Ringo Starr has been a bandleader for 26 years — far longer than the time he spent playing drums in the Beatles. Since 1989, his All-Starr Band has weathered 12 lineup changes, but the core concept remains the same: assemble a roster of top-notch players (Joe Walsh, Dr. John, Randy Bachman, Billy Preston, Levon Helm and Peter Frampton are former members) for a night of Beatles hits, Ringo compositions and old-school rock ‘n’ roll.
Starr, 75, recently released “Photograph,” a limited-edition photographic memoir that revisits his childhood in Liverpool, touring days with the Fab Four and his somewhat less-hectic post-Beatles life. And in December, many of his personal possessions, including quite a bit of Beatles-related material, will hit the auction house. But Ringo still plays; the All-Starr Band — guitarist Steve Lukather (Toto), organist Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey), guitarist Todd Rundgren (Nazz, Utopia), bassist Richard Page (Mr. Mister), multi-instrumentalists Mark Rivera and Warren Ham and drummer Gregg Bissonette — performs at the Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket on Oct. 24.
Q: Congratulations on the publication of “Photograph,” your new photographic memoir. How long had it been since you’d seen the bulk of those pictures?
A: I thought I’d lost them all, and then I was surprised as anyone when I found a trunk. We started archiving my stuff in three storage places. It started with the Grammy Museum, looking for stuff for that, and I thought, “Why don’t we do it all?” When we found this box, this trunk of photos and negatives, I was as surprised as anybody, really. It was a long time ago, and you lose things. You can tell the ones we chose for the early shots: We’re having fun in hotel rooms, because that’s where we lived when we were touring. And then, there are some in the studio. One of my all-time favorites is the shot of John [Lennon] when we’re in Paris. There are all these people around, but not one person is looking at him. They’re all looking at me. That was probably the last time that ever happened.
Several years ago, when they asked me to do an autobiography, I decided, “I’m not going to sit there and write a book.” Photographs are great because they trigger the memory. If somebody says to me, “Thursday, 1965, at 10 o’clock: What were you doing?” I have no idea. But, anyway, those photos are so great, because they trigger the time and place.
Q: It’s sometimes painful to relive memories when you’re working on a memoir. Was that ever the case with this project, along with the joy you must have felt?
A: No, there was so much more joy. The problem I have in looking at the band is that we’re not all here [now]. That would’ve been great. But this is life, and we have to live in the now. Some of the shots of John: I was totally surprised. I haven’t seen them in 50 years. There’s one I keep talking about: If you look at him sitting there, his foot is ear-level. Try and do it. Cross your legs and try and put your foot up by your ear. It’s impossible. [Laughs] That was an aspect of [John] that I didn’t really notice when I was hanging out with him, but in the photograph, it’s like, far out. Some of the other shots: In Florida, there’s a shot of a bird, because I’d never seen one of those birds before. On the back of the train from New York to Washington: I loved that shot. I feel like I just got lucky with a lot of them. It wasn’t like I was a great camera guy. I was just the one clicking.
Q: For a certain stretch of the book, many of the pictures are taken in hotel rooms or cars. There’s a claustrophobic feeling to much of it. Looking at them now: Do you remember feeling confined, always on the run between gigs?
A: Yes, but it didn’t matter if we were confined. We were doing what we loved to do, and that was the way to do it. It wasn’t like, “Oh, God, another hotel.” I remember [in one hotel] all four of us ended up in the bathroom, just trying to have some space, because everybody in the suite wanted something: a phone call, a photograph, an autograph, something. We all ended up in the toilet [laughs]. It was never like a chore, really. That’s the way you get to the gig, and that’s the same way I treat it today. Nobody wants to go on tour. All we want to do is play, and we’re all waiting for the time machine. But right now, you’ve got to get in the van, get in the car, get on the plane, get on the bus, get there, and then you have two hours of joy.
Q: At the end of “Photograph,” there’s a picture from 1989 of the first lineup of the All-Starr Band. Have you enjoyed being a bandleader all these years?
A: Yeah, I have. When I was invited to do this, I wasn’t thinking about it myself. Pepsi had offered some guy [producer David Fishof] some money if I put a band together. So I just called all my friends, including Joe [Walsh], who is now family, and Levon [Helm]. I called everybody and they all said yes. It’s like an orchestra, really. There were three drummers, because I was so insecure. I had Jim Keltner on one side and Levon Helm on the other side. It was crazy. But I’ve done it now since 1989, and this band I’m with now, we’ve been going for three years. We’re semi-permanent, and now we finally wrote a song together, we recorded a song, and we perform it every night. I’ve tried to get the All-Star Band to write and record a song [“Island in the Sun,” from Starr’s 2015 album “Postcards From Paradise”], and I never achieved it until last year. But I love to play, and it’s a bit lonely if you’re just out there with your drums. You need the guitar, the piano, the bass, whatever. You need all of that, and I thought, “Well, I have so many songs, so it’s the best 1-800-number live band. You’ve gotta have hits, you’ve gotta be able to play as well, of course, and that’s how I put it together. That was an incredible experience. It’s always the one I look back on, because it was the first, but I’ve had some great players over all these years, and I’m back to having a great band, a great set of All-Starrs.
Q: You will be auctioning off quite a bit of memorabilia in December. One of the items that caught my attention was the first vinyl pressing of the Beatles’ White Album, stamped #1. Do you recall how you initially got a hold of that?
A: Well, the White Album happened to be the album I left on, just because I couldn’t stand it anymore. It was so crazy. I did come back, of course. George had the whole studio decorated. So when they were pressed, I got #1, and that was it. I think that’s just how everybody felt about it. It’s been in a bank vault ever since. Besides the home stuff — dinner services, records — I thought, “Let’s make it special.” I’m tired of stuff just being in the bank in the safe, so I thought, “Let’s put that in.” That’ll give someone a lot of joy, because what’s the joy in just owning it? I’m giving away quite a lot of interesting things to make it a special auction as well, so it’s not just an auction.
RINGO STARR & HIS ALL-STARR BAND perform at the Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $65-$150. Information: foxwoods.com.
