Ringo Starr reflects on All-Starr Band tour, the Beatles and more: 'I had a dream at 13'

Ringo Starr and his bandmates have taken a break from rehearsals for their first show of the year to field reporters’ questions in a Zoom call, doing all they can to crack each other up while interacting more like old friends than a member of the world's most famous rock band and his latest batch of hired guns.

Rehearsals have been going great as they get reacquainted with the staples of an All-Starr Band performance, from the drummer’s own material to Edgar Winter singing “Free Ride” or Colin Hay dusting off Men at Work’s “Who Can It Be Now?”

“Yesterday, we ran the whole show and I feel ready to rock,” Starr says.

Toto guitarist Steve Lukather says he’s been “having the time of my life in this band, always have.”

Second drummer Gregg Bissonette says they’ve been “having the greatest time playing the greatest songs with the greatest — my drum hero, my dear pal. What a ball. What an honor."

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'I don't want to sit in the hotel and relax,' Ringo Starr says

Starr is especially pleased to be heading back out on the road after being forced to cancel dates last year because of COVID-19.

“Last year was a bit awkward because the first tour went down, the second tour went down but we have great confidence we're gonna do all the gigs,” he says.

The drummer dismissed a question about how he stays healthy given such a grueling schedule.

“It's not grueling,” he says. “Playing has never been grueling. I love to play. I love to play with these guys. We are the best band in this room. It's not tiring. Nobody wants to tour, but you've gotta tour to play.”

He even had their booking agent add more dates to their initial tour plans.

“Dave Hart, who put the tour together, gave us too many days off,” Starr recalls. “So I complained. And he's filled in some of them now, because if I'm on the road, I want to play. I don't want to sit in the hotel and relax for three days. I want to get out there and play. It's just how I am. I just love to do it.”

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It's easier to go out there and do shows every night in this band “because everybody takes the weight,” he says, compared with how his former bandmate Paul McCartney tours, where’s he the focus of the show.

“He has to have time off, you know, to get himself back together,” Starr says. “But because we're this crowd, we could play every night. I promise you, we could play every night.”

Then with the expert comic timing that became the stuff of legends at those early Beatles press conferences, he deadpans, “But Edgar needs a day off."

This, of course, inspired laughter all around.

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What Ringo Starr has learned about doing the All-Starr Band

The legendary drummer launched his All-Starr Band in 1989. He’s had a bit of a rotating lineup through the years, especially at first.

Past members have included Joe Walsh, Nils Lofgren, Dr. John, Billy Preston, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Clarence Clemons, Todd Rundgren, Dave Edmunds, Burton Cummings, Timothy B. Schmit, Randy Bachman, Mark Farner, Felix Cavaliere, John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Peter Frampton and Mr. Mister’s Richard Page and Pat Mastelotto.

This year’s lineup features several familiar faces. Bissonnette has been on board since 2008, Lukather joined in 2012 and saxophonist Warren Ham has been an All-Starr since 2014. Winter, Hay and Hamish Stuart (Average White Band) have done several tours of duty.

“Well, I think I'm learning,” Starr explains. “When I first started putting All-Starr Bands together, we would change the band completely. We did that for 20 years ... because I thought that's what I had to do. Change the band. But this band is good for me. I'm ready.”

At an All-Starr Band performance works each musician gets a turn in the spotlight to perform their own hits in addition to backing the man of the hour on crowd-pleasing classics as timeless like "It Don't Come Easy," "I'm the Greatest," "Photograph" and "Octopus' Garden."

Lukather loves that aspect of these tours.

“I was sort of born and trained to be a studio musician since I was a teenager, so I love the challenge of playing other people's music,” he says.

“I have more fun playing their stuff than mine, I can tell you that. Plus playing all the great Ringo hits and Beatles stuff never gets old. It’s just a joy. This is not work. This is a vacation as far as I'm concerned.”

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Starr on the Beatles: 'I played in the greatest band in my world with three brothers'

It’s been 34 years since the drummer launched his first tour with the All-Starr Band and Starr sounds like he has no plans on slowing down.

“It's what I do,” he says. “I love to play. I love to play with great musicians. I love to play great songs. And I get all of that from these guys.”

It’s been that way since Liverpool, when he was playing skiffle with a group called Eddie Clayton and the Clayton Squares before grabbing the Beatles’ attention with his command of the beat and undeniable charisma as the drummer for another great Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

“I've played with a couple of good bands,” Starr says. “And I played in the greatest band in my world with three brothers. You know, I just love playing live, and it's difficult being a drummer and playing live because if I come on stage tonight just me and the kit, 'Hey, how you doing?'”

Starr begins to sing the chorus to the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” while playing air drums, much to his bandmates’ amusement.

Had he followed his dream of singing in bars while accompanying himself on piano, he figures he would be playing even more shows.

"But I need all these great guys behind me to play with me,” Starr says. “It's a band thing. I love being in a band. I may have my name but I'm in this band.”

As the conversation turns to favorite gigs, Starr says the best are always “last night and 1964.”

Why Ringo Starr has switched from making albums to EPs

The drummer also talks about the string of EPs he’s released since his last full-length effort, “What’s My Name,” arrived in late 2019.

“I just felt an EP, you can sort of look at it in a serious way and you can do it in a month,” he says. “An album does take longer. So that's what I've been doing.”

The third of those EPs, “EP3,” hit the streets in September. He just finished recording another before rehearsals started for this tour.

There’s another EP in the works with Linda Perry, who’s writing all the songs. As Ringo says, “The only thing I'll be doing on that EP is playing drums and singing.

He’s also working on a country music EP. “But that won’t be out until next year,” he says.

'I had a dream at 13. I wanted to be a drummer'

In the meantime, he’s got shows to play.

“I had a dream at 13. I wanted to be a drummer,” Starr says. “And that dream is still going on. So my life is easy.”

Playing music is “something I do and that I love to do,” he says. “I've never once not loved doing it.”

Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 20-21.

Where: Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix.

Admission: Both Phoenix shows are sold out; resale tickets are available online. Tickets are available for Tuesday, May 30, at Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley and Tuesday, Sept. 19, at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson.

Details: 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Ringo Starr reflects on the Beatles ahead of 2023 All-Starr Band tour