30 Years Ago: Ringo Starr Emerges From Troubled Era With First All-Starr Band
Ringo Starr was in search of a reset, after devolving into alcoholism in the '80s. He found it within the friendly confines of a group. Only this time, rather than the Beatles, it was an All-Starr Band.
"I was afraid at the beginning," Starr told Rolling Stone in 2019. "[I thought,] 'I don't know how you do anything if you're not drunk.' That's where I ended up: I couldn't play sober, but I also couldn't play as a drunk. So, when I did end up in rehab, it was like a light went on and said, 'You're a musician; you play good.'"
Still, at this point, Starr hadn't put out an album since 1983's Old Wave, and by then he'd already lost his recording contract. He hadn't reached the Top 40 since 1976's Ringo's Rotogravure. Along the way, he'd lost his career, followed by his confidence.
Then David Fishof reached out. A one-time sports agent, Fishof had recently emerged as a tour producer with a hot hand. He imagined a series of guest-laden dates featuring Starr, in keeping with his recent successes with the Happy Together Tour and the Dirty Dancing trek.
"I wrote a letter, and a few months later I got a call to go over to England and meet with Ringo," Fishof told the Jerusalem Post in 2018. "At that time, he was doing absolutely nothing – he and [wife] Barbara [Bach] had come out of rehab and were looking for something to do."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
