September 3, 2026 • 20 mins
Triumph, one of Canada’s most revered and influential rock bands, returns with Leg 2 of the "Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded Tour." Legendary drummer Gil Moore joins to discuss the band’s 50th year, working with Todd Kerns and Brent Fitz from Slash's band, his Metalworks Studios where Use Your Illusion was recorded, and more!
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https://www.triumphmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TriumphTheBand/
https://www.instagram.com/triumphtheband
Our website:
www.afdpod.com
More info:
https://www.triumphmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TriumphTheBand/
https://www.instagram.com/triumphtheband
Our website:
www.afdpod.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's funny because Mike hooked up with Guns N' Roses
literally right off a Triumph record.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to the podcast, Appetite for Distortion. My name is Brando,
episode number 577. Welcome to the podcast, Mr. Gil Moore.
How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, Brando. Hey, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I appreciate you coming on. I mean, I hope that I...
Are you currently at a Tim Hortons drive-thru?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's a good guess, but actually, no. I'm at my
favorite car dealership where I sometimes come for breakfast because
a buddy of mine is the chef and he's an
amazing breakfast chef. Yeah. Right on. Yeah, so it's not
quite Tim Hortons.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Right on. Well, for those, because it airs on podcast
side and people watching on my YouTube channel, I appreciate
you taking time, pulling on the side of the road
in the car. And I had to pull out, it
took me a second, a Canadian reference. I dated a
Canadian girl. I'm wearing my Canucks hat. I was prepared
for this interview as best as I can.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So just thanks for your time and just thanks for
the last... which goes a little, seven years longer than
I'm born, which I'm sorry. 50 years, is that? Because
I'll be 43 in a few weeks, if you do
the math. 50 years, when did that dawn on you?
That's such a solid number. You know, I have a
little OCD in 48, 49, 50. When did that hit you?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know, it just it just goes by so fast
because I you know, the days in triumph, you know,
the let's let's just call it, you know, the original
band and the original run was such a freight train.
And you were on that train and it was it
was exciting and blah, blah, blah. And, you know, we
were young, the fans were young and so on and
(01:57):
so forth. But, you know, there's just a lot of
stuff in life that that comes up. And, you know,
in my case, like I wanted to be more in
the studio. I like being behind the scenes. I was
never that spotlight guy. You know, I've always been more
of a behind the scenes guy. You know, my first
band in high school was the roadie. I didn't even
play in the band. I got promoted from roadie to
(02:20):
drummer at a certain point. Yeah. But I, you know,
I loved all the things we've done here at Metalworks
and how it's grown. And I was able to, you know,
be with my mother after my father passed on, make
sure she was looked after. And I was able to
be with my kids and raise my kids. And, you know, now,
you know, my wife and I are joking because our
(02:40):
kids are starting to raise us, you know, because they're
young adults and they're very smart. So it's kind of
cycle of life. Never really planned on doing another run
of dates and, you know, putting the rock and roll
machine back together. It just happened like we got pulled
into this, got this offer, I guess, to go and
(03:01):
play at the Stanley Cup finals. And, you know, before
the the reloaded tour, the band was formed. And it
was just the kind of thing like, let's let's bring
the kids and have some fun. And it originally was
just Rick and I will just go. The two of
us will just play together. And we called Phil and
Phil's like, hey, why don't we bring, you know, like,
you know, Brent and Todd. And we didn't know Brent
(03:22):
and Todd at that point. We get together and the
band just gelled. It's like musicians playing together that suddenly
it feels phenomenal. So that's that's how we end up.
With this this chapter in the book, I suppose I
know Rick didn't intend on it. I didn't intend on it,
but it's it worked out so well. We had such
(03:44):
a blast on the tour and the fans have been
so incredible in their response. It's just been great. And
our families are really the thing, the glue in the
middle of it all that no one really gets to
see too well. But our families are just loving it.
So it's so great to see your kids happy and
you can't beat that.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I'm in that phase now, Gil. I don't know if
you can hear him in the background. My son Harrison
is three. He just had his first school orientation yesterday. Nice.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
But we're trying to make him into a little. He's
got long hair. He looks like one of the Nelson brothers.
He's already been to Paul McCartney and Guns N' Roses.
He slept through both of them, which is fine. So,
I mean, there's a lot I understand now, you know,
as I was a single radio guy for so long
and where my career is now and who I have now, sure.
