PipemanRadio Interviews Triumph About The 40th Anniversary of The US Festival

0:00 Hey, you love them too? Sure, I'm come. I'm wow for you. Why up, America, It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four CWY dot com. West Palm Beach is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man back time. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures the Pipe Man W four CY Radio and our next guest. I am so psyched about when I saw the email about what's going on. I immediately knew that we had to talk about this on my radio show and on our station because I don't even know if our guest knows this yet. But I was at this festival back in nineteen eighty three called the US Festival and saw this band there live, and so I'd like to

1:34 welcome to the show, Triumph. How are you, I have to crazy? Are you here? Oh? Great? So did the publicists tell you that I was actually at your show at the US Festival. Yeah. So there's two teens that I'm interviewing which today, and both of the teens were happy US Festival, which you guys are as old as I now, I know. Right, Wow, that's a bag s What amazing time that was. Still to this day, me and the friends I've gone to and that I went to S Festival with talk about it, like, I've been to hundreds of festivals since, thousands of concerts, and there's still nothing that has compared to the U S Festival. And your performance was like one of my favorite ones of the day. And at least you didn't forget the words like David Lee Roth did I did. I did see David actually for a while after we played, But yeah, it was a great day. It's like, I don't think you'll ever find that many headliners, so to speak, together on the same stage. I mean, it was like the top bands, the top body earning bands and radio airplay bands in the day at least the top four out of five and Crew and the Quiet, right, there were kind of new bands at that point, so you know between that,

3:04 Hey, Let's Scarps, Triumph, Fozzy Jus Priest. So a hell of a lineup, man, hell of a lineup. Oh yeah, you couldn't have asked for a better lineup. But just at what great experience. And there was like three hundred thousand people that day. I do a lot of big festivals, you don't usually have three hundred thousand people, even at a big festival. Yeah, that couldn't count them, you know, because the fences came down, so you know, the price they basically broke through. They weren't able to really you know, I don't have the tickets they sold, but there was a lot more people there than tickets, I'm sure. Well, I remember in the morning, okay, it was one of these things. Okay, so I was I must have been. Yeah, I was sixteen years old at the time. So I said to my dad, I'm like, i'll see you later. I'm going to a festival for the weekend. And then and surprisingly he just like, oh okay, And I drove with my friends there. We got there tonight before we basically just hung out on the hood of my car till it was mooring time for the day.

4:15 And I remember standing at the fences in the beginning of the day. To your point, he brought me back and as soon as they let every start letting everybody in, it was like a stampede to the stage. It was like who could run the fastest. But it wasn't a bad stampede, Like it wasn't nobody was knocking anybody down, nobody was getting hurt. It was just everybody was running full speed to get as close as they could, right right, What did you think when you were approached about this festival to perform at this festival? What was going through your mind at that time?

5:00 It was kind of you know, it was a year long kind of romance between Steve Wazbach, who was his dough behind it and at us. You know, he'd fly to Toronto to see us, he'd fly to gigs to see us. And we were kind of unsure as to what to do because the last show we had played in the LA area was we co headlined the Rose Bowl with Dirty and you know, we did one hundred and ten thousand people. And prior to that we had put that in outdoor show in La so we were due for an indoor play. And so we had three shows going on sale at Long Beach Arina or doing the S Festival, And it was a last word of decision. We came right down to like midnight East Coast time to blow out the Long Beach shows and do the S Festival.

5:56 We couldn't just you know, it's going to be part of history. So we decided, what, you know, we got to be part of that. And you definitely were, and now here we are forty years later. Did you ever really back then think that forty years later you would be putting out a double live LP of your performance at the US festival. Oh baby, it's some nightmare or something. I find it quite fascinating that we're doing that, and it's, you know, the whole experience of that festival.

6:36 Like you say, it's something you'll always remember and once in a while I'll wake up and go, wow, man, that was just such a such a cool thing to be part of, and we have to work hard to get there. It wasn't easy for us to to actually do the gig because we were in our Landope playing with the Easy Top at the Tangerine Bowl the day before. Wow, So you know, we couldn't break all our you know, you know, wretched roadies it was, but we went all out for it. So we were hot. Man. We honestly played really really good that day. I thought, oh, you did play really good that day, because you know, I'll tell you something too, just to say how good you guys were. Like I always liked you guys, but I was at that point in my life I was a very like big metal head, but and it wasn't even like regular metal. It was. It was like, you know, Slayer, metallic type of metal. And so me and my friends we went to the US Festival because of heavy Metal Day.

