Episode 119 Rik Emmett

Singer/songwriter Rik Emmett was known as the virtuostic guitarist & singer with iconic Canadian band Triumph, and he has been an independant solo artist since the 1990s.
In this episode we discuss his new memoire "Lay it on the line" which is as he describes it "A backstage pass to rockstar adventure, conflict & triumph" . But that's not all we talked about.
This is a fun one!


https://www.rikemmett.com/

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Episode Transcript

(00:24):
Welcome to Tommy Solo's Famous Friends.This is where I get to chat with
people who I've connected with over theyears in the world of arts and entertainment,
and today I'm very pleased to havewith me iconic Canadian rockstar Rick Emmett.
Welcome to the show. Rick.Thank you. Tommy. Not only
are you a rock star, butnow you're also an author. So we're
going to talk today about your brandnew book, Lay It on the Line,

(00:48):
and this is a backstage pass torockstar Adventure, Conflict and Triumph.
Hmm, imagine that. So Iknow that you've had a long and illustrious
career in the business and this isquite an entertaining read. I'm curious,
after all these years, what finallyinspired you to write it all down.
Oh, there were a lot ofreasons. I mean, I've turned seventy,

(01:11):
so, you know, getting older. I think that's often a spur
for people in their lives when you'vebeen in show business and around you,
everybody's going, hey, you know, when are you going to write your
memoir? You should put that ina memoir, you know, all that
kind of stuff. We'd also Triumphhad done a documentary and in the wake
of it, I thought, well, that's the story of Triumph, but
it's not necessarily my story. Ithink I'd like to try and sort of

(01:36):
talk about all of the things Idid in my life before I joined Triumph,
and then all of the things Idid after I left it. So
those were things that sort of pushedme as well. Well, it's interesting,
you know, it's similar in away. And I know you talk
about the Beatles being an inspiration,and I mean imagine that if I'm sure
you can see the instruments behind mehere, we all have a certain age

(02:00):
share that inspiration. And don't tellme that there wasn't some sort of hypno
being being aimed at us from theEd Sullivan Show that said the Beatles were
together for thirteen years, so wasTriumph. But there's an awful lot more
to your story, as you say, than just Triumph. And I'm interested
in knowing that you grew up notfor the silver Spoon. You were like

(02:21):
average kids, you know, ofthe day, and you came about the
music. Honestly. Now, Iknow you were brought up going to Sunday
School, and that's quite the contrastto somebody who's lived the rock and roll
lifestyle, although one of the thingsthat you say in your book is you
were never in it for the sexand drugs. It was all about the

(02:42):
music. Yeah, and the stuffabout church. I mean, you know,
I am not religious, but whenI was a kid and my mom
would take me, I would singin the choir, and the whole thing
of music I think was really thestrongest influence. Saying in school choirs and
sang in citywide choirs, and somy singing was really the thing that led
me into music. Obviously, asyou mentioned the Beatles, the whole thing

(03:06):
about guitar was something that just asyou say hypno beam, I like that,
you know, there was something thathappened there. And the thing too,
is that the kind of work ethicthat the Beatles had, in the
sense that they were out on theroad touring and then they couldn't even hear
themselves think anymore, they got tothe point where they go, well,
we should just go into the studioand try to make great records and let's

(03:27):
become a recording act and recording artistsin the true sense of that word.
And I think that ended up beinga huge thing that it wasn't just the
beatles. There was also the technologywas exploding the whole thing of the transition
from AM radio and singles, FMradio and albums, and there was a
kind of a conscientiousness that existed.I mean, I was just buying into

(03:52):
that huge and then once it's gotits teeth in you you know. There's
another thing that I mentioned in thememoir, and this is kind of answering
both question at once. In thefirst one that you asked a vote,
why When I first picked up aguitar, I wanted to play like McCartney.
I wanted to play in a lefthanded way. And I went to
see a teacher, a guy namedJack Arsenal my first few lessons, and

(04:13):
he was a left handed guy whoplayed right handed, and he said,
well you should learn. He turnedit around and he said you're going to
learn this way and I went,oh, no, that feels weird.
He said, look, just trustme. Your strong hand is going to
be on the fret board. SoI have this thing. It's called cross
dominance dextro sinistral. My left handdoes gross motor control, my right hand
does writing and eating with a fork, and so fine motor control this hand