(04:36):
And what we're talking about is the Rock and Roll
Machine Reloaded, leg two of the tour. Oh, you can
check out Dates with April Wine, 50th anniversary, and some
of the names you just mentioned. Phil X, of course,
from Bon Jovi. Brent Fentz. from Slash featuring Miles Kennedy
and the Conspirators, and Todd Kearns. And I say it
(04:59):
like that because Todd's been on the show. I like Todd.
And I actually asked him to ask you a question.
So I have one of your bandmates. I don't know.
I just thought that would be funny. So Todd goes,
as a drummer who sings or a singer who plays
the drums, was there anyone you looked to as an
(05:20):
inspiration in that department? I mean, it's rare, especially when
you started. Ringo Starr would sing here and there. Eventually,
Don Henley would have been around at the same time
as you coming up. Was there a role model, or
did you simply invent that wheel?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, there wasn't a role model. I mean, I had
role models in drums, you know, Ian Pace. I still
love Ian's playing. John Bonham, I love John's playing. But
I go back to the bluesmen, you know, to Al
Jackson and Booker T and the MGs. I mean, that
was the first drummer that I really listened to. Vocalists,
not so much. But there's an inspiration today. His name's
(05:59):
Dean Castronovo, and he's in Journey. He's the best in
the business at playing drums and singing in my books.
it's a funny gig and you know i make a
lot of jokes about it like i was telling you
guys if i knew how much work that was i
would ask for double pay you know yeah uh you
just it's a it's a funny thing because to do
(06:22):
them both is it's incongruous you know it'd be like
being a plumber and electrician you know and and having
one hand in the drain and one hand in the
240 volts and when that happens spontaneous combustion i mean
that's what happens to all of us eventually us drummers
So all I could do is joke about it because true, truthfully,
(06:42):
it's not a gig I would recommend to anybody, but, uh,
I figured it out and it was actually a lot
of fun. So, uh, you know, just, it's just not
for the faint of heart. I'll say.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I can't even, you know, my son has, again, has
like little drums and just to think about even that
I can't, can't even do little drums and just to sing.
So yeah, that's, is I'm, I'm just like thinking out
loud here. Uh, breathing must be such a big part.
I mean, I'm being alive, but I'm just saying of
being able to do that, like to be able to,
(07:14):
is it, would it be different? Would your breathing be
different if you weren't singing or do you have to
breathe differently when you're like, if you were playing the
same song and you weren't have, didn't have vocals on it,
would your approach be the same or would it be different?
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Well, it is different. And I'll put it like this.
I always thought, yeah, I'd love to be Don Henley
and playing the songs that he plays versus being in
a power trio and trying to sing at the same time.
Because you can breathe a bit more if the drums
are more laid back. But a lot of the stuff
that I ended up doing vocals on was high energy rock,
(07:52):
like Rock and Roll Machine, for example. So that does
compromise your breathing as far as singing is concerned. The
good news for me was when I started out, I
had no idea how to breathe. And it was only
when I got a great vocal coach in the latter
part of our career, not at the beginning, but I
got a great an opera singer and then I learned
(08:16):
how to sing. So I learned how to sing after,
you know, you know, I'd already made like seven or
eight albums and learned how to breathe. And once I did,
I realized, well, yeah, you're absolutely, absolutely right, Brando, that
when you're trying to play like a high octane song
on drums. that's somewhat exhausting in and of itself and
(08:38):
then you add a vocal on top of that it's
very hard to get as much breath pressure as you
want so you can tend to sort of i'll call
it overblow uh and we were using garbage monitors back
in the days right so you've got I mean, I
shouldn't call them garbage, but if you know what I mean,
like I've got wedge monitors and I got backfills and
(08:59):
I got like literally 40,000 Watts on my drum stays.
No wonder I'm drum like a deaf. I should say
I like, I get, I get hearing aids. Otherwise most
of the drummers that I know were in the same
boat with the hearing aids that had those kinds of monitors.
Whereas nowadays we have in-ear monitors. So you're less inclined
to overblow because you can actually hear what's going on.
(09:19):
So yeah, That's kind of how I see it from
sitting in that kind of pilot's chair at the back
of the stage. But now it's kind of cool. We
have two drummers, which is an amazing thing because now
I can play drums and Brent is a great keyboard player.
He can go play keyboards and we have a keyboard
player and try them or we switch. He plays drums
(09:39):
and I go and I'm the lead vocalist, you know.
