TRIUMPH SET TO HEADLINE THE 23rd ANNUAL CELEBRATION EXOTIC CAR FESTIVAL

0:04 Hi, you have done to censure. Fore Wow for you young. Ahead. This this is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures Pipe NW four c Y Radio. And I'm very excited about our next guest and we have some killer news we're going to talk about. So let's welcome to the show. Gil from Triumph, How are you Heyden? Nice to be here, Hey night, Nice to have you. You know, you guys are kicking off your first tour in thirty years.

0:53 You're gonna headline the twenty third annual Celebration Exotic Car Festival and it's to benefit Make a Wish, which is personal to me, which we'll talk about. But the last time I saw your band live was at the nineteen eighty three US festival. Wow, you were there. I was there? Cool? I mean like it. I'm so glad that I was there. What an experience too. I think I was like sixteen and I just told my dad, I'm like, see you later. I'm leaving for the weekend. And you survived it? Oh that I drove me and three of my friends there, And it is fight that you should say survive because it was definitely an experience. First of all, in the morning waiting there as the cattle call as we all ran to the front, and then at the end of the night, it took me like nine hours to find my car after it was over.

1:53 God, I believe it. I mean it was like a city, wasn't it. Oh my god? It was like to this day, it's one of my favorite experiences. I've gotten the like thousands of shows, but it was just so epic, and especially the day you guys played on three hundred thousand people, Like, I couldn't imagine being on stage for that and see like you wouldn't. There's no end, honestly, Like when you looked out from the stage, you know, you kind of go to the you know, the front house consoles and stuff, and then you go to the delay towers you know that are actually behind front of house, and then it. Looks like, you know, an amphitheater that kind of just goes into outer space right to the mountains and then into the sky. Like it's just kind of crazy.

2:42 It was. It was wild and you guys, man, you killed it, and it's like fight. I have a good question for you. If they had another Heavy Metal Day festival at today, do you think Triumph would be on that bill? Well, you know, it's a good question because now you know, we've got the band back together and into a performing entity and we're going to tour, so and eating's kind of possible. Now. If you'd asked me that a year ago, I would have said, not a chance. But the way this all came together was a lot of kind of fun circumstances and it you know, it's like, oh, sometimes you hit it in the woods that bounces back in the fairway sometimes result. It was kind of wild how this came together, but it's become a really, really a fun thing that I never anticipated was going to happen again in my life. But I got to say, my kids were so enthused by this whole thing. It's like, how do you say no to your kids?

3:46 That's pretty cool. See. I think that's what's different about today because I think back in the eighties, your kids at this age would be like, come on, dad, okay, like leave that in the past. Oh yeah, no, It's like, all my kids want to come on the tour. It's it's it's wild. Even my eldest daughter is bringing my granddaughter and my son in law. They're driving like literally, I think two thirds of the tour. Maybe three quarters of the tour, my younger daughter is coming out and doing all our social media from the you know, from backstage, from the tour bus. The whole ball of axe. Looks like my son's going to come and work the stage and be one of the drum techs.

4:28 It's a family affair, right. It's so cool, especially because that's what I do love about music today is there's like no line between the generations. You know. It's like I go on tour and I do radio coverage at music festivals all over US, UK and Europe, and I bring my grandkids sometimes to help me do interviews, you know, and I bring my kids and you know, and it's like really cool because if my dad ever invited me to go to a festival with them, I would have been, yeah, no thanks. You know. It's a it's a just a it's a great time for music, and what a great time to kick this off. Now, what's the story behind how it all led to this?

5:12 Oh my god, Well, it's it's a it's a bouncing ball. And I'm trying to make it not too long, but it really is hard to explain it. It starts with, uh, you know, our lighting director and I we had talked begetting so many, so many requests or I guess just social media being what it is, uh, you know, uh communications. Let's just say from fans that are that some of them are extremely heart wrenching and just kind of pleading, well, you guys, please tour one more time before I've gone, Please tour one more time. And you know. So with that, with that in mind, and I had no intention of touring, So I got a lot going on that other interests that I have up here in things I'm doing, and I thought, okay, maybe we can do this in in a you know, a virtual format, let's call it. So Paul Dexter and I are lighting director.