(04:35):
and it's only one percent of thegeneral population, ten percent are left handed.
One of the ten percent are crossdominant. And I don't think any
survey has ever been done, butI think if you did do a survey
of professional guitar players that end uphaving careers, I think it's going to
be more like twenty five percent ofthe more thirty percent of them are cross

(04:57):
dominant players. It's just like youplay the guitar and it goes like,
yeah, you know, I reallylike you, and you go, I
really like you, and so thisthing starts and the list is long.
I think Steve Moore said Van HalenWaddy walk tell you can just go along
this list of the guy in theSmashing equivalence Corgan. There's so many guys

(05:18):
that Paul Simon left handed guys thatplayed guitar in a right handed way.
So I think I fall into thatgroup, and that's very illustrious company for
me. Sure is I'm curious.I wasn't aware of how many of these
cross dominant players are. I mean, I recognize all the names, obviously,
but I'm curious how much of thatwas because back in the day,

(05:39):
when you were in school, forexample, teachers would force kids to write
with the right hand if they werenaturally left handed. Yeah, the factor
that was, Yeah, I'm surethat it was. But the weird thing
is that nobody really forced me.These were choices that I kind of just
made on my own. The writingwith my right hand. I never felt

(06:00):
like, oh, I want towrite with my left Now I have a
daughter that's completely left handed, doeseverything with her left hand. But I
had this cross dominance where it waslike, no, if I'm gonna hammer
a nail, I'm gonna do itwith my left hand, or if I'm
going to kick a soccer ball anddo it with my left foot. And
of course, you know I playedsoccer. They teach you you got to
use both feet. My right footwas never a natural one, but my

(06:21):
right hand was always the natural onefor picking up a fork and stuffing my
mouth. Yeah, that's good tohave a natural way to eat. Oh
man, I've learned a fair bitfrom your memoir, and one of the
things that I don't think I wasaware of is that Triumph actually started out
as a led Zeppelun tribute. Imean, I get you know, you've

(06:43):
got that high tenor range and everything. But that was interesting for me.
Yeah, it was really our claimto fame. You know, when we
started Gilmore or the drummer, hewanted to absolutely ensure that we would have
the largest PA, the largest lightsystem, the largest effect, the largest
truck when we were playing little bars. So there was that we did have

(07:04):
that calling card. But the ledZeppelin thing was I could do it,
you know, I could play theJimmy Page stuff and sing the plant stuff.
So we would end up doing allSATs of it, like medleys of
it, and just come out likea freight train and there would be no
stops between the songs. We wouldjust roll through a thirty or a forty

(07:26):
minute set of nothing but led Zeppelin. Yeah, those were the days.
Yeah, Yeah, And of coursethe hunger for that band that existed was
huge. And in Canada, theway the bar system was, the scene
was very much you couldn't really playoriginal music. They wanted covers and you
could make good money if you werea cover band. So you know,

(07:47):
on the local scene there were bandsthat played like a lot of Beetles,
stuff, stones, that kind ofthing. There weren't bands that could do
Zeppelin because it was hard to finda singer that could cut it. I
think probably Rush was a bar bandon the Canadian scene that they did a
little of that, but they neverreally did Rush. When I went and
saw them in their early days whenthey had John Russy as their drummer,

(08:11):
they did Jeff Beck going down like, you know, the stuff that ed
Rod Stewart as the vocals. AndI think Geddy, I think he really
liked singing small faces, that kindof stuffy. He didn't really model himself
after Plant, although clearly, youknow, as careers developed, then you
sort of get put into the samecategory, you know, especially Geddy and

(08:35):
I being a Canadian and singing hidelater on in my career, you know,
Steve Perry of Journey and the guyfrom Foreigner whose name is Escaping Me
and Lou Graham Lou Graham, thankyou. Yeah. So, I mean
those guys were tremendous singers, soit was kind of nice to be lumped
into a category like that, evenif the way it would sometimes happen,

(08:56):
his rolling Stone would go, yeah, yeah, we don't like any of
these guys. They would make alist all of these guys that, well,
it's a nice list to be in, but apparently they don't like any
of us, sup, and we'llbe right back after this. Oh man,

(09:26):
You know what comes to mind forme is that back in the day
playing in the bars, it wassmoking. Kudos to you guys that could
hit those notes in that smoke filledroom. I mean I used to complain
about pots, flashpots, and Ifelt like that was drying me out.
And I mean I never tried tohit those notes until many, many years