So the guys are making jokes about me being Steve
Tyler all of a sudden. Right. By the way, he
was a drummer. Uh, so that's cool. And then you
have the double, the double beat down when you have
Brent and I playing in sync and oh my God,
like we can make the whole arena shake with, with, with.
(10:00):
two drummers and the actual kits that we have these
dw kits that were custom made for us that brent
kind of had a big big hand in designing these
things and they're like smoking tone like just thunder of
the gods, I'll call it. And, and then we play
fills where we sink the fills and fills where we don't,
where we actually literally play different fills at the same time.
(10:23):
So it's, it's a whole new complexion of ways to
perform for me. It's, it's completely different than the original,
you know, power tree, fire trio format.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I mean, that's, I look at it so much like, um,
I don't know if you're a sports guy, you know,
are you a blue Jays fan or, or, you're spilling
out a certain slot and you're becoming a utility player. Like,
you have your pocket, but now it's like you almost
made a great trade. Or not even, I know you
didn't really trade with Slash, but I mean, you're getting
(10:57):
these new additions to Triumph that can just add more
versatility and that's just special and it just adds more
to your arsenal and maybe less things to worry about
this time and less pressure maybe perhaps on you for
these tours since you have such accomplished musicians with you.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, you know, I'd like to say, you know, those guys, like,
first of all, they're all like, they're big stage guys.
Like these are by no means rookies, right? These are
guys with big, big, big resumes on their own. And,
you know, Phil's filled with Bon Jovi's played the biggest
stages in the world and so on. And there is
a certain confidence that you get. It's like going on
(11:39):
with like a sports team that, you know, you've got
guys that are like MVP caliber players and you go
on and you know, hey, We got a lot of
horsepower up here. So there is that kind of, as
you say, confidence, I guess, that comes along with it. And,
you know, we make jokes, you know, backstage just constantly.
It's just a joke fest, right? And, you know, I'm
(12:03):
always joking. Yeah, I could just fall asleep in the
middle of all this and the band sounds so good.
And there's one in soundcheck because there is one song
I don't play. And I in soundcheck, I go out
in the audience and I listen to it. And then
I joke with those guys. I said, I'm just going
to quit the band right now because you guys sound
freaking great. You don't need me. Right. So we have
(12:23):
a lot of we have a lot of laughs around
the fact that we do sort of I'll call it.
past the puck, you know? Like before the tour, I
was getting, interviewers were saying, well, like, you know, are
you and Rick gonna like, you know, basically, I don't
know what, like, you know, treat the other guys like
sidemen or something. And I was like, are you kidding me?
(12:43):
These guys aren't sidemen. Like these guys, these guys are
the best of the best. I said, not a chance.
And I said, Rick and I are not puck hogs.
Like we want everyone to score the goals. That's the
way this tour is gonna go. And so that's what
we do. Like the way the, the way the show
works is we try to have each musician featured and
rightfully so, rightfully so. I mean, Todd's vocals, so many
(13:09):
people have commented. They're like off that chart. He's a
great bass player, but he's a wonderful singer. You know,
Phil X, I mean, he, he's, it's like, who could
outdo who, who you've got a double barreled shotgun on
lead guitar of two guys that love each other's playing
and compliment each other. And, you know, I think the
audience just it's like the best of both worlds having
(13:30):
those two guys. And Brent and I, I love the
double drummer thing and being able to sing out front and,
you know, being able to double drum at the sometimes
and single drum by myself and sing and play by
myself at sometimes and sing and not. And basically every
song is a little different. I love it. It's it's
a it's a pile of fun. It's.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It's special. I'm lucky, again, I've had Todd on the
podcast a few times. I haven't been able to connect
with Brent just yet. I still haven't even seen Shame
on Me slash with Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators. It
needs to happen. Yes, Harrison, do you want to say
hi to Gilmore from Triumph right now? Do you want
to say hi? This is what it's like.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Working from home. Hi, Harrison. Come here. Say hi to Gilmore.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
No, he doesn't want to? Okay, good. So he's camera shy.
Can you give me five more minutes, handsome? Oh, that's Clay.
I know. I appreciate it. My wife was here watching him.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
It's part of the show. It is part of the show.