6:08 He was He did Ronnie James Dio's hologram from After Sabbath, and he did Frank Zappus as well, and he said, come out and see Frank and see what you think. So went out. I said, no, it's not going to work for a rock man. I've said it's a great hologram, but I said, no, that's not where it's at. So we went down this path that's lasted like until where we're at right now looking up mixed reality as a concept. But as that was happening and Paul and I were doing that in the background, you know, the documentary came along and then the feedback from the fans of what the documentary was overwhelmed. Then after the documentary, our record label they put their hand up and they said, oh, we got to do a tribute album. If you guys aren't going to tour, then we got to do a tribute album. So we went, okay, you know, how are you going to do that? Well, they hire Mike Klank, the best producer in rock in the world, and he does an unbelievable job during COVID putting this together with the best voices and the best guitarists and the best drummers and so on in rock from our era. The tribute album gets a ton of action when it comes out, an interest and again it kind of stokes the fire we keep doing, you know, Hall of Fame stuff that keeps pub of the metal Hall of Fame, the songwriters Hall of Fame, all these things are happening. So it's all this, you know, kind of going around us. And then the last thing that happened that was really was what flipped. It was up here in Canada and the Stanley Cup playoffs. Roger Sports that which is the big big,

7:42 you know, hockey broadcaster, national broadcaster, biggest media company in Canada. They decided, and the NHL decided. I guess the triumph was the hockey band because we had inspirational lyrics, right nice, and they decided to drive it home with Triumph songs on so many commercials and so many you know, timeouts between plays and things like that. And then they finally topped it off by saying, would you come to the finals, like the Edmonton Panthers finals and actually play? How do you say no to that? I mean, I was a hockey player as a kid. I wanted I didn't want to be a drummer. I wanted to be a left winger. I love it. You know, then you ask, you know, you're you know, we're initially we're kind of like, no, no, no, we're not going to do that. And of course you didn't ask your kids, and they go, oh, dad, yeah, yeah, we're going to do that. We're going to do that. So I called Rick and I said what do you think?

8:29 And he goes, I don't know, And Mike was already doing Eddie trunk and he was he had had an appointment in Toronto, so he couldn't come. So we called Phil and then you know, Phil called Breton Todd, you know, and all of a sudden we had what we needed. So we go out there and then the thing you can't explain, honestly, is it, you know, the magic that just happens, like when you get musicians together. Sometimes it's like, you know, no, this is not working. Other times you get musicians together and you go it's like getting the right chefs in the kitchen and so you know, you're you're cheffing up the food and it's all that's what happened. It just was that kind of magic of getting together. And the live nation could see this happening right before the rise, so they just all of a sudden, we're like, let's tour, boys, let's tour. Like they were, you know, insistent, and of course, like I said, then our families ganged up on us, and it's like, all of a sudden we said, okay, let's make it into a thing. So back in the gym, back on the drum kit, back rehearsing vocals, let's do it. And it's been it's been a ton of fun. That's all I can say.

9:37 That's the kid. At the same time, we're gonna be ready, so I'm not worried about anything. Well, you know, that's the magic power of triumph right there. But the fun part, that's the part right there, because it's like, in this business, if you're not having fun, why do it? Like that's that's part of being in this industry and being an artist is having fun, I think, right. And I think you know, you're lucky to have spent your life in music. I'm lucky to have spent my life in music. And you know, especially today, when you see all the stuff that's going on in the world and you look at music and you go, man, oh man, there's one thing you could point to that does a lot of good and brings people together and should always should always be there to make people laugh, clap, dance, shout, you know, all of that, just having a blast. That should be what music's about, or moving them emotionally and taking to a good.

10:36 Place, you know, absolutely, And I've said for a while now, with all the stuff going on in the world, what we need is one big music festival for the whole world. And they're all required to attend and then we'll work out all our problems, because that's where we truly unite and get some therapy and work things out. Live music is like to me, the ultimate healer for all of us. That was my friend Steve Oisiac, my dear friend, Steve Wisniac. That was his goal, and people don't that wasn't widely publicized when he called it the US Festival. Some people thought it was the US Festival and the concept because I got to know Steve really well and we're still good friends. But us for him was exactly what you just said. It was bringing us together. He had a whole idea about satellite broadcasting, so far ahead of his time to get it around the world, to bring everyone kind of into it in a virtual sense. He was so far ahead of everyone else's. He still is ahead of everybody else, but a fantastic idea. And you know, to this day, like we from my personal passion project up here in Canada, I started a charity called soundsy Unite Canada, which is about free music education and music wellness for young people and yeah, and to give kids access because we're seeing the two things. My humble opinion the two things kids need most sports and music in school.

