During a new interview with Rock Instreview Series, found below, Triumph guitarist Rik Emmett talks about his new release, Diamonds: The Best Of The Hard Rock Years 1990-1995. In addition, he looks back on his time in Triumph, the US Festival, having Yngwie Malmsteen open for the band, his solo career, and future plans.
On Yngwie Malmsteen supporting Triumph during The Sport Of Kings '86 tour:
Emmett: "The first night or two that he played, he kind of went overtime and he was being sort of egocentric in what he was doing. And then there was talk, like they were going to fire him off the tour, and I said, 'Let me just go talk to him in his dressing room. Y'know, guitar player to guitar player.' I think it helped that I was a columnist for Guitar Player Magazine, and he was the kind of guy that would know that."
"I said, 'Look Yngwie, you are an incredible guitar player, but, you're out here on the tour with us. We're going to let you do your thing, but when you get to the 8:22 mark, you're done. And you must realize that this is a professional enterprise. We want you to succeed, we want the audience to be happy, we want you to be able to do a great show. But at 8:22, when your time is up, you can't keep playing for the next half hour. You're going to put the show into overtime, you're going to cost me money out of my pocket. So, be reasonable to me and my business, and the business of Triumph, and don't go overtime and you'll be fine. It'll be great. We can do a lot of shows together and it'll work.'"
"He was looking at me like, 'I don't think anybody ever talked to me this straight before.' And he went, 'Yeah. OK.' And he never played one second overtime after that night."
