The Catalyst spoke with drummer Moore, who explained that bass\/keys guy Levine, who was primed and ready to take part in this series of triumphant concerts, is staying at home \u2013 doctor\u2019s orders.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Gil-Brent-3-Triumph-300x220.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Gil Moore (left) and Brent Fitz. Publicity photo.<\/p>\n
St. Pete Catalyst: So Mike\u2019s not playing these shows?<\/p>\n
Gil Moore: We were hoping to have Mike, obviously, and he was hoping to be here. But he\u2019s not well enough to be out. But, you know, there\u2019s still more shows left on the tour. We\u2019re still hoping that he might get a sign-off, and he\u2019ll get out here and help us out. If not, we\u2019re still staying in touch with him and wishing him all the best health-wise. And he\u2019s cheering from the bleachers for the band. Obviously he\u2019s still one of us, spiritually and musically and every other way. But there\u2019s five of us onstage every night, unless Mike makes it out, in which case we\u2019d have six.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who are the other guys?<\/p>\n
So Rik and I are there on the tour, and Mike\u2019s not. But Todd Kearns is filling in for Mike. And we have (drummer) Brent Fitz as well, who plays a lot with Todd. They play in Slash\u2019s band together. And they played on our tribute album (Magic Power: All-Star Tribute to Triumph), with (guitarist) Phil X.<\/p>\n
And of course Phil X was in Triumph \u2013 he replaced Rik in 1990. So Phil\u2019s back with us. He still plays with Bon Jovi, of course.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s Phil, Todd, Brent, and myself and Rik.<\/p>\n
It really is great, because everyone in the band is a lead singer. So that\u2019s a very rare situation to have. So there\u2019s a lot of vocal horsepower that really we didn\u2019t have back in the day.<\/p>\n
A lot of our songs were written with two guitar parts, even three, so having Phil onstage with Rik, oh man, that\u2019s a double-barrel shotgun from the word go.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019ll tell ya, double drummers is a blast. When Brent and I get going full steam ahead with those two drum kits, it\u2019s like a herd of rhinoceroses coming through the amphitheater.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tour\u2019s been in the States for a while now. How are the American audiences with Triumph?<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been absolutely wild. If you look online at the socials, you\u2019ll see that everyone\u2019s standing, and cheering, and going nuts like they were all 18 years old. It\u2019s crazy, looking out from the stage, it really is. The excitement in the audience is phenomenal.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rush grew to be mega-successful in America. Inevitably, Triumph will get compared to Rush. Did you ever have any kind of relationship with those guys?<\/p>\n
Yeah, I know them all. Alex is a close friend of mine. Through golf, really. Alex is a golf nut, and I\u2019m a golf nut, so we share a lot of love on the golf course together. I\u2019m very proud of those guys as Canadians. Their work ethic is second to none. And they\u2019re one of the greatest rock bands of all time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a shame that Neil passed before his time. He was a very gentle soul. Very nice man. They\u2019ve recorded at my studio, Metalworks in Toronto, so I know them well. And I\u2019m real excited that they\u2019re going out; their tour is going to be massive.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Did you ever feel that Triumph was in competition with Rush in any way, shape or form?<\/p>\n
[Laughter] I think in the minds of the public, maybe. But not in our minds. The comparison I think started for three reasons: One, we started at the same time. Rush was just six months ahead of Triumph, I would say. Number two, Rik has a high voice, and Ged has a high voice. And the other thing I think is being three-piece, a power trio. And of course, both from the same city. So maybe there\u2019s four or five things that kinda line up.<\/p>\n
No, because they had that six-month gap, they opened some doors for us. And in America, I think some audiences were more open to the idea of these three guys from the Great White North: \u2018Let\u2019s pay attention, because we like Rush, maybe these guys\u2019ll be OK as well.\u2019<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re going to be compared to a band, that\u2019s a good one to be compared to. That\u2019s all I can say! I just feel very lucky that America opened their arms to Triumph.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since Metalworks has been so successful, with all sorts of well-known artists recording there, why do you want to go out on the road again? You\u2019ve got this really nice gig at home in Toronto.<\/p>\n
For me, it\u2019s about my kids. They are so excited. My wife is very excited too. Getting to see them get so jazzed by the whole thing.<\/p>\n
Another thing, I love the musicians in this band, and Rik and I are kind of in seventh heaven with the blend that we have right now, the musicianship that we have onstage. And the camaraderie we have in the dressing room is unbelievable. We\u2019re just having a blast.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just crazy how the whole thing came together. I mean, I said I wasn\u2019t going to do this, for decades. And I was not lying.<\/p>\n
You know that old joke, \u2018Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch \u2026? Niagara Falls!\u2019 It was kinda like that. We finally fell over the falls. It was unintentional, but we went over the falls in a barrel, and we survived. And here we are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s possible to count all the great Canadian rock bands on one hand (well, OK, maybe two hands).…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-278297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}