Thirty years is a long time to be away. But for Triumph drummer and vocalist Gil Moore, the band’s 2025 comeback tour wasn’t the result of a grand design: it was a chain of unexpected events that eventually became impossible to ignore: “It was a series of steps,” Moore says. “You couldn’t make this stuff up.”
It started with the band’s documentary, which sparked renewed interest in Triumph‘s catalog. Their label followed with a tribute album produced by Mike Clink, pulling in contributors including Larry Gowan from Styx, Nancy Wilson from Heart, Slash, and Phil X. Then came the NHL playoffs, when “Lay It On The Line” became the unofficial soundtrack to Edmonton’s Stanley Cup run on Rogers Sportsnet. One thing led to another.
“Rodgers Sportsnet decided, well, we want you guys to play at the NHL finals. And I was kind of like, well, I always wanted to be a hockey player. So for me, it was like, OK, we’re going to the Stanley Cup playoffs.”
The band played the event without the original bassist, Mike Levine, with Phil X on guitar and Todd Kerns on bass. Brent was brought in for a double-drum setup alongside Moore. What started as a one-off turned into something bigger when Live Nation came calling.
“It fell together like that,” Moore says. “There was no crazy plan. It was just how the ball bounced.”
The tour lineup — Moore and Rik Emmett, anchored by Phil X, Todd Kearns, and second drummer Brent — gives Triumph more firepower than they’ve ever had on the road. Moore is unapologetic about how seriously he’s approaching the physical and musical challenge of going back out: “I did not intend on going back on the road,” he admits. “So that was a challenge, but it’s been a fun challenge.”
He’s been working out, working with a drum coach, starting, by his own request, from absolute zero, and running vocal warm-ups on backing tracks during his commute. His vocal coach, a classical tenor who taught bel canto, is the person Moore credits with changing his relationship with singing entirely: “He said, ‘Gil, I don’t care how you sing. You can be like one of these rock idiots that yells, or you can be Pavarotti.’ And then he made me like singing.”
Moore describes the process of playing drums and singing simultaneously with characteristic bluntness: “It’s like being an electrician and a plumber at the same time. Sooner or later, you get your hand on the drain, and you touch the 240 volts.”
The expanded lineup also means more vocal firepower. Moore is effusive about Phil X‘s growth as a singer and equally enthusiastic about Todd Kearns: “Phil X, I cannot tell you how amazing his vocals have become. He gets better every single year. And Todd Kearns — anybody can watch him on YouTube and just see, man, this guy can just sing his butt off. We’re going to have more vocal horsepower than we ever had.”
The show itself is being built with the same theatrical ambition that Triumph became known for in their prime. Moore recruited lighting designer Paul Dexter, whose company is named Masterworks, and is incorporating new visual technology, though he’s careful to distinguish purposeful spectacle and what he calls “video noise.”
“A lot of the presentation, a lot of the video and stuff is kind of superfluous. It’s just kind of what I call video noise, a bunch of eye candy that’s not saying anything about the music, not tied to the music. Flash is cool if it links to and locks on to the music and the message in the lyrics. And if it doesn’t, then it’s just a bunch of flashing. Flotsam and jetsam, in my opinion.”
When asked about the possibility of new music, Moore doesn’t close the door. He points to how unpredictably the tour itself came together and suggests a song could surface just as naturally, from a lick on the bus, a melody in a hotel room: “I don’t rule anything out. I just let the future roll out in front of us.”
Off the road, Moore has spent decades running Metalworks, the Mississauga complex that houses recording studios, a sound and lighting company, and a music school. He’s troubled by the decline of music education in public schools and recently launched Sounds Unite Canada, a free mobile platform delivering music education and wellness resources across the country.
The origin of his own drumming career is, fittingly, a story about a teacher who didn’t want drummers in his class: “He said, ‘Drummers are idiots. So no one’s playing drums.’ And then he stopped, scowled, turned around, and said, ‘Is there anybody in here that actually knows how to play?’ My friend Gord put up his hand.”
Moore, stuck on the trumpet due to his braces, eventually pried his way into the practice room with a bleeding lip as proof of hardship. The teacher handed him 26 American rudiments, pointed him toward a soundproof room, and told him not to come out. Forty-five minutes a day, five days a week. That was the beginning.
The tour documentary is already in the works. Moore plans to film a second chapter of the Triumph story, one that answers the question the first left hanging: “The first documentary kind of ends with us going into the sunset, and there’s like a big question mark. OK, so what’s next? And there is no what’s next. So now we know what’s next.”
As for Rik Emmett, Moore is delighted. “I haven’t seen Rick Emmett this excited since he was 18 years old. He’s like a bear at the fair.”
Get your tickets here.
The post GIL MOORE Talks TRIUMPH Reunion & Upcoming Tour: “I Haven’t Seen RIK EMMETT This Excited Since He Was 18 Years Old” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.