12:04 Yes, yes, so. Important, right, not just for the physical side of it, the cognitive development, you know, learning how to work with people and communicate the whole thing. And seeing the boards of education like cut back in those areas, Like I think, it's just it's terrible, it's very unfortunate. So we built Sounds Unite as a way to be not to replace public education, but as an adjunct for music teachers who we support. You know, we work with a Coalition for Music Education up here in Canada, which is represents seventeen hundred music teachers across the country and try to promote you know, music in the schools and Sounds Nite has a wellness app as well that helps people use music as a therapeutic tool. So yeah, very excited about that.

12:58 I love that because here in the US we're trying to get rid of the arts, you know. I love that you're doing something to keep it because I think every child needs, like you said, both sports and the arts, and like that's also what keeps them out of trouble and when they're young or teenagers, and you know, because you have to have something to do. And I have to learn too. And sports, yeah, right, it's it's if it's a physical sport like football or something or hockey, it's physical, but you're learning these skills, right, So it's that's that's working a part. Of your noggin up here that otherwise potentially going to be idle. And it's the same thing like I have a friend up here as one of the chief neuroscience scientists at a dementia hospital here in Canada, and she took up drums. And when we met and I said, well, why did you take up drums? And I started with all my drummers jokes, but she said, gil it fires more neural pathways and other instruments. So and I thought about that for a while, and I thought about, this is part of my learning process now when I'm approaching drums again, I want to learn like a kid. I don't want to be Gilmore figuring out what I did.

14:18 I want to be Gilmore, the kid who's taking this first lesson. I love it realizing that you know, we're all kind of we're given this gift from a mother's heartbeat when we're in the womb and we hear that foam that helps us, right, that gives us the ability to let's say, sleep or develop. That's the very first rhythm that we hear in our lives, and we carry rhythms with us all we can dance. Animals can't dance, only humans. So yeah, I guess it gets a little up to some of these concepts, but I really do believe that the that the rhythm that we find in music is integral to people feeling a sense of wellness.

15:03 If I can't imagine a wedding and a DJ going, well, get up and dance with no music instead. Of right the gang, you know, the I know, right and listen, what's the most famous words music soothes the savage beast? Like that says it all right there, you know, And yeah, that's how do people reach out to your cause and help and you know, become a part of it. Just go to Sounds Night dot com and it's one. It's uh just like it's spells just like it sounds Sounds Unite and uh yeah, we're hoping. Uh it's in Canada right now, but we're hoping to get a partner in the States and launch in America as well. So it's a passion project for me.

15:54 So I'll be I love it, and I love what you said about playing the drums because okay, so when I was a kid, I played the drums for nine years. I sucked, but you know, I think it was something great. Then. It's a great memory. But even now, like last year, I was doing media coverage on ship Rock and they had these electronic drums there, and at first I was like, those look like practice pads. And that's why I stopped playing drums, because I hated playing those practice pads. But then I got out of it. I put the headphones of, like, holy shit, this is cool. I want to buy one of these, put them in my place. I could sit there and put these headphones on and no neighbors will complain, and I could bang the hell out of it and learn how to play again.

16:43 You know, indeed, everyone sucks when they start. I mean that's right, right, everyone sucks. You know. The first time you ever step on the ice to play hockey, you know your ankles fold in. You know, it's no different as soon as you pick up drumsticks. You hit them a few times. Oh that sounds fun, but I don't know what to do. So you know, that's where education you know kicks in. I. I listen when interview the other day. I don't know when Ringo recorded it, but you know, somebody said to him, what when did you learn to play drums? Says well, I never learned. I think I heard that, yeah, and. I'm like, I'm like it. It really struck a chord with me because I'm like, okay, well I copied you and you never learned, So what does that say about me?