7:43 And I just think about it now in twenty twenty three, if you had to return to the US Festival and a heavy metal day, would Triumph be a band that they would pick to be on heavy metal Day? And it would be very different today. But let me tell you, we were there and you guys just blew us away because I think your sets were some of the best sets of the whole day. To be honest, Well, you know what, you're not the only one. You know. We got a lot of you know, contact with the fans, you know, to our website and stuff, and you know, and obviously they're fans, but they weren't fans before, you know. They they got turned on by being at the S Festival. Yes, they couldn't couldn't believe how good the band was.

8:31 And you know it's you know, we were noted for our big production of the Pirate and the Lasers and the old nine Yards, right, and of course we're playing Daylight and there was none of that. Yeah, you know, so it was just all music and all up to the three of us, and boy, you know we delivered, and you know the proof is in the grooves. You know, it's really sounded good, you know, especially man if I've ever been on vinyl before, so it's it sounds really cool. One vinyl it it will. I mean, you got it's a pretty good package you have here too. It's like you have the double LP with a gatefold sleeve including never ever before seeing photos. See to me, I think that's way cool. I'm way into photos, you know.

9:16 And you got the etching of the iconic never Surrender Thunderbird logo on the fourth side, which that's that is If you were to ask me one thing I remember about Triumph besides the U S Festival, that would be it right there at logo. It's like it's embedded in my brain. It's a very sure. Oh yeah. And then you know you remastered the music for vinyl and it was done at the legendary Metalwork studios and they're here's what's really important for our listeners. It's limited to like seven hundred and fifty copies. It comes in either black, red, or blue vinyl, so people definitely want get on this ray away because to me, this is gonna be like I think it's a collector's item personally, you know, like I know all my friends I went with, they're all going to be buying this because, like I said, I have one friend in particular, he is constantly to this day sending me messages on Facebook of videos from the US festival that is that wild or what? You know? Forty years later, Like what other festival has that ever happened with that? I think besides Woodstock, there isn't any other.

10:39 And I remember back then, Okay, I remember us telling our friends, Yeah, we're going to the eighties version of Woodstock. Yeah exactly. But I will tell you what's funny you'll laugh at. Okay. So leaving the festival after Van Allen was over, so there were four of us, I drove. There were four of us, but we kind of split up, so we were in pairs, me and my friend that I was paired with. It took us till like eight o'clock in the morning to find to find my car because we were just walking everywhere all the parking lots, like, because it was miles and miles but we hadn't we were just like out there all day. We had no clue we were going. We finally show up to a cart like eight am, and our other two friends they were sleeping on the hood because they didn't have the key. They couldn't get in.

11:43 I mean it's stuff like that that those are experiences, are once in a lifetime experiences man, that you just remember forever. And that's what's so cool about it. And I mean, how does it feel for you to be a part of that kind of history, like thinking about forty years later. Well, that's what I think I alluded to before that, that we could not say no to the show because we figured that the show is going to be part of history. Yeah, and you know, we didn't want to miss the opportunity, you know, And so we didn't do our three shows along Beacher And I've probably heard us a bit in the LA area, but it's so be it, you know, at the S Festival as the S Festival, and there's gonna be a fiftieth anniversary one day, yeah, I know, and let's hope we're still here for that one too. I didn't even think I'd be here for this one. Yeah. Oh yeah, It's like I I oh man, yeah, I remember even back then, me and my friends were like, we're never going to live past thirty yeld people, I know, right, So everybody can go to the Official Triumph Merch Store, to Official Triumph Merch dot com. And by the way, fans who buy from the Official Triumph Merch Store will receive a US Festival special

13:13 podcast featuring new interviews with all you guys. So that's cool. I love it. That's free. That's very cool. I think on the twenty fifth or something, if there's gonna be on the triaf YouTube channel we're doing by they're gonna run the US Festival Concert our set, I should say the festival concert and bad to three, Rick, Mike and Kill are going to be able to chat with the fans during the show. That's so cool. That is so cool, Like, that's a cool experience. You know, everybody's going to need to check that out. I know my friends and I will definitely check that out because that's right. It's like having a you know, a reunion. There you go. So what else do you want to share about, you know, all the special things you're doing for this Fourieth anniversary.