His hair is a little longer than yours. So if
you can't tell, I work from home. And I do
work with Bill, your tour producer. But ever since the pandemic,
I've been primarily working from home. And lots of Guns
N' Roses stuff in my background. So I have a
Guns N' Roses-themed podcast. So obviously there are, anybody I
(14:46):
could talk to that has a six degrees of GNR bacon,
I call it. Like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
It's stupid. It appeased my own sense of humor. But
obviously you have plenty with Todd and Brent and then
the Slash connection. But there's a few before I get
out of here. Slash was actually part of a tribute
(15:08):
to the Triumph. What did that mean to you? It
was the magic power, all-star tribute to the triumph that
came out last year. Were you expecting that kind of tribute?
How well do you know Slash, if you know him?
I know you know his bandmates.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Well, I'll put it this way. Mike Klink, who, being
a Guns N' Roses fan, you would know who I'm
talking about, one of the greatest producers of all time
in hard rock. And Mike is the guy that put
the album together And he's the guy that's the glue
behind the big board for everybody, you know, including having,
(15:44):
you know, Slash on guitar or Phil was a big
part of putting it together. And for, you know, for us,
it's just a tremendous honor. So many of these people,
like we're fans of theirs and the vocals, crazy, you know,
Mickey Thomas from Starship and Nancy from Heart and Larry
from Styx and Joey Belladonna from Anthrax. dean castronovo probably
(16:09):
the best singing drummer in the world uh from journey
uh like great great people um you know i i
was just we were humbled to be honest with you
and uh it's it's because mike produced it of course
he used the best studios in la and and the
sounds are fantastic um I think it's a great record
(16:32):
for anyone to check out. And, you know, interesting how
I met Mike is, you know, was Guns N' Roses
being at Metalworks Studios. So there's another connection, you know,
like my studio in Toronto. And, you know, Mike brought
Guns N' Roses in there. And yeah, that was that
was that was a great experience.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Can you talk about that experience a little bit? It
was during because I know before Mike produced Appetite, you
worked with you, but then where doesn't. uh, use your
illusion was recorded at that studio. Right.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
So, yeah, so they, so basically, you know, when other
artists are in the studio, I tend to hide a
little bit, like I'm, I'm fairly shy to begin with.
And I, I don't like, uh, or, you know, I
look at artists recording as a privacy thing. So, uh,
if I, I don't, unless I'm invited to, you know,
to listen to something or whatever, like I just kind
of keep to myself and, uh, just enjoy the ride.
(17:24):
So I would tend to hang around with Mike. Axl's
very private. He liked to kind of be in a
lounge and we try to respect artists' privacies. Like Prince
was the same way, kind of like to have a
lounge to himself and so on. Axl did some great
artwork that he left behind. um the sketches and stuff
(17:47):
like that and i wish we still i wish we
still had it because i i yeah i think that
that it it ended up with you know the i
don't know i have to ask i'll ask mike clink
the next time i talk you know whatever happened all
the sketches that axel did at metalworks um i don't
have an answer for that now that i think about
it but uh was it was a very good experience
(18:08):
and you know uh i remember duff a lot he
was pretty uh Uh, gregarious kind of guy, you know, so, um,
a lot of, yeah, a lot of respect for, you know,
what they did. And it's, it's funny cause Mike hooked
up with guns and roses, literally right off a triumph record.
He went right from triumph to guns and roses the
(18:28):
very first, uh, very first time you work with them. And, uh,
of course we've been lifelong friends. So, uh, and it's
kind of, kind of cool having, uh, um, you know,
slash on the record. And then of course, you know,
Todd and, and, and Brent, as you say, we play
with them and so on. And, uh, and, and Phil's
work with them as well. So, um, yeah, maybe we'll
(18:49):
get them out on the, one of the shows or something,
if we're lucky, I don't know. So maybe you'll come
visit us.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Slash will always pop up anywhere. That's just kind of
how he is. If you know that South Park episode
that he doesn't exist, that's how he's there. He's at
so many different places at the same time. But I digress.
I appreciate that, Gil, so much you share in those stories.
I could talk to you forever, but I'm sure you
have somewhere else to go. uh canadian tire i guess
(19:17):
there's another reference do you have to hit there hit
that shop today.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I'll head over there right now get some snow tires.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay you can make fun of me being american or
anything anyway so i'm focusing too much on that uh
gil thank you so much for your time uh it's
the the triumph 50th anniversary tour and if you want
to find out any information just go to uh triumph
What is it? Triumphmusic.com? I had the website.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah, triumphmusic.com. It's all there. All the dates are there
and you can get connected to ticket links and anything else.
you need. It's right there.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Good stuff. So that does it for this episode of
Appetite for Distortion. When will you see the next one?