17:25 And I realized that, you know, education with technology, we've passed through this, you know, kind of a golden era of sharing, let's call it, you know, and it's got its bad sides. And what AI is doing now like coffee and stuff forgetting all that just and holding out over here for a second, several of the good things. So the information on for example, you started, you had nine years in you said, I suck. Well it's because you didn't. You didn't have the help that you needed to say, Hey, here's what I need you to do now, and go work on this and then come back to me when you're finished. That building blocks because education, right like that pedagogical ladder that everyone needs to learn anything, whether it's drums or mathematics, it needs to be there, and when we started in music, we didn't have that, so you're kind of just emulating things that you think you're seeing or hearing versus actually learning it, you know, a technique and from which you can develop your own style and so on. So now that information is shared broadly, so the younger the guitarists and the drummers and the vocalists and so on that are coming up now, so many of them are so phenomenally advanced, and I really think it's because they're they're students of the game.

18:45 Well that no better words could be said, because I feel that about everything you know, music, sports, whatever you do, you know, And I love when you're talking about hockey because hockey and music are two of my favorite things. And I live in Florida and I was rooting for Edmonton, just saying really, well, I'm an old school Devils fan from when Jacques Lamire was the coach, you know. So it's like it was funny. I remember, you know, I lived in Jersey. I went up to Montreal one time and I was wearing my Devil's ski jacket and everybody was giving me all these compliments. Wearing Jersey. It was more like Devils, suck, Rangers, Islanders, flyers, blah blah blah, and I had to go out of my country to Canada to be respected for wearing a devil's jacket because there's Jacques Lamire. So I am deaf and Canadians like listen, they are the hockey players though, so you. I just think I think of the great One, and I think of the Oilers. I don't think of him as the Kings or the Rangers. I think of him as the Oilers.

19:56 And I don't know, having hot a hockey champion in an eighty nine degree weather is weird to me. Like, I can't say I disagree with you, you know. I mean, it was the sixteen NHL chorus at one time, but things change over time, and you know, it's it's a heck of a great sport, and you know, back to you know, kids need access to it. I just can't believe how expensive it is now. And I'm my god, there shouldn't be a barrier, Like just like I'm saying, what why what sounds? You know, we want to see there shouldn't be a barrier.

20:36 To entry to be it's ridiculous. Or to benefit from the cognitive side of it, or to benefit from the i'll call it the uh, you know, the medicinal side of it. Really the feelings of wellness that you can derive from certain types of sounds and music and so on. It's the same thing with sports. Why would you deny a young person access to all sports? Right? I coached both roller hockey and ice hockey for my son, and like, I don't even know how most parents do it because it was super expensive to have him in hockey, man, you know, and it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be super expensive to get your kids into productive things that make them, you know, learn things and be productive instead of out there doing dumb shit to be funny.

21:32 Just as a community, right, we need to embrace what it is that's that's the great fertilizer for those young people to live and grow and be healthy. And you know, I think that's the role of adults in society. I really do. I think that our role is to be teachers, not in the formal sense of the word, but on a sort of a mentoring level, try to make a little bit better. I don't mean to get all you know, you know, Mamsey, Pamsey on you here, but uh, you know, I mean about kids. It's all good kids are in the future, which is why too. I'm really I love that you're headlining this festival because it benefits Make a Wish, another great, you know charity that I actually it's close to my heart because my one of my daughters actually got a Make a Wish and they are the most incredible organization. I can't say enough good things about them.

22:36 I couldn't agree with you more. Make a Wish is one of those Uh. I've been actually researching it a little bit and finding out how you know, actually a state trooper in Arizona, you know, started this many many years ago, and the Make a Wish people in Florida are phenomenal, phenomenal group doing phenomenal work and helping kids that really needed And yeah, you know, we couldn't be more thrilled honestly to help with that fundraising and we're going to do everything we can to help them knock it out of the park in Orlando and down in Fort Lauderdale or Hollywood as well. And yeah, what a great organization, what a great mission.

23:23 Well, I'm looking forward to it. April tenth, you'll be at the hard Rock Live in Orlando and the you know, the whole Exotic Car charity event is from April tenth to the fourteenth. Since twenty third year and looking forward to your first tour in thirty years. You got so much going on, it's absolutely amazing. I love it and you know, thank you for giving us some magic power once again. Well thanks for having me Ondena, it's been a blast. Hey, thanks for being on the Adventures a Pipe Man. Hi, this is Gil Moore from Triumph and you're listening to the Pipemin on W four c Y Radio.

24:14 Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on W for CUI Radio.