Ringo Starr's All Starr Band member talks about his newly released recordings with George Harrison, his musical start and his connection to the 'Brady Bunch.'
When you give it some thought, the list of people who have gone on to greatness from the state of New Jersey is pretty extensive — particularly in the area of show business — and Gary Wright belongs on that list on more than one front.
Born and raised in Bergen County, Wright was a child star in the Broadway musical Fanny (in which the title character was played by Florence Henderson, Wright’s stage mom who later gained TV fame as Mrs. Brady on the Brady Bunch). That stage experience sort of lit the fire for Wright’s love of music.
After attending medical school, he decided for forego a career as a doctor and instead heal souls with his songwriting skills and proficiency as a keyboard player.
A personal friend of George Harrison, Wright lived in England from 1968-’74, played keys for several years with the band Spooky Tooth, backed up many of rock’s all-time greats on studio recordings, and scored mega-hits as a solo performer with the songs “Dream Weaver” and “Love is Alive” (both of which reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard charts; "Dream Weaver" stayed there for three weeks).
Wright recently released a CD called Connected, and is part of the Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Tour that will appear at Caesars’ Circus Maximus Theater in Atlantic City on Saturday, July 3 (four days before Ringo’s 70th birthday), at 9pm (tickets are $75, $95 and $125).
The group also includes Richard Page, Wally Palmar, Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter and Gregg Bissonette.
Wright recently spoke with Atlantic City Weekly by phone.
Both of your hits, particularly Dream Weaver, are songs that are vividly engrained in my head from my late childhood. Do you hear that type of thing often?
I was very, very fortunate to have been blessed with that situation where they did become classics. That doesn’t happen too often.
This latest tour you’re on just started (June 24 in Niagra Falls, Ontario). How did the first show go?
It was great. It’s a very unusual group of musicians, but they really blend well. Ringo comes out and does a couple of songs, and he says “The concept of this band is that everyone gets to do two of their hit songs,” and then we play behind him when he does Beatles songs and his own material. It’s about an hour and a half show and so far it’s going great.
How did you become close friends with George Harrison, and is it tied into how you became part of the All-Starr Band?
I was asked to play on [Harrison’s) first album [All Things Must Pass in 1970] when I was living in England. I got a call saying that George needed a keyboard player, do you want to come down? I said sure. I went down to the session and we immediately hit it off. I played on this track called “Isn’t it a Pity” and he asked that I come back to perform on his subsequent albums. Ringo played drums on most of the tracks, and I later played on [Ringo’s] singles “Back Off Boogaloo” and “It Don’t Come Easy.”
How do you feel about the way your latest CD, Connected, turned out?
I’m really happy with it. It’s probably the best thing I’ve done to date, and the first pop album I’ve done in about 20 years. I’ve released other material during that period, and I did a duet with my son Dorian on a remake of “Love is Alive,” but I think Connected really turned out well. I wrote part of it on acoustic guitar, which I’ve always done. A lot of people don’t realize it, but I wrote “Dream Weaver” on acoustic guitar. I got Will Kennedy from the Yellow Jackets to play drums on it, and Ringo played drums on one of the songs. I also added some rhythm guitar that [Jeff] “Skunk” Baxter played, and Joe Walsh also played on two of the solos. There’s a bonus kind of thing that we have on my Web site [thedreamweaver.com] and we’re offering something called an om pendant. You pull it apart and a little flash drive comes out and you put that in your computer, and there’s videos of me making my new album some videos of me talking about stories I had with George Harrison. There are two songs [on Connected] — one of which I wrote with George back in 1970 that has just been released for the first time, and another in which he plays a guitar solo on.
Can you talk about how your music career started and evolved?
I was on Broadway at age 11 [in Fanny] and had been exposed to early rock ‘n’ roll when I was actually in my dressing room in Fanny. My roots were early rhythm-and-blues and rock ‘n’ roll, and guys like Ray Charles, James Brown, Bobby “Blue” Bland and others are my idols. I had always played in bands on weekends and during the summer [through college and in medical school] and loved doing it. The first band I was ever in professionally was Spooky Tooth, and after the third album we released I left the band to work as a producer with Jimmy Miller, who produced material for Traffic, the Rolling Stones, Blind Faith and a bunch of other artists. I also started playing with George and Ringo, and on one of BB King’s albums, during that time along with a bunch of other things. I rejoined Spooky Tooth again briefly until 1974.
Sevendust, the heavy-metal band from Atlanta, will be hitting Atlantic City with Disturbed, Korn and In This Moment for the Monster Energy Music as a Weapon Tour on Sunday, Jan. 30, at the House of Blues at Showboat. Founded in 1994, Sevendust released its eighth studio album, Cold Day Memory last April.
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1. Al Canonico said... on Jul 2, 2010 at 07:58PM
“Does anyone know who played drums and bass on the original track
"Love Is Alive" ?”
2. Architectkt said... on Jul 16, 2010 at 06:07PM
“Gary Wright - Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes, Moog synthesizers, ARP String Ensemble, bass, strings, clavinet, brass, woodwind, vocals
- David Foster - Hammond Organ, Fender Rhodes, ARP String Ensemble
- Bobby Lyle - additional synthesizers, clavinet, Fender Rhodes
- Ronnie Montrose - electric guitar (05)
- Andy Newmark - drums
- Jim Keltner - drums
- Betty Sweet, David Pomeranz, Lorna Wright - backing vocals”
3. R. D. Cessna said... on Dec 19, 2010 at 11:31PM
“What ever happened to Betty Sweet and Lorna Wright ? They were great ! Do they still perform ?
Thanks, R.D.”
4. jenevia said... on Apr 6, 2011 at 04:43PM
“how can a mother get her baby when she is prago and don't have a job and cant take care of the kid?she got the baby because she lied in court and she has rich grandparents. i don't git it a gudge will just let a parent that cant even take car of her self all cuz she has rich grandparents”