(09:48):
later after they stopped smoking in thebars. So kudos for being able to
do that. Well, you know, you're young, and you're foolish,
and I mean that never even reallycrossed my mind at the time, although
I and remember we would play sixnights a week in bars, even before
I joined the Triumph, And thenmy amp would be home on Sunday night,
and we lived in a small house. I would have to have store

(10:09):
it in my own bedroom, andthe smell of tobacco coming off of the
tubes, and then if you decidedto turn it on and practice, the
tubes would warm up. And then, oh man, the room with the
tolex of the cabinet and the tubeswarming up would make it smell like stale
beer piss and cigarettes like wow,nothing like recycled secondhand smoke. Yeah,

(10:33):
oh boy, and it was grotesque. You're absolutely right. But in Triumph's
case, we would blow off somany flashpots that like I would get up
the next day and have a showerin the morning and clearing out my sinuses
and the magnesium powder that would beinside. And I thought, I'm gonna
kill myself here, like you know, this will give me cancer. But

(10:56):
it was the way that things were, you know. It didn't really kind
of think of it as here weare now in the age of post COVID,
where we were all wearing masks,you know, And you go,
yeah, I guess I should havehad some kind of a filter on all
those years. Yeah, no doubt. Speaking of your voice and singing,

(11:18):
I've watched some recent videos where youtalk about now you're seventy and can't hit
those notes anymore. But at thesame time, as I was doing some
random research ahead of this call,I looked at quite a few video clips
on YouTube and so on, andthere is a woman who has this YouTube
channel, Vocalist, and she wasfocused on a few of your songs.

(11:41):
How is he doing this? AndI watched her analyze your singing Fight The
Good Fight and it's not like youdidn't have any technique or don't have any
technique. I wonder did you evertake voice lessons or did I miss that
in the book. No, Inever took vocal coaching, per se.

(12:01):
I mean I sang in choir whenI was a kid, from the age
of about seven until I was aboutI would say twelve thirteen. When I
went to high school, I startedplaying violin in the orchestra instead of singing
in the choir, you know.I mean, obviously I'd been exposed to
certain things. The way my throatis just naturally the way my voice is.

(12:24):
I wish I could sing like JohnAnderson of Yes, he was one
of my favorite vocalists. And Idon't have that purity and I don't have
that pure high range. But Iwas the first soprano all the way through
it, like a boy soprano,because that was the voice that I had.
And the thing about sort of havingchest tone and then being able to
have head tone, there's a thingthat I can do with my throat where

(12:46):
I can narrow it and I canhit really really high notes. And I
mean even guys like Steve Perry,we just put a bunch of shows where
we opened for them, and heand I had a conversation one day and
he was saying, like, howdo you hit those really high ones?
Like Steve his high note would bemaybe a B in his range, and
I could quite easily hit ease fourthabove that. And sometimes I would even

(13:09):
have like never surrender. I wouldsing an F sharp which was a step
above the E. And I woulddo it every night. And I could
do it even if I had asore, tired throat. I could hit
those notes. Now I can't anymore. You know, there's a way that
you can accomplish this with a technique. Ian Gillen used to be able to
sing I'm just talking about EA's andF sharp's. He could sing high a's

(13:31):
and they used to do a songcalled Child in Time and I used to
do it in bars before triumph andthe notes are like a ag but like
a you know, I don't knowhow he does it. It's like he's's
an ability to kind of go tothis falsetto thing, but it's still a
kind of a head. You canstill rip it, you know, And

(13:52):
Sammy Hagart can still do it,like I don't know how he can but
he still has the ability to ripsome of those high notes. I also
do a series about singing where wetalk about technique and so on, and
I think that a big part ofit is a combination of confidence and relaxation.
Is I know that when I startedgoing out on my own without a

(14:13):
band, and I was doing alot of weird stuff that I hadn't done
before on some of the higher RodSteward stuff and Bonnie Tyler and stuff like
it's a heartache for me, youknow, to sing. And I just
found that once I was relaxed andin the zone, I could almost sing
anything. Yeah, I hear you. I think there's a truth that you

