to traditional \u201carena rock.\u201d
\nBut audiences still clamor for this arena-style rock, which can be a double-edged sword for musicians like Emmett. On the one hand, it is at the heart of what many fans want to experience at a concert, and is ultimately the bread and butter for bands that hit the road, but it can be a bit stifling for a creative artist.
\n\u201cI play the songs, they\u2019re good songs, I enjoy playing them, and I enjoy being in front of an audience and giving an audience what it wants, what it likes, but there has always been a part of me that has [wanted] more, the slightly cantankerous artist who goes, \u2018Don\u2019t tell me what to do. I am going to let the music tell me what to do!\u2019 Then I would have to figure out how I was going to make that happen.
\n\u201cAt Ribfest\u2026 I am going to play the songs, we\u2019re going to rock, and everyone will have a good night.\u201d
\nRik Emmett and RESolution 9 hits the stage this Friday, August 24, at Machell Park.
\nFor more information on the 2018 Ribfest, visit www.aurora.ca\/ribfest.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the t-shirt has \u201clegend\u201d emblazoned across its chest, Rick Emmett will wear it \u2013 albeit reluctantly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5zo","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 13:07:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}