Batttttty getz Starz in her eyez, thankz to....
Richie Ranno

This photo © Joe Jones 2003

First of all, congratulations on the tour! It sounds like you had a great time! More about that in a bit, but first ....

Most of our SITN readers will know you from the original Starz line-up in the 70s, and songs such as Coliseum Rock, Pull The Plug, Fallen Angel etc., and of course the distinctive logo! You've always had a very devoted and loyal fanbase, but in the same way as UFO, STARZ deserved to have been a lot BIGGGGGGGER than they were. Why do you think that you weren't as big as, say, Kiss? (You should have been!) Thank you - well, that's simple - we were signed to a lousy US record company, Capitol. They really only had lightweight bands like Bob Seger, Little River Band, Steve Miller, etc. So, their promo people had no idea on how to present a hard rock group to US radio.

When you first got tuned in to the wild and wicked ways of the worldwidewebbything, were you surprised by the level of interest there was in STARZ? Well, yes I was! The first time you ever logged on to the Internet, did you do a search on 'Richie Ranno' and up came loads of pages about STARZ? (Of course you did!) How did that feel? Actually, we put an official site up after we found a couple of small tribute type sites. Then we really started getting a great reaction. I probably didn't even know how to do a search for a while. These days I'm a computer pro!

I know you're very responsive to all the feedback you get from the fans via email, especially when you get messages from fans who've re-discovered the band - and you always make a point of replying personally. Do you think the fans are surprised at how approachable you are? Yes, some seem to be very surprised. At least they always seem pleasantly surprised.

How do you feel the internet could be put to better use in the promotion of music? What are your views about the whole download/MP3 thanggggg? I have no problem with the MP3 thing. I think it exposes a band to more potential fans. I know the record companies are up in arms but I don't think it's any different than people copying albums to cassettes or CD's to CD's. What's worse and who cares? You can't get every dime from every music fan. The record companies have been ripping off their artists with the backing of US legislation for years, so who are they to complain?!! With the economy slowing down, record companies are trying to squeeze every dime out of every fan. They now say they're going to sue fans who have large libraries of MP3's to share online. They have collectively lost their minds!!

Another way UFO fansite readers might have read about you recently is because of your collaboration with our own Danny Peyronel, UFO's original keyboard player, on his recent HEAVY METAL KIDS album. Tell us how that came about, and also about your history of working with Danny. You have similar cultural roots, yeh?

Danny and I met in New York City through a mutual friend/singer about 6 or 7 years ago. We jammed with each other and instantly hit it off. Danny and I felt like long lost brothers as soon as we met. We're both of Italian heritage and have a lot in common, including sons almost the exact same age! We immediately starting writing songs together. We did home recordings of everything. Eventually Danny moved to Italy and recorded a couple of the songs we wrote together in real recording studios! Yes - there was also a song on his Make The Monkey Dance album - great stuff.

Another thing you have in common with Danny is that you both took the step of re-forming a band after one of the original members had died. How difficult was it to take that decision, such as trying to gauge what the fans' reaction would be to Pete Sweval being replaced. How did it feel to be onstage and it not be Pete there playing bass? Did you feel that in a way you needed Pete's 'blessing' to make it feel right? Well, we all wanted to get back together and really, the only excuse for any of us to not do it at this point IS death. When you've been given this great gift of music, especially music that makes other people feel so good, you have to go out there and do it. We felt we replaced Peter with a bassist (George D'Ana) who captured his spirit. We felt like Peter WAS with us.

There are some excellent photos and reviews from the recent tour on the STARZ Central website, and also on the STARZ Fansite, which is run by Padge, one of our SITN members. Tell us more about the tour - how it came to be put together, what the reaction was from the fans, etc. Well, this time it was only 3 shows. We plan on doing some more, possibly in September. We were contacted, initially, to do some shows in England. Though we had tried in vain to get some dates in the US previously (the young promoters and clubowners don't know who we are!), there was a promoter in England who wanted to book us. I checked with the guys and they said it sounded great to them. So, I thought I'd book 3 warmup shows in the US. Not really enough to warrant a reunion but when the English dates fell through, we thought it would be fun to do the 3 shows anyway. Turned out to be a blast! The crowds were so great we couldn't believe it. We had more fun doing those 3 shows than we did in the '70's!! Maybe we just appreciated it more. It was so much fun to play those songs again with Michael, Brendan & Dube and of course, George and to see the reaction of our fanz!