(14:35):
have about the way things work whenyou're in your twenties and then your thirties,
and then you like and truth startsto change. And by the time
I got into my late fifties sixties, people talk about the break in your
rage where you're going from a chesttone and you're going into falsetto, and
that became a real difficult thing forme. There were notes there where I

(14:56):
didn't have the chops, I didn'thave the voteocal chords and the ability to
tighten them. That's what I thinkit is that you lose the elasticity of
your vocal cords as you age,just as you lose it everywhere else,
you know, And I don't havethe ability to narrow the pipes to squeeze
out those notes. And in fact, there are some notes now where I

(15:18):
go to sing them and it's justair. There's no actual vibration of vocal
cords. I can't find the noteanymore in my throat because it's just the
way things go. And there's veryfew people. If you went to the
local retirement home and you said okay, and you played a note on the
piano and said hit this, likeyou know, people can't do it.

(15:41):
You know, it's just it's afact of life. So like opera singers
get to a certain point and thenthey go, yeah, you know,
I'm going to have to rettire.It's like ballerinas. You have a certain
time and then you get to acertain age and it's like, well,
I guess I gotta become a choreographernow, or make some adjustments. Yeah.

(16:03):
I know a lot of people havelowered the tunings and dropped the keys
and so on, and I mean, you do what you have to do.
Back to the book for a minute. You claim in there that you
are not a nuts and bolts ormathematical or scientific thinker, that you're just
an organic thinker. I find youto be very analytical and deep in your
thoughts. Well, I appreciate that, and I would like to think that

(16:27):
you know the way the brain subdividesitself into hemispheres of left and right,
and you know there's certain areas andbrain research is ongoing. Obviously we don't
know very much at all, butI think there are things that are sort
of traditionally thought of as like mymaths and chemistries and physics, and they're

(16:48):
on one side. And then theartsy fartsy guy that's a language kind of
guy, which is to say,the writing of words, the organizing of
ideas. That yes, and whatyou're talking about. I was out to
dinner with some friends the other nightand one of my pals that I've known
since high school said, Rick,I finally got through your book. Man,
you sure are a teacher, Likethere's a lot of teaching in your

(17:11):
book. And I go, yes, it's what kind of comes natural to
me, and it's kind of theway my brain works that my wife would
often say, Ricky, don't haveto describe how to do it three ways?
One way we'll do And I go, yeah, But if I don't
do it from three ways, I'mnot triangulating the idea and corraling the idea
in a way that I'm making itso that everyone can understand it. She

(17:33):
goes, yeah, well, giveus a little credit, you know.
I go, no, don't wantto give you any credit. I want
to absolutely hammer you with you knowmy point, until I've made it from
every direction and I get it.When I was teaching at the college,
I had other colleagues on the faculty, I would say, oh, rick
mean, you're so pedantic, butin a good way. All right,

(17:56):
it's true. But I do thinkof it more as a language today,
Like in the final analysis. WhenI'm writing poetry, I will go into
the thesaurus and I will try tofind you know, I don't want a
word that's just in the ballpark.I want the exact one to say exactly
what I want, and on apage of pros. If I've already used

(18:18):
that word, I don't want touse it again. And now I have
this thing about I've got to finda synonym I can't use the same word
twice. That will be bad writing. So you know, I make up
these own rules in my own headand it probably does get a little too
much for some folks, but Idon't know. I mean, I figured
I was only ever going to writeone memoir, and I was going to

(18:42):
just try to make sure that Igot it covered from every ankle. Well,
it's interesting that you talk about yourlove for teaching. When I was
in I think my very first barband, there was an older guitar player
who came out to see us andhe said, you know you are You've
got some real potential. And hesuggested to me that I start buying Guitar

(19:03):
Player magazine. And one of thefirst things that really caught my attention is
that you had to call him,and then I ask, wow, I've
seen them in concert. This isgreat. Now I can learn how to
play like Rick Emmett, not thatI ever accomplished that. So, you
know, thanks for the giving methe aspiration. But you know, there's
so many things I think that gointo your talent and your technique, and
you are a very schooled and veryeducated and very precise in your approach.