In the words of Axel Rose concerning Chinese democracy, I
don't know as soon as the word, but you'll see it. Yeah!
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Thanks to the lame ass security, I'm going home.
It's funny because Mike hooked up with Guns N' Roses
literally right off a Triumph record.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to the podcast, Appetite for Distortion. My name is Brando,
episode number 577. Welcome to the podcast, Mr. Gil Moore.
How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, Brando. Hey, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I appreciate you coming on. I mean, I hope that I...
Are you currently at a Tim Hortons drive-thru?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's a good guess, but actually, no. I'm at my
favorite car dealership where I sometimes come for breakfast because
a buddy of mine is the chef and he's an
amazing breakfast chef. Yeah. Right on. Yeah, so it's not
quite Tim Hortons.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Right on. Well, for those, because it airs on podcast
side and people watching on my YouTube channel, I appreciate
you taking time, pulling on the side of the road
in the car. And I had to pull out, it
took me a second, a Canadian reference. I dated a
Canadian girl. I'm wearing my Canucks hat. I was prepared
for this interview as best as I can.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So just thanks for your time and just thanks for
the last... which goes a little, seven years longer than
I'm born, which I'm sorry. 50 years, is that? Because
I'll be 43 in a few weeks, if you do
the math. 50 years, when did that dawn on you?
That's such a solid number. You know, I have a
little OCD in 48, 49, 50. When did that hit you?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know, it just it just goes by so fast
because I you know, the days in triumph, you know,
the let's let's just call it, you know, the original
band and the original run was such a freight train.
And you were on that train and it was it
was exciting and blah, blah, blah. And, you know, we
were young, the fans were young and so on and
(01:57):
so forth. But, you know, there's just a lot of
stuff in life that that comes up. And, you know,
in my case, like I wanted to be more in
the studio. I like being behind the scenes. I was
never that spotlight guy. You know, I've always been more
of a behind the scenes guy. You know, my first
band in high school was the roadie. I didn't even
play in the band. I got promoted from roadie to
(02:20):
drummer at a certain point. Yeah. But I, you know,
I loved all the things we've done here at Metalworks
and how it's grown. And I was able to, you know,
be with my mother after my father passed on, make
sure she was looked after. And I was able to
be with my kids and raise my kids. And, you know, now,
you know, my wife and I are joking because our
(02:40):
kids are starting to raise us, you know, because they're
young adults and they're very smart. So it's kind of
cycle of life. Never really planned on doing another run
of dates and, you know, putting the rock and roll
machine back together. It just happened like we got pulled
into this, got this offer, I guess, to go and
(03:01):
play at the Stanley Cup finals. And, you know, before
the the reloaded tour, the band was formed. And it
was just the kind of thing like, let's let's bring
the kids and have some fun. And it originally was
just Rick and I will just go. The two of
us will just play together. And we called Phil and
Phil's like, hey, why don't we bring, you know, like,
you know, Brent and Todd. And we didn't know Brent
(03:22):
and Todd at that point. We get together and the
band just gelled. It's like musicians playing together that suddenly
it feels phenomenal. So that's that's how we end up.
With this this chapter in the book, I suppose I
know Rick didn't intend on it. I didn't intend on it,
but it's it worked out so well. We had such
(03:44):
a blast on the tour and the fans have been
so incredible in their response. It's just been great. And
our families are really the thing, the glue in the
middle of it all that no one really gets to
see too well. But our families are just loving it.
So it's so great to see your kids happy and
you can't beat that.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I'm in that phase now, Gil. I don't know if
you can hear him in the background. My son Harrison
is three. He just had his first school orientation yesterday. Nice.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
But we're trying to make him into a little. He's
got long hair. He looks like one of the Nelson brothers.
He's already been to Paul McCartney and Guns N' Roses.
He slept through both of them, which is fine. So,
I mean, there's a lot I understand now, you know,
as I was a single radio guy for so long
and where my career is now and who I have now, sure.
(04:36):
And what we're talking about is the Rock and Roll
Machine Reloaded, leg two of the tour. Oh, you can
check out Dates with April Wine, 50th anniversary, and some
of the names you just mentioned. Phil X, of course,
from Bon Jovi. Brent Fentz. from Slash featuring Miles Kennedy
and the Conspirators, and Todd Kearns. And I say it
(04:59):
like that because Todd's been on the show. I like Todd.
