A wild ride with Ringo’s son and Sshh
Zblond hair is still matted with sweat, and he’s wearing the same black T-shirt and track pants from the rock show he’s just performed as the drummer for Thewho.
Starkey is not changing or freshening up, either. There is no point.
“No break. I’ve got to keep going. I’m so (expletive) hyped-up from tonight — what are you going to do? I’ve got to play,” Starkey said minutes after leaving the Colosseum stage at Caesars Palace. Piling into a waiting SUV, he was en route to his second gig of the night at the Sand Dollar Lounge on Polaris Avenue, where he was to appear with his band, Sshh (pronounced “shush”).
The three-person band is named for Starkey’s girlfriend vocalist, Sshh Liguz, who was sitting by his side.
The two do not converse, exactly. They yell, frequently shouting over each other, bickering comically and passionately.
“Will you stop (expletive) shouting now?” Starkey finally says. “I just got off stage with The Who!”
“I’m shouting so you can hear me!” Liguz yells back.
This goes on for several minutes, each exchange punctuated with laughter.
“She’s called ‘Sshh,’” Starkey says. “Now do you get it?”
Liguz and Starkey (yes, he’s the son of Ringo Starr) booked the Sand Dollar gig when they learned some members of the Rolling Stones’ touring lineup played there in October after canceling an appearance at T-mobile Arena due to Mick Jagger’s vocal problems.
Sshh is scheduled to play the Sand Dollar after every show by The Who at the Colosseum tonight, Monday and Aug. 11.
“We heard it was a great music venue,” Starkey said. “Bit of a biker bar, and we’re not bikers, are we? We’re more like punk, really, but people are going to dig it.”
Liguz and Starkey met either 12 years ago (his version) or 10 (hers) at a nightclub while Starkey was on tour in her hometown of Sydney, Australia, with Oasis. Sshh has just released an album of covers, “Issues,” featuring guest appearances by original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook, Blondie drummer Clem Burke and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, who sings Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up.”
In a sonically explosive presentation at Sand Dollar, Sshh unleashed original songs mixed with cuts from “Issues.” The shows, preceded by burlesque striptease performances, start around midnight and roll until about 2 a.m.
Starkey plays guitar in Sshh, refusing to take the drums. Of his musical training, he says, “I don’t really have any. I saw T-rex when I was a kid, in 1971 or ’72, and that was it for me. My dad took me to see them, and I said, ‘That is what I will do.’” Ringo and his then-wife, Maureen, gave young Zak a plastic Hagstrom model acoustic when he was 7.
“I taught myself,” Starkey says. “I was always knocking about with it around the house.” But he became enamored of drums when his father took him to see
The Who when Zak was 10. He began to understand that “Uncle Keith,” his father’s good friend Keith Moon, was actually a rock star.
The 51-year-old Starkey said he has learned to live with the unbending attention and adulation afforded a member of The Beatles’ family.
“I think it’s (expletive) great, I really do, because it’s all about the music,” he says. “But I don’t go for the whole ‘rock royalty’ thing. I just keep my head down, you know? The most exposure I will look for, myself, is this band. It’s not like I need to talk up anyone else. The
Who certainly doesn’t need the drummer out there talking about them to the press.”
Starkey is foremost a musician and composer.
“If I could buy a Porsche or make a record, I’ll always make a record. That’s my thing,” he says. “I don’t need a car. But I need to write and make music.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal. com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @Johnnykats1 on Instagram. As of 9 p.m. Thursday:
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