(19:30):
So thanks for all the lessons.Sure welcome. I do think you're pointing
something. I'm working on a newproject now called ten Telecaster Tales, and
I'm writing a book about the writingof the music, and in it I
admit, quite freely, I hatehim to admit that I can't play at

(19:51):
a level of guys like Pat Metheny, Bill Frizelle, Julian Lage. I
find them inspiring, but I can'tget there. It's not the kind of
player that I am. I don'thave that kind of intellect. I don't
have that kind of jazz vocabulary.In my own way, I do what
I can do the best that Ican. Now, when you're talking about

(20:12):
writing columns for guitar magazines, Ihonestly think that I got that gig because
of being articulate. I don't thinkI got it because I was necessarily this
incredibly schooled guitar player. I wasa self taught kind of guy. I
was always more of a singer,songwriter guitarist in sort of in that order

(20:33):
early in my life, and thenI became a songwriter, singer guitarist,
and I think of them in thatorder. Songwriting and singing always came first
in the way I perceive like lookingin the mirror, how do I perceive
myself? Guitar was always kind ofthe last thing. And I was never
the kind of guy that was goingto go, Okay, I'm going to
learn to play modes in every positionand in every key. You know,

(20:59):
I'm just going to add that tomy arsenal. I never did. Could
I write in Guitar Player Magazine ina column, Hey, this is something
you should do? I? Yes, I could, because I knew that
was what you should do if youwanted to become a jazz guy, you
needed to know how to blow likethat. But was I gonna bother?
I go nope. You know,I'm just kinda hanging with some Pentatonics and

(21:19):
a little bit of the Door anda little bit of the Aolien, and
I can make do okay. Everynow and then I'll throw in a mix
o flat nine flat thirteen, justbecause I had a teacher that once said
to me in college, well thatscale you're playing, that's a mixo flat
nine flat thirteen. I'd go,oh, is it? Thanks? I
didn't know that because my ears wouldbe the thing that always led me into

(21:42):
whatever it was that I was writing. Myself, you know, and we'll
be right back after this. WhenI went to humber College for one semester

(22:07):
as a student, there were guysthat could read fly shit like in terms
of sight reading, and there wereother guys that could blow over sophisticated changes,
Like somebody would put a chart infront of me of like giant steps
Coltrane, giant steps, and Icouldn't blow over that, like I couldn't
not save my life, but therewere other guys in that program that could.

(22:32):
And I went, okay, well, I'm not like those guys.
Well, it's interesting when you talkabout all that, you know, and
I've had somebody one time say tome that they really liked my modal playing,
and I went, what do youmean? But anyway, you talk
about lyrics and poetry in the book, and I think that goes hand in
hand with your melodic sense, becausethe use of open vowels for long notes,

(22:56):
for example, and a consonant that'swell placed can really have an emphas
So I think that the fact thatyou couldn't just blow over the giant steps
whatever is part of your musicality,really your melodic musicality. Well, I
think that's generous of you to say, and I'd love to believe that it's
true. I just think we allhave limitations, and even jazz guys have

(23:21):
their limitations in ways that I mean. There would be times where somebody would
come to me after a faculty meetingand say, like, hey, Rick,
this thing that you're teaching everybody inyour music business class about everybody should
have a website, Like how shouldI go about this? How do I
make a website? How do Iput together a marketing plan? And I'm
going, Okay, if you exerciseyour skills and your aptitude in one direction,

(23:47):
probably what you're doing is stealing fromanother, Like you won't have the
time to do everything. And whenI was in Triumph, I was in
a band where my partners they werevery business oriented. They were very analytic
in their business thinking. They wereGil was excellent with money, Mike was
really good with marketing and promotion.There was just a lot of things that
I learned being at the feet ofthose masters in those disciplines and areas,

(24:12):
and most musicians they don't do thatat all. That's not their thing.
So the thing that you're pointing outis again it goes back to language.
I was a writer. You know, words speaking and vocabulary and the sound
of words and the poetic nature ofrhythms that exist in language, then I
would be trying to put them intomy music. And so I think your

(24:34):
observation is a good one. It'sa strong one. That was the kind
of music that I made as ifI was engaging in rhetoric and trying to
convince you about something. And Iwould try to formulate melodies and chord changes
as a you know, a landscapeto generate that kind of feeling. So

(24:56):
the marriage of word to melody tochord, that was something that really spoke
to me in a way that itwasn't like, no, I just want
to blow, man, I gono, I don't want to just blow.
I want to write a script andI want to follow that script because
I want my song to be somethingthat speaks in an emotional way, in