And I actually asked him to ask you a question.
So I have one of your bandmates. I don't know.
I just thought that would be funny. So Todd goes,
as a drummer who sings or a singer who plays
the drums, was there anyone you looked to as an
(05:20):
inspiration in that department? I mean, it's rare, especially when
you started. Ringo Starr would sing here and there. Eventually,
Don Henley would have been around at the same time
as you coming up. Was there a role model, or
did you simply invent that wheel?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, there wasn't a role model. I mean, I had
role models in drums, you know, Ian Pace. I still
love Ian's playing. John Bonham, I love John's playing. But
I go back to the bluesmen, you know, to Al
Jackson and Booker T and the MGs. I mean, that
was the first drummer that I really listened to. Vocalists,
not so much. But there's an inspiration today. His name's
(05:59):
Dean Castronovo, and he's in Journey. He's the best in
the business at playing drums and singing in my books.
it's a funny gig and you know i make a
lot of jokes about it like i was telling you
guys if i knew how much work that was i
would ask for double pay you know yeah uh you
just it's a it's a funny thing because to do
(06:22):
them both is it's incongruous you know it'd be like
being a plumber and electrician you know and and having
one hand in the drain and one hand in the
240 volts and when that happens spontaneous combustion i mean
that's what happens to all of us eventually us drummers
So all I could do is joke about it because true, truthfully,
(06:42):
it's not a gig I would recommend to anybody, but, uh,
I figured it out and it was actually a lot
of fun. So, uh, you know, just, it's just not
for the faint of heart. I'll say.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I can't even, you know, my son has, again, has
like little drums and just to think about even that
I can't, can't even do little drums and just to sing.
So yeah, that's, is I'm, I'm just like thinking out
loud here. Uh, breathing must be such a big part.
I mean, I'm being alive, but I'm just saying of
being able to do that, like to be able to,
(07:14):
is it, would it be different? Would your breathing be
different if you weren't singing or do you have to
breathe differently when you're like, if you were playing the
same song and you weren't have, didn't have vocals on it,
would your approach be the same or would it be different?
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Well, it is different. And I'll put it like this.
I always thought, yeah, I'd love to be Don Henley
and playing the songs that he plays versus being in
a power trio and trying to sing at the same time.
Because you can breathe a bit more if the drums
are more laid back. But a lot of the stuff
that I ended up doing vocals on was high energy rock,
(07:52):
like Rock and Roll Machine, for example. So that does
compromise your breathing as far as singing is concerned. The
good news for me was when I started out, I
had no idea how to breathe. And it was only
when I got a great vocal coach in the latter
part of our career, not at the beginning, but I
got a great an opera singer and then I learned
(08:16):
how to sing. So I learned how to sing after,
you know, you know, I'd already made like seven or
eight albums and learned how to breathe. And once I did,
I realized, well, yeah, you're absolutely, absolutely right, Brando, that
when you're trying to play like a high octane song
on drums. that's somewhat exhausting in and of itself and
(08:38):
then you add a vocal on top of that it's
very hard to get as much breath pressure as you
want so you can tend to sort of i'll call
it overblow uh and we were using garbage monitors back
in the days right so you've got I mean, I
shouldn't call them garbage, but if you know what I mean,
like I've got wedge monitors and I got backfills and
(08:59):
I got like literally 40,000 Watts on my drum stays.
No wonder I'm drum like a deaf. I should say
I like, I get, I get hearing aids. Otherwise most
of the drummers that I know were in the same
boat with the hearing aids that had those kinds of monitors.
Whereas nowadays we have in-ear monitors. So you're less inclined
to overblow because you can actually hear what's going on.
(09:19):
So yeah, That's kind of how I see it from
sitting in that kind of pilot's chair at the back
of the stage. But now it's kind of cool. We
have two drummers, which is an amazing thing because now
I can play drums and Brent is a great keyboard player.
He can go play keyboards and we have a keyboard
player and try them or we switch. He plays drums
(09:39):
and I go and I'm the lead vocalist, you know.
So the guys are making jokes about me being Steve
Tyler all of a sudden. Right. By the way, he
was a drummer. Uh, so that's cool. And then you
have the double, the double beat down when you have
Brent and I playing in sync and oh my God,
like we can make the whole arena shake with, with, with.
