It’s been five years since Rik Emmett played his final show at the Riv in North Tonawanda. While he was true to his word at the time regarding not touring or performing in the U.S., the singer-songwriter, who rose to prominence as a member of Triumph, has been active in the years since his final stateside show.
Since 2019, Emmett released “The Bonfire Sessions,” which is a collection of acoustic songs, a book of poetry titled “Reinvention” and, most recently, his autobiography, “Lay It on the Line: A Backstage Pass to Rock Star Adventure, Conflict and TRIUMPH.”
Emmett’s history with the region dates back to his Triumph days. In his autobiography, he mentions Triumph’s show at Buffalo’s Memorial Auditorium in 1981, when the group received a key to the city, and he mentions North Tonawanda as a favorite place to perform during his solo career.
During his solo years, Emmett was a frequent visitor to Western New York, performing at the Canal Concert Series in North Tonawanda and Lockport, and he was the first performer at Artpark’s legendary Tuesdays in the Park concert series.
The book’s title has “TRIUMPH” stylized in all-caps, but his time in the band does not dominate the book.
“There’s no question that’s the thing that’s going to initially sell books,” Emmett said during a recent interview. “People go, that’s the guy that wrote ‘Lay it on the Line,’ yeah that’d be interesting. Despite the curiosity factor, I did not want to just have a book that was going to be about that.”
In some ways, the book is Emmett’s response to the Triumph documentary, which only briefly examined Emmett’s exit from the band in 1988. The departure led to years of acrimony between him and his former bandmates, which has long since been resolved.
Fans of the band will get an account of the split, including Emmett’s reasoning, but the book is so much more than a recount of backstage tales and business dealings; it is a deeply personal journey filled with life lessons, inspirational stories, personal tragedies, and practical business advice.
“Michael Holmes is a great editor, and he’s become a friend. He said, ‘You’re a good writer, and I want you to write what you know, and if you want it to be meaty, big, and bouncy, as The Who would say, you go ahead and do it.’ So that was reassuring,” Emmett said, “and I knew I could make it much more than just a memoir about what it was like to be a rock star.”
Of course, people still love Emmett’s music and would love to see him return to the Riviera at least once more.
“Kathy Wagner, who I still work with, tells me every three months that they really want me back at The Riviera, but I really don’t know. It’s been so long since I crossed the border for a show I wouldn’t know where to begin, but I am going to do a show in Sweden for New Year’s, and we will see how that goes. Maybe I’ll do some stuff after that.”
Whatever he decides, Emmett has left an indelible mark on the region, and it is clear he will always be creating something. There is a new album in the works, and he recently released a compilation drawn from his first three solo albums.