(25:18):
an intellectual way. I thought,songwriting do it. There's some folks and
they like to write songs where themeaning is very obscure, and I think
it's just it's not me, Like, that's not the way I like to
approach it. For example, Ilove Paul Simon as a writer and I
do think that he tends to gowell, I don't mind if it's kind
of obscure and people will draw theirown conclusions from it. But I think

(25:42):
he's also a very poetic kind ofguy, and I think he has a
side that I go, yeah,that's what I aspire to as well.
You know. But that's just anexample, you know, I could choose
hundreds of them. Well, myfavorite musicians, and especially my favorite guitarists
and singers are those who focus onthe melody. For example, du you

(26:08):
know that's something that you played thatyou can hummet, you can sing it.
George Harrison's solo from something you know, we can all hume that and
sing it. And I think that'svery important if you're trying to entertain.
When Triumphs first started playing bars andI would say to people, you know,
this is actually a game of howmuch beer can you sell? You

(26:29):
know, And often with musicians wewould be talking about getting your songs on
the radio. You know, melodyas you're describing, and I would say,
yeah, well, don't forget gettingyour songs on the radio. It's
about selling advertising time, because that'swhat radio does. Radio sells airtime.
So they pick music that will satisfywhatever demographic they're trying to sell advertising too.

(26:51):
So if Triumph decides, and youknow, we used to have these
arguments and debates inside the band,well, Gil wanted the songs to be
really heavy rock. I got you. They're not gonna get on the radio,
you know, like there's already bandsthat are already filling that need.
And if we're gonna the way we'vebroken through onto the radio, we need
to have melodies to go. Butno, no, no, yeah,

(27:15):
no, no no no, likethat's kind of what radio is gonna want
from us, And of course somepeople don't like to hear that. Back
to marketing for a minute. Youmentioned before we hit record that you've already
finished another book, another couple likeI've done a poetry book twenty twenty one,
I guess Reinvention, and you know, poetry books they sell less than

(27:38):
jazz. And then I did mymemoir and ECW Press, my publisher,
they were happy to get that becausethey can sell that and then maybe some
of the poetry books will also sell. But I was also writing, I
keep writing poetry from time to time, I keep writing songs from time to
time, and I keep writing guitarpieces from time to time, so eventually

(28:00):
these things accumulate to the point whereI go, well, I think I've
got a book here. So yeah, I've got a book of poetry.
It's called Lean into It or Leaninginto It. I'm not sure which title
I'm going to go with, butit's in that ballpark. And who knows
when ECW might want to put itout. I don't know. They might
go, well, we're thinking twentytwenty seven, Rick. But I've got

(28:21):
this other project where I wrote tenguitar pieces on a custom made guitar which
is in a telecaster kind of mold. And then I thought, you know,
I want to write stories about thesepieces. I want language to enter
into this. So I started doingthat, and then I wrote this book
called Ten Telecaster Tales, and I'vegiven it to my editor and he goes,
this is great. We want toput this out maybe next year,

(28:44):
you know, maybe the end ofthis year. You know. I go,
okay, great. So the thingabout retiring from the road back when
I was in my sixties and thenCOVID came along and everybody had to retire
from the road. It sort ofturned me more into a creative and I
realized, well, this is sortof what the final chapter of my life
is going to be. It's goingto be more about being creative and writing.

(29:07):
And I'm starting to have some problemswith arthritis in my hands, so
I don't know how much I cankeep the virtuoso level kind of guitar playing
going because it was a challenge forsure. But the writing of the book,
hey, you know, typing ona laptop, I can do that.
I've figured that one out, soI'll probably be doing more and more
of that as time goes on.Well, if there was ever a silver

(29:30):
lining around COVID, I think itwas the increase in creativity from artists like
yourself. I mean, I startedthis podcast because of COVID, and that's
how it all went with me.And it's led to a lot of other
creative avenues, into meeting people likeyou on the show. That's all great.
Now there's an album as well,Diamonds. Yeah, so that's out

(29:52):
and that is the Heavy years.Yes and no. I mean when I
left Triumph, I did three albumsfor a label called Duke Street Records,
which was an independent label in Canadathat had distribution with MCA Universal at the
time, and so when I wasshopping around my first album that i'd made
solo after leaving Triumph, there wasa lot of deals that got offered and

