If you were to start naming great ’80s bands, you wouldn’t get too far down the list before you mentioned Starship.
The pop-rock stars were a constant force in the ’80s, churning out timeless hits like “We Built This City” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” Starship is also part of a lineage of bands starting with Jefferson Airplane, extending into Jefferson Starship, and then simply becoming Starship.
After a hiatus, Starship reformed in the early ’90s and continues today as “Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas” (the iconic voice behind those aforementioned hits). The band is teaming up with another classic-rock force in Foghat for a performance at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino on Saturday, Jan. 20.
During a recent phone interview, Mickey Thomas said the Indio performance will be a special show to him.
“I’ve been out here 19 years,” he said. “We came down from Lake Tahoe in 2004. We just got a little tired of snow and ice and decided for a change of scenery, so we went from one extreme to the other … but I really love it, and we plan to stay. We’ve lived in Palm Desert for about 16 years and Rancho Mirage for three years.”
Thomas talked about some of his favorite things to do in the Coachella Valley.
“It’s a great place to ride your bike. We hike the Bump and Grind and some other trails here, and we love the weather,” he said. “People sometimes ask me, ‘How do you take it? How do you stay in the summers?’ I usually say I prefer a summer in Rancho Mirage to a winter in Minnesota. I don’t mind it when it’s really hot. I grew up in South Georgia, where it was hot and humid. I love it here.
“I don’t really get out to the local bars or check out the music scene a whole lot. We do have a good friend, local singer Jetta King, who we keep up with and keep an eye on, because we’re very close to her. We check out her career, and we’ve been to see her a couple of times when she was playing locally.”
Thomas said that he’s been able to stay busy thanks to other musicians coming out to write and record music in the Coachella Valley.
“Just recently, my buddies in Collective Soul were out here recording a new album at Elvis’ old house in Palm Springs,” Thomas said. “I got to drop in on those sessions, and I did background vocals on five or six songs for that album, which should be coming out real soon. Ed Roland from Collective Soul was in town a couple of weeks ago and said, ‘Hey, I’m doing a couple of Christmas songs; come on down, and let’s do something.’ We did a couple of tunes with Ed, and he’s calling that venture The Reindeers. It was basically Ed Roland from Collective Soul and his guitarist, Jesse Triplett, and then we had the drummer from Guns N’ Roses, Frank Ferrer, and myself. I’m always trying to stay busy and working on different projects … and trying to keep my chops up.”
At 74, Thomas said protecting and preserving his voice is “really important”; he added that the more he stays busy, the better his voice gets.
“I find that anytime I go into a studio and work on something with the recording process, it really helps to keep my voice sharp for live shows,” Thomas said. “It just kind of keeps your ears sharp and keeps your voice in shape. I’ll probably do 50 or 60 shows a year, but the studio work really helps to keep your voice fine-tuned and ready for the stage.”
The rocker holds self-care in high regard.
“I do try to do a lot of steam showers when I’m on the road,” said Thomas. “I drink a lot of water … and I try to get enough rest, which is sometimes difficult to do on the road. Lack of sleep is usually the worst thing for my voice. I try to eat decently, which is also sometimes hard to do, and (I don’t have) too many vices. I love a little bit of chardonnay; I like wine, but that’s about my only vice these days.”
Those steam showers are a huge priority—even if they freak out other members of the touring party.
“It might be the middle of the summer, so it’s pretty hot outside,” Thomas said. “One of the band members or somebody will come by my room … and all this steam comes out. They go, like, ‘Jesus, it’s hot in there. How can you stand it?’ You’ve got to keep hydrated, baby, gotta keep the stream going.”
The Fantasy Springs show will not be the first time Starship has teamed up with ’70s rockers Foghat.
“We’ve played quite a few shows with Foghat over the years,” Thomas said. “In the last several months, we’ve done three or four shows with them, and then we have the one coming up here, and then we have a couple more after that in March. It seems to be a package that, for some reason, is working. You’d look at it and might say, ‘Foghat and Starship? How is that compatible? How does that match up? How does that work, stylistically and musically?’ But for whatever reason, it seems to be a compatible package. We seem to have a mutual audience that really appreciates both bands and loves what each band does. It’s fun working with them, because they’re really a great group of guys and easy to work with, and fun to hang out with. Foghat and Starship—who knew?”
During Starship’s set, there will be a few moments of songs not by Starship. Thomas makes time for “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” a hit song he sang with Elvin Bishop, as well as a medley of songs that show the musical history of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.
“(‘Fooled Around and Fell in Love’) is still one of my favorite things to sing, and it’s a really nice change of pace in the Starship set,” Thomas said. “Also, my female vocalist, Cian Coey, and myself do kind of a musical tribute to the entire history of Starship; Cian does a couