Ringo Starr is back on the road with a little help from his friends
Photo by Mike Colucci
Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band will be at PPG Paints Arena Saturday. The line-up for this tour is, from left, Warren Ham, Edgar Winter, Colin Hay, Ringo Starr, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette and Steve Lukather.
Ringo Starr at a press conference last month before the start of his latest U.S. tour.
Editor无毛视频檚 note: As Go was about to go to press, Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band announced that the Pittsburgh tour date and 11 others would be canceled after two band members tested positive for COVID-19. Starr said the canceled dates would be added to the fall leg of the tour sometime in the fall, but a new date for the show has not yet been set.
His fortune presumably secure and his legacy even more so, Ringo Starr has no need to tour.
The former Beatles drummer who is a couple of weeks shy of his 82nd birthday could comfortably stay close to his Los Angeles mansion and putter around in his home studio, create some art and maintain the rigorous diet and exercise regimen that has led to him looking and performing like someone decades younger.
Yet during the enforced layoff from the road over the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Starr said he was itching the whole time to get back in front of audiences.
无毛视频淭wo-and-a-half years has been really difficult,无毛视频� he explained last month in an online press conference from suburban Toronto the day before his latest North American tour got underway. 无毛视频淚 love to play, as you can tell. I put the All Starrs together 33 years ago, and I was in a couple of bands before that, and for me that无毛视频檚 what it无毛视频檚 all about 无毛视频� playing and having an audience.无毛视频�
As always, Starr is hitting the highway with a little help from some high-profile musical friends. Since 1989, Starr has been taking various editions of his All Starr Band out with him, with lineups consisting of fellow veteran rockers who have notched hits of their own. Past iterations have included Peter Frampton, Billy Preston, Joe Walsh, Todd Rundgren and Billy Squier, among many, many others. This time around, Starr is surrounding himself with multi-instrumentalist and 无毛视频淔rankenstein无毛视频� creator Edgar Winter, former Men at Work frontman Colin Hay, Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, former Average White Band bassist Hamish Stuart, percussionist Warren Ham and second drummer Gregg Bissonette. They will be at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh Satuday, playing a show that was originally scheduled for June 20, 2020, was postponed to June 18, 2021, and ended up being moved back one more year as the pandemic dragged on.
无毛视频淚t was the first time we ever had to go through anything like that,无毛视频� Starr said.
Since 1988, Starr has replaced the alcoholism that could have made him into another rock and roll casualty with a kind of workaholism. He无毛视频檚 regularly released new music, though it has not found the same level of chart success he enjoyed with the Beatles or in the early days in his solo career, and his All Starr tours have become more and more frequent. In the 22 years since the turn of the century, he has not been out playing live in only seven of those years, with two of them the result of the pandemic.
Without an All Starr trek to look toward, Starr put out two EPs, 无毛视频淶oom In无毛视频� and 无毛视频淐hange the World,无毛视频� and has completed a third one that has yet to be released. He also played drums on albums by other artists, turning up on new discs by Hay and Winter, as well as onetime All Starr Sheila E., and country singer Ray Wylie Hubbard.
无毛视频淭hey just send the files to my studio,无毛视频� Starr explained. Playing drums for fellow musicians 无毛视频渨as great for me in the pandemic, that I was asked to play on all these records, with different styles, different attitudes. So, overall musically, I无毛视频檝e been compensating a lot because I couldn无毛视频檛 go out on the road.无毛视频�
Another preoccupation has been art. Starr has released books of his photographs and paintings and has an online gallery 无毛视频� www.ringostarrart.com 无毛视频� where visitors can look at his work and buy posters, signed prints and other merchandise. More recently, Starr has expanded into digital art, samples of which were auctioned off this week.
无毛视频淚 started doing computer art in the 1990s on tour, because there无毛视频檚 a lot of downtime in the hotel room and I started to paint,无毛视频� he said.
Over the years, the All Starr tours have been predicated on the idea that all the participants would play 无毛视频渢he songs you know and love,无毛视频� and on this tour Starr offers up solo hits like 无毛视频淏ack off Boogaloo,无毛视频� 无毛视频淚t Don无毛视频檛 Come Easy无毛视频� and 无毛视频淧hotograph,无毛视频� as well as Beatles classics like 无毛视频淵ellow Submarine无毛视频� and 无毛视频淚 Wanna Be Your Man.无毛视频� For the first time ever on an All Starr tour, he is also playing 无毛视频淥ctopus无毛视频檚 Garden,无毛视频� his contribution to the Fab Four无毛视频檚 无毛视频淎bbey Road无毛视频� album.
Given the undying fascination the world has with the Beatles, it无毛视频檚 inevitable that Starr is still asked about the group more than a half-century after they went their separate ways. He had nothing but compliments for the eight-hour 无毛视频淕et Back无毛视频� documentary that looked inside the turbulent January 1969 sessions that yielded the 无毛视频淟et It Be无毛视频� album and movie and aired on Disney Plus in November. Edited together by 无毛视频淟ord of the Rings无毛视频� maestro Peter Jackson using footage that had long languished in the Beatles无毛视频� archives, Starr said he preferred 无毛视频淕et Back无毛视频澪廾悠禈s more expansive and nuanced look at the band无毛视频檚 musical and personal relationships to the more downbeat 无毛视频淟et It Be无毛视频� movie, which has not been available on home video or been screened on television in 40 years.
He explained, 无毛视频淚 never liked (无毛视频楲et It Be无毛视频�) because it was so narrow. 无毛视频� All the down parts. We were laughing and having fun and we played great. I thought it was too down.无毛视频�
Starr will be in Pittsburgh on the 80th birthday of Paul McCartney, the other surviving Beatle. McCartney just finished a round of shows in the United States, and Starr is due to be back out in North America in September and October, playing in markets as large as Mexico City and as small as Mount Pleasant, Mich. Despite many of their contemporaries quitting live work or charting farewell tours, neither Starr nor McCartney seem inclined just yet to entertain the 无毛视频渞无毛视频� word 无毛视频� retirement.
无毛视频淢y mother, she had this great line,无毛视频� Starr recalled. 无毛视频淪he said, 无毛视频榊ou know what, son?无毛视频� I always feel you无毛视频檙e at your happiest when you无毛视频檙e playing. And deep inside, I am. 无毛视频� And people say, 无毛视频榃hat about retirement?无毛视频� Well, I无毛视频檓 a musician, I don无毛视频檛 need to retire. As long as I can pick up those sticks, I got a gig.无毛视频