(30:15):
men, and Duke Street was distributedby the large label the Triumph had been
with, and so I was like, well, it's kind of a no
brainer. Okay, you know,we'll make a deal with them. And
that first album I made a dealwith Charisma Records in the States, so
that they went bankrupt when the recordcame out, so it was like,
okay, well that's kind of rightdown the toilet. But anyways, I

(30:36):
kept making three albums for Duke Street, and eventually, over time they gave
my masters back. I said.Andy Hermann was the guy who ran the
label. He was very kind tome, and I said, hey,
can I have those back? Andhe went, yep, sure, here's
a two page agreement there yours.So I got them back and then I
went to these merch companies that Iknew and I said, hey, I
got this stuff, do you wantto do a compilation? But in my

(31:00):
mind I wanted to do two fromthe three albums and one that would be
the hard rock kind of stuff,and one that would be more of the
esoteric Museo Ballady kind of softer stuff. So this first one is coming out
Diamonds. Yeah, the hard rockYears, and it's the time period between
nineteen ninety and nineteen ninety five ninetysix, and yeah, it's great.

(31:22):
They're putting it out on vinyl andthe CD and gatefold things and you can
buy it with pictures and slip matsfor vinyl turntables, and I hand wrote
out some lyric sheets. So there'sa deluxe kind of version of this for
the fans that are willing to workovertime for a couple of weeks in order
to pay for it. And thenyeah, it'll eventually just sort of pare

(31:45):
down until it's like can I downloadit? Can I stream of it?
That's it. I don't want totake up your whole day here, Rick,
I know you've got other places togo and people to see and so
on. Oh, before I forget, congratulations on recently ringing the bell.
Hopefully we're going to have you aroundfor many years to come to share your
stories and your music. Can wejust get you to hold up the book

(32:06):
one more time on your side,lay it on the line, It's available
wherever you get your good books.This is a good one. Yeah,
ECW Press, Amazon is okay byme, Sure, go ahead. But
in Canada go to your Indigo Storyand if you can't find it, man,
tell them, hey, order thisin for me, Order two or

(32:27):
three copies. Absolutely. I wantto thank you so much for taking the
time out of your day to dothis with me. Rick. It's been
a real pleasure. And until nexttime, cheers. All right, buddy,
But wait, there's more. Rickhad one more story to tell as
it happened, So stick around fora minute, would you, And one

(32:57):
more thing Rick wanted to talk aboutbefore we say goodbye, folks. Okay,
Tommy just said to me when weweren't recording about the Saint Regis Hotel
in North Bay and the uh theyhad Saturday afternoon matinees, which, of
course you were in a band,you didn't really like having to do them.
You kind of wanted it to bejust like a jam session or something.

(33:17):
And I remember, triumph. Thereason I will never forget the Saint
Regis Hotel in North Bay is becauseI had a black West Paul and it
was a heavy one. It wasa standard and so I was using it
in the thing and my strap buttoncame undone and the guitar dropped and it
fell right onto my right big toeand smashed my right big toeu. So

(33:42):
for the gag that night, Iwas like limping around because of my right
foot was you know, badly damagedfrom a less Paul dropping from my waist
down and crashing it against the stageof the Saint Regis Hotel in North Bay.
By God, yeah we're there,eh, you were in the audience.

(34:02):
I was in the audience, andI got up and jammed on the
matinee whenever I could, and I'llnever forget I used to rock out to
Rocky Mountain Way, and I I'mpretty sure that somebody in the band was
relieved that they didn't have to singit that day. That said, thanks
again, Rick, and until nexttime, Okay, Tommy, take care

(34:22):
man. To watch the complete uncutvideo of this interview, just go to
YouTube and search Tommy Solo, RickEmmett. And while you're there, don't
forget to hit like and subscribe.I really appreciate it. Tommy Solo's Famous
Friends is a one man production,meaning that I've done all the work,
including recording, editing, guest acquisition, et cetera. And hey, here's

(34:45):
some news. We've just recently joinedforces with five to one nine magazine,
so you can check out my interviewsthere as well. The theme song for
Tommy Solo's Famous Friends is a clipfrom my original composition, The Burn.
All rights reserved. If you enjoythe show and you'd like to help us
keep it going, why don't youclick on the buy me a coffee link

(35:07):
in the show notes, hit thelike button, subscribe all that stuff.
We really appreciate it. You canfind me on Facebook and Instagram, and
until next time, cheers,