14:09 Well, you know it's again just putting the package together and you know, making it a limited edition I thought was really cool, and that's not available at retail, and it's I were anybody. I get on the on the internet pretty quickly because I think it's a pretty pretty much sold out. Excuse me, certainly, I think that, you know, I know there's no more red ones for sure. I was told that the other the block of the blue ones, I'm not sure about that, but the red ones are long gone. So yeah, it's it's, you know, just lucky to be here, lucky to be part of it, lucky to have a fortieth anniversary of something you know that you did that again, you as we keep saying, it's, you know, one of those iconic legendary weekends that happened in San Bernardino. You know, it's just amazing, and I'm glad to be here to celebrate and glad to put out. You know, it's a souvenir item for the folks that are lucky enough to get one. Quite honestly, we're getting calls our merchandise guys getting calls from a retail now you know there's well, can't you make more? Can't you make more? We're getting the mad for it its stores, you know, and I says, all, it's like we said, there's going to be seven hundred and fifty units. That's what it's going to be. I love it. The good news there's always when they actually manufactured the thing, there's always an over run, so there might be a few more. But you know, regardless, that's we won't know until it's actually manufactured, which it won't happen for another

15:39 a few weeks, and that'll be just a bonus. That'll be a special bonus for some lucky person. Indeed, indeed, maybe I'll take them. Well you are you would be the lucky person. I've been very lucky to trust me on that, very very lucky. So why do you think, Okay, like I was talking, I was talking before about you know, me being a total metal head and it being a heavy metal Day, why do you think the whole idea of them calling that heavy metal day, how the metal Sunday? It was? Well, because there was three days right day watch I think was kind of the new wave day, wasn't that the Clash Day? And those those bands that I didn't like or could care less about. Although I didn't like the Clash of it. Yeah, the clash is a little different from the other new wave, but yeah, as a metal head, we hated new wave. Yeah, yeah for sure. So that day three was Bowie and I can't remember who else was on Day three, but you know we have sold on a Sunday. You know, I'd sold both those other days total, right, So yeah, you know we're so so cal was that, you know, as far as firsts in those days, right, metal whatever you want to call it ruled absolutely, and

17:15 it was I remember back then the phenomenon of heavy metal Day outsold the other two days total. If you combine the other two heavy metal days still outsold it. And I was like, wow, that's amazing, you know, and it was like I remember, okay, so it was very interesting. I remember sitting there and looking in the crowd at the sea of people, and I just couldn't believe, like there was there was nowhere you didn't see people, like it was as far as you could see. And then nowadays I've done festivals at that same venue, you know, doing radio coverage, and I've walked around the festival and I'm like, man, it just doesn't feel the same as it did that day at the s Festival. It's like I've never been at that venue since where it felt the same, if you know what I mean. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Because it was walking guard on stage. You couldn't see the end of the people right there was like as far as the eye could see from the stage, there was it was never ending. It was kind of it was kind of.

18:26 It was strange. It felt like I was a star track or some weird place. This is not like you or you playing a readA There's always an end to the far end of the of the building. You played a baseball and football stadium, there was always an end that you know, there's had no ends, just went on forever. Yeah. And and man, it must have been brutal play in too, because it was like one hundred and ten degrees there that day. Oh it was hot and it was dusty. And I'm glad that the band never let me sing because I don't know how the hell Rick and Guild did it, because the dust factor was incredible.