Are there any plans to put together a live cd or dvd from the recent tour? Or plans to record anything new, studio-wise? Yes - there was a 3 camera shoot of the Wreck Room show. That is being edited now and should be out in about 6 - 8 weeks. There might also be a CD. We have to listen to the live recordings closely and make a decision. None of the live recordings were multi-track recordings so there is no way to re-mix them if we don't like the mix we hear.

What percentage of your audience on the recent tour would you guess were fans from the old days? What sort of audience were the 'new' fans? Could you tell by their age, t-shirts etc? Hmmm.....90% older fans. They all seemed to have STARZ shirts on!

What was your favourite song to perform live, back in the 70s? In the '70's, Pull the Plug. What about on this tour? This time ? ..... I think Coliseum Rock/It's A Riot.

The legendary Louisville gig was at long last released on a double cd set (and is available from your website, hahaha). That was always hailed as 'your finest hour'. How did the shows this time compare to that - for energy, crowd reaction, everything? That's a tough one. Back then we were playing in large concert halls. I remember it as being really great but there was something special about these people waiting over 20 years to hear us again and us waiting over 20 years to play together again. It was like a big happy family and everyone was going berserk!!

Any special stand-out memories from the recent tour? Playing those songs again with Michael, Brendan & Dube and looking over at them on stage was surreal to me. Then, looking out into the crowd and seeing all those faces with a look of incredible happiness on them was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I don't
think I can really find the words to explain what it felt like. After more than 20 years of not playing as STARZ, it was almost like going back in time. The band and the crowd were truly one. I can't wait to do it again!!

So what did you do in the years in between the two STARZ incarnations? Well, Starz split up in 1979 and Dube and I put together a trio with bassist Peter Scance, called Hard Core. We got pretty popular here in the NY area doing original songs. Five of those songs came out a few years later on my solo EP. After a year of Hard Core, we got STARZ back together. During that time, personnel changed and we wound up as a 4-piece, Michael, Peter Scance, Doug Madick (drums) and myself. At that point we changed our name to Hellcats. We recorded five new songs and released that as an EP on some stupid little label called Radio Records. They went out of business two months later and killed that band. That was really a shame as the songs on that EP were some of the best we ever wrote and recorded. After that, I was pretty disgusted with the music biz and I just joined a cover group for the next year. Then, I got out of it entirely. Eventually Peter Scance and I put another version of Hellcats together and put another album out on another little label. That one went nowhere as well. It wasn't as good as the previous album - no Michael Lee! A few years later I ran into Jack Douglas (produced STARZ and Violation) at an Aerosmith concert - Jack produced a number of the early classic Aerosmith albums. He told me he really wanted to do another STARZ album. So, I called Michael and Brendan and they came to NY and we wrote and recorded five new tunes. Doug Madick played drums as Dube was busy with his new career as an architect. The songs came out great but we couldn't get a deal. It was 1990. We put it out on our own label and called it Requiem. After that I put another cover group together just to do some live gigs. I lost interest and stopped playing in bands for the next few years.

A couple of years later I put together another group called, RRG (Richie Ranno Group). Peter on bass again and a new singer (Neal Sundet) and a new drummer (Henk Shipdam). We recorded an album's worth of material and released it on our own label. I was very happy with that album. Had a great sound to it. Neal did a great job on vocals. It's very hard these days to get any type of success at all in the US. Radio play is strictly bought (Payola, I guess you would call it). So, that group went down the tubes. It was right after that CD came out that I started writing with Danny Peyronel. Danny moved to Italy after a time and we haven't been writing together for geographical reasons, but we had a great time playing and writing together and I think we came up with some pretty good music. Since that time I have just been playing in a cover band just to get out there and play. George D'Ana plays bass in that band and Dave Silver from the band Luxx, is the drummer.
We have a great time playing together. We do all cover songs and about four STARZ songs that George sings.