(10:00):
two drummers and the actual kits that we have these
dw kits that were custom made for us that brent
kind of had a big big hand in designing these
things and they're like smoking tone like just thunder of
the gods, I'll call it. And, and then we play
fills where we sink the fills and fills where we don't,
where we actually literally play different fills at the same time.
(10:23):
So it's, it's a whole new complexion of ways to
perform for me. It's, it's completely different than the original,
you know, power tree, fire trio format.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I mean, that's, I look at it so much like, um,
I don't know if you're a sports guy, you know,
are you a blue Jays fan or, or, you're spilling
out a certain slot and you're becoming a utility player. Like,
you have your pocket, but now it's like you almost
made a great trade. Or not even, I know you
didn't really trade with Slash, but I mean, you're getting
(10:57):
these new additions to Triumph that can just add more
versatility and that's just special and it just adds more
to your arsenal and maybe less things to worry about
this time and less pressure maybe perhaps on you for
these tours since you have such accomplished musicians with you.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, you know, I'd like to say, you know, those guys, like,
first of all, they're all like, they're big stage guys.
Like these are by no means rookies, right? These are
guys with big, big, big resumes on their own. And,
you know, Phil's filled with Bon Jovi's played the biggest
stages in the world and so on. And there is
a certain confidence that you get. It's like going on
(11:39):
with like a sports team that, you know, you've got
guys that are like MVP caliber players and you go
on and you know, hey, We got a lot of
horsepower up here. So there is that kind of, as
you say, confidence, I guess, that comes along with it. And,
you know, we make jokes, you know, backstage just constantly.
It's just a joke fest, right? And, you know, I'm
(12:03):
always joking. Yeah, I could just fall asleep in the
middle of all this and the band sounds so good.
And there's one in soundcheck because there is one song
I don't play. And I in soundcheck, I go out
in the audience and I listen to it. And then
I joke with those guys. I said, I'm just going
to quit the band right now because you guys sound
freaking great. You don't need me. Right. So we have
(12:23):
a lot of we have a lot of laughs around
the fact that we do sort of I'll call it.
past the puck, you know? Like before the tour, I
was getting, interviewers were saying, well, like, you know, are
you and Rick gonna like, you know, basically, I don't
know what, like, you know, treat the other guys like
sidemen or something. And I was like, are you kidding me?
(12:43):
These guys aren't sidemen. Like these guys, these guys are
the best of the best. I said, not a chance.
And I said, Rick and I are not puck hogs.
Like we want everyone to score the goals. That's the
way this tour is gonna go. And so that's what
we do. Like the way the, the way the show
works is we try to have each musician featured and
rightfully so, rightfully so. I mean, Todd's vocals, so many
(13:09):
people have commented. They're like off that chart. He's a
great bass player, but he's a wonderful singer. You know,
Phil X, I mean, he, he's, it's like, who could
outdo who, who you've got a double barreled shotgun on
lead guitar of two guys that love each other's playing
and compliment each other. And, you know, I think the
audience just it's like the best of both worlds having
(13:30):
those two guys. And Brent and I, I love the
double drummer thing and being able to sing out front and,
you know, being able to double drum at the sometimes
and single drum by myself and sing and play by
myself at sometimes and sing and not. And basically every
song is a little different. I love it. It's it's
a it's a pile of fun. It's.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It's special. I'm lucky, again, I've had Todd on the
podcast a few times. I haven't been able to connect
with Brent just yet. I still haven't even seen Shame
on Me slash with Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators. It
needs to happen. Yes, Harrison, do you want to say
hi to Gilmore from Triumph right now? Do you want
to say hi? This is what it's like.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Working from home. Hi, Harrison. Come here. Say hi to Gilmore.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
No, he doesn't want to? Okay, good. So he's camera shy.
Can you give me five more minutes, handsome? Oh, that's Clay.
I know. I appreciate it. My wife was here watching him.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
It's part of the show. It is part of the show.
His hair is a little longer than yours. So if
you can't tell, I work from home. And I do
work with Bill, your tour producer. But ever since the pandemic,
I've been primarily working from home. And lots of Guns
N' Roses stuff in my background. So I have a
Guns N' Roses-themed podcast. So obviously there are, anybody I
(14:46):
could talk to that has a six degrees of GNR bacon,
I call it. Like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
It's stupid. It appeased my own sense of humor. But
obviously you have plenty with Todd and Brent and then
the Slash connection. But there's a few before I get
out of here. Slash was actually part of a tribute
(15:08):
to the Triumph. What did that mean to you? It
was the magic power, all-star tribute to the triumph that
came out last year. Were you expecting that kind of tribute?