19:11 You know, you're just you know, horking up, you know, dark browny angels all the time. Every time you had to spit. But it was so dry you got to keep drinking water. You know. I remember the hoses and the hoses that they were hosing down the fans at least in the first thirty or forty rows because it was just so hot. They're afraid people are going to suffer each stroke, you know. Oh yeah, I mean I was up there where they were spraying the hoses, and why my friends did get taken off on a stretcher and got heat stroke, you know, because it was brutal. I don't I can't remember ever playing that that kind of heat before. And you know, we had fit to a ton of fans on stage, and they said air boovers and air condishers and stuff, but nothing really made any difference. It was just way too hot.

20:00 Yeah. Yeah, it was like, yeah, you have to go for it anyway. You know, there's no way you could way back, so Whurst, that was an hour. So we just went full bore for an hour and still be it. Yeah, exactly. And you go into a different zone anyway once you start performing, like you know, that hour, you're like having an out of body experience. Yeah, that's for sure, you know. So it's you know, it's only an hour and you're not gonna die, so you give it all. You can a brick you understood in front of a fan and goes a little bottle of water, you know, kind of so, but it wasn't as bad as I basically get out to be. It was the dust that was a big issue, I think more than the heat even. Yeah, you know, I always wonder about that because I go on tour now and I do radio coverage a bunch of different festivals, and I mean that I always sit in the how do musicians and like you said, singing, how do you sing like that?

21:04 Because I know I am a lot of times by second day, I can't even breathe. It's like everything in me to do interviews because my nose is so stuffed with that crap, and I'm like, man, how did they sing on stage like that? Show after show because it's like you don't even get a chance to recuperate, you know, you go to the next festival you still can't breathe from the previous one, and then you get more dust than you And I was at one where I literally hacked out little rocks that were in my throat. It's so bad. Yeah, that's it's brutal.

21:45 You know, dust is probably the worst thing you ever want to be around for a long time. So yeah, you know, as a singer, it's like it's it's tough. You know, you just gotta do what you gotta do. I never even ask Jo how they done it, but I just thought they pitched about it. I tired to touch it, just trying to hit some notes. It was tough. You felt like very travel in your throat. Yeah, totally. Wow, Well this is amazing. It was an amazing day. Then it's an amazing day now because you have this Live LP The Limit Edition. Everybody's got to check it out. Man.

22:27 It's just it's gonna bring back memories for a lot of people and create a lot of new ones for people that weren't there. They could get, you know, a real feel of what it was like. And because I will repeat, I have that whole day, you guys were probably the shining star of the whole day in my opinion. You know, and and I'm somebody that I was very into Priest, I was very into Motley Crue, but and I was very Intazzi. I think Triumph outperformed all three of them combined in my opinion. Well, thank you, I appreciate that. Oh, my pleasure. Well, I appreciate that, you know, not only did you play there and give me one of the greatest memories of my life and about you know, three hundred thousand or more other people, but that here we are today, fortieth year anniversary and we got this great outp and the YouTube stream that is going to be way cool. Everybody definitely has to check that out because they'll be able to get on and chat with you while while it's going on. And I think I think it's very cool. So everybody makes sure that So what the YouTube channel is, they could just basically look for Triumph under YouTube right Triumph channel, yeah, yep, and then they want to go to the website official Triumph merch dot com right away before it's sold out. Yep. Absolutely a smart play if you really need one.

24:00 That's that's the only place together, that's right. A final words you want to leave the listeners with, Oh yeah, just you know, as always, you know, Tryal wouldn't wouldn't have been able to ever play the US festival, their dream of doing something like that without our fans. You know, we we think a lot of bands say this, but you know, we know for sure we had the best fans in the world. They were, you know, just constantly supportive. And that's you know, you know that because when you play a concert, you know, when the fans are there with you, right, yeah, they're not there against you, they're not there just for you. They're with you. They're part of the show, they're part of the band even you know, so it's always special.

24:45 The fans were special. And you know, I personally I missed playing a lot, you know, so I think that's going to happen ever again, but you never know, maybe fifth maybe, Well, it's been absolute pleasure. I want to thank you for giving us such great memories and great music, and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. All right, pipe matters some pleasure of being here. Appreciate the time, Appreciate you the interview. Appreciate the fans. Appreciate the opportunity. Very cool. Hey, this is Michael bad for Triumph and your listener to my pinning the pipe Man right here as something forced UI Radio. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man. I'm w Force CUI Radio.