On the personal level, I got re-married to a great girl/lady and we have a 3 year old son, Michael. Bethany is pregnant again and we're having another baby this December. Congratulations! Bethany is also the beautiful model (my opinion, anyway!) on the picture disc of Starz/RRG, a photo of which can be viewed on the STARZ web site. Having a little one running around the house again is a great joy! I feel very lucky to have had a second chance at having a great marriage. I hope to get a second chance at having a musical career, which is something that has eluded me since STARZ initially split in 1979. I was frustrated for awhile, but now I just enjoy and appreciate any opportunity to play music with musicians/people who I really like to be around.

Do you have any particularly memorable experiences from your career so far - such as from your tour with Ted Nugent - one of our SITN fellas remembers Uncle Ted passing out on stage..... Yes, I remember that one. Dube and I were particularly big Nugent fans. We were doing a show with him in Des Moines, Iowa one night. Dube and I went over on the side of the stage behind the PA stack about 20 feet from Ted. He grabbed the mike and started screaming, "Hey, how about that band STARZ? Weren't they great? Let's hear it for them!" The crowd was screaming and then he just let out a long scream himself and fell to the floor. I thought he was just being dramatic but I think he must have hyper-ventilated or something. His road crew carried him off and after about 20 minutes he came back out and did the show. He was, of course, great as usual. Hahah, yeh, that's sounds like Unka Ted. Any other memories from the 70s? Well, to be honest, the '70's are a distant memory. Yeh - for me too!

What was the TRUE story behind the incident with Michael Lee Smith, the inflatable parrot, the bottle of baby oil and the pineapple? Hmmmmm? Hey, I'm giving you a chance to set the record straight! Don't waste it! Oh, jeez, good one. We did a lot of crazy things in the '70's. The thing is, do I remember them? Well-fielded, young man! But don't worry, I'll drag the story out of you when you come to the UK!

In a 'dream tour line-up' - with STARZ headlining of course - what other bands would you love to tour with? And you'd better have the HEAVY METAL KIDS on that list, hahaha. Absolutely - would love to tour with HEAVY METAL KIDS! We'd love to tour with Aerosmith and Ted Nugent again. It would be great to play with some of the bands who cited as a great influence on them, like Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and Poison.

In the past you've mentioned Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix as influences. Did you ever see either of them play live? Yes, I saw Led Zeppelin 3 times in 1969! Beyond belief. Way ahead of their time. Nothing came close. They changed music forever. I also saw Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969. Quite an 'experience'.

One of our SITN members asks... how do you feel about the US Cable Movie Company using the name 'STARZ'? Was it copyrighted? Could you have prevented the name from being used if you'd wanted to? I think they suck. The word is spelled STARS. If they going to use our spelling they should be paying us! It's one thing for a basketball team to use it but this is in the entertainment area. I had a lawyer contact them but without any real money to pay him, he didn't get very far. Could we stop them - in a federal lawsuit which would cost LOTS of money - yes!

What is next on the agenda for STARZ? And/Or for Richie Ranno? A UK and Europe tour, hopefully, yes? Well, we're hoping to get about 6 or 8 shows booked in the midwest - Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, etc. The midwest is the capital of hard rock in America. We would love to come over to the UK. We just have to find a promoter who is interested. Hmmm... let me see what I can do...

Any message to the people out there? Yeah - thanks for keeping the torch lit!! By doing so you've lit the fire under our asses and now we're going to try to get out there and do it all over again!

Well, lots of good luck with it - and we'll all be there to cheer you on. Thanks, Richie!

©Batttttty July 11th 2003

Check out the
Official STARZ Website
for the full hiztory of the band
and photoz from the recent tour

and alzo
STARZ FANZ
run by ZITN'z very own Padge

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