Beatle Ringo Starr will be making a local appearance at Fraze Pavilion on Sept. 15 with a handful of famous friends for the latest version of his hit-heavy supergroup, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
Starr is more famous than famous. The Beatles are a cultural landmark and reference point for a seemingly endless list of musicians. The group is as synonymous with pop culture and music history as the air we breathe.
From the band’s early rock and roll blast to the pop superstardom of Beatlemania and on through their experimentation and maturity as songwriters later in the decade, any person who sits down to write a song since is likely pulling from the various innovations and strokes of genius that they delivered to the world.
The All-Starr Band first formed in 1989, and has featured some of Starr’s most famous friends and peers over the years in its different lineups.
“I am the drummer, so I need a band in front of me. In ‘88 I had this thought, in ‘89, I started making it come true,” Starr tells a group of journalists from around the world, that includes CityBeat, in a live feed press conference over Zoom. “I do it so I get to play and I get to play with a lot of good players and I play all their songs and they play mine, but I also then get a spot in the front, which is great too. I still do it because I love it and I still do because I can.”
In addition to Beatles hits like “Yellow Submarine” and “With A Little Help from My Friends,” fans can expect songs like “Boys” by The Shirelles that Starr has done since he was high up on a drum riser, his famous mop top bouncing around while he sang in concert halls at the height of Beatlemania. Additionally, the All-Starr Band members bring their individual hits to the show to create a soundtrack that spans across decades of the FM dial.
The latest version of the group features Steve Lukather, singer and guitarist of Toto, Colin Hay of Men at Work and songwriter Hamish Stuart of ‘70s funk powerhouse group the Average White Band.
While Aerosmith collaborator Buck Johnson will be filling in for All-Starr band veteran Edgar Winter, longtime saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ham will be back for the tour.
Longtime All-Starr Band drummer, Gregg Bissonette, who has played with Starr since 2008, also returns. Of Bissonette, “I have him because I heard he does seminars on the way I play,” Starr says of Bissonette before mimicking picking up a phone, “‘Hey, Gregg, come on over.’ Musically it just falls into its right space, you know, that’s what’s great.”
Starr, now 84, continues to be a showman, seemingly full of energy on and off stage, as well as in our nearly hour-long meeting. He talks a little about how he keeps in shape. “I put some time in, you know, I work out, I watch what I eat. I’m on the road, I’m making a record, I keep busy.”
“Crooked Boy,” his latest in a string of recent EPs, came out in the spring and Starr has announced that he will be releasing a country record produced by revered roots music producer/musician T Bone Burnett sometime this fall, his first in the genre since the 1970 solo release, Beaucoups of Blues.
Starr says the new record came to be when he ran into Burnett at a poetry reading held by George Harrison’s wife, Olivia Trinidad Harrison, and that the idea was born as a result of the chance meeting.
When asked by CityBeat if the new record felt like a return of sorts to his first country album Beacoups of Blues, the ever-playful Starr replied with a deadpan, “Yeah,” followed by a pause and a laugh before saying, “That was another accidental situation. George (Harrison) had called Pete Drake in Nashville to come play on his record (All Things Must Pass), and I played on it, Peter Frampton’s on it, a lot of us are on it, but anyway, it just happened that I sent my car to Heathrow Airport to pick Pete up and he comes and gets into the studio and says, ‘Hey Hoss, I see you like country music because there’s a lot of cassettes in the car.’ In those days, it was cassettes, children. And he said, ‘Oh, you’ve got to come to Nashville.’ I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know about that, you know, a month in Nashville,’ because that’s roughly how long it used to take us to make a record, and he said, ‘What? Nashville Skyline (a Bob Dylan album produced by Drake) was done in two days, and we can do one on you in two days.’ So, I flew to Nashville and he was there and we picked five songs in the morning and we’d record them and finish them at night. And the next day we did five songs; we’d pick five songs out of like 20 that writers … and it was done in two days. It was far out.”
He continues with a memory of the sessions, “I was singing one of the tracks and he said, ‘Hoss, put some emotion in it or I’ll come out there and step on your toes,’” Starr recalls with a laugh. “It was like, ’Ok,’ but I had a great time doing it.
The current tour will be leading up to the release of the new record.
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band will make a local stop at the Fraze Pavilion mid-way through a limited 12-date run that ends at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall this September.
Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band play the Fraze Pavilion on Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. More info: fraze.com.
This story is featured in CityBeat's Sept. 4 print edition.