How well do you know Slash, if you know him?
I know you know his bandmates.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Well, I'll put it this way. Mike Klink, who, being
a Guns N' Roses fan, you would know who I'm
talking about, one of the greatest producers of all time
in hard rock. And Mike is the guy that put
the album together And he's the guy that's the glue
behind the big board for everybody, you know, including having,
(15:44):
you know, Slash on guitar or Phil was a big
part of putting it together. And for, you know, for us,
it's just a tremendous honor. So many of these people,
like we're fans of theirs and the vocals, crazy, you know,
Mickey Thomas from Starship and Nancy from Heart and Larry
from Styx and Joey Belladonna from Anthrax. dean castronovo probably
(16:09):
the best singing drummer in the world uh from journey
uh like great great people um you know i i
was just we were humbled to be honest with you
and uh it's it's because mike produced it of course
he used the best studios in la and and the
sounds are fantastic um I think it's a great record
(16:32):
for anyone to check out. And, you know, interesting how
I met Mike is, you know, was Guns N' Roses
being at Metalworks Studios. So there's another connection, you know,
like my studio in Toronto. And, you know, Mike brought
Guns N' Roses in there. And yeah, that was that
was that was a great experience.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Can you talk about that experience a little bit? It
was during because I know before Mike produced Appetite, you
worked with you, but then where doesn't. uh, use your
illusion was recorded at that studio. Right.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
So, yeah, so they, so basically, you know, when other
artists are in the studio, I tend to hide a
little bit, like I'm, I'm fairly shy to begin with.
And I, I don't like, uh, or, you know, I
look at artists recording as a privacy thing. So, uh,
if I, I don't, unless I'm invited to, you know,
to listen to something or whatever, like I just kind
of keep to myself and, uh, just enjoy the ride.
(17:24):
So I would tend to hang around with Mike. Axl's
very private. He liked to kind of be in a
lounge and we try to respect artists' privacies. Like Prince
was the same way, kind of like to have a
lounge to himself and so on. Axl did some great
artwork that he left behind. um the sketches and stuff
(17:47):
like that and i wish we still i wish we
still had it because i i yeah i think that
that it it ended up with you know the i
don't know i have to ask i'll ask mike clink
the next time i talk you know whatever happened all
the sketches that axel did at metalworks um i don't
have an answer for that now that i think about
it but uh was it was a very good experience
(18:08):
and you know uh i remember duff a lot he
was pretty uh Uh, gregarious kind of guy, you know, so, um,
a lot of, yeah, a lot of respect for, you know,
what they did. And it's, it's funny cause Mike hooked
up with guns and roses, literally right off a triumph record.
He went right from triumph to guns and roses the
(18:28):
very first, uh, very first time you work with them. And, uh,
of course we've been lifelong friends. So, uh, and it's
kind of, kind of cool having, uh, um, you know,
slash on the record. And then of course, you know,
Todd and, and, and Brent, as you say, we play
with them and so on. And, uh, and, and Phil's
work with them as well. So, um, yeah, maybe we'll
(18:49):
get them out on the, one of the shows or something,
if we're lucky, I don't know. So maybe you'll come
visit us.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Slash will always pop up anywhere. That's just kind of
how he is. If you know that South Park episode
that he doesn't exist, that's how he's there. He's at
so many different places at the same time. But I digress.
I appreciate that, Gil, so much you share in those stories.
I could talk to you forever, but I'm sure you
have somewhere else to go. uh canadian tire i guess
(19:17):
there's another reference do you have to hit there hit
that shop today.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I'll head over there right now get some snow tires.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay you can make fun of me being american or
anything anyway so i'm focusing too much on that uh
gil thank you so much for your time uh it's
the the triumph 50th anniversary tour and if you want
to find out any information just go to uh triumph
What is it? Triumphmusic.com? I had the website.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah, triumphmusic.com. It's all there. All the dates are there
and you can get connected to ticket links and anything else.
you need. It's right there.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Good stuff. So that does it for this episode of
Appetite for Distortion. When will you see the next one?
In the words of Axel Rose concerning Chinese democracy, I
don't know as soon as the word, but you'll see it. Yeah!
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Thanks to the lame ass security, I'm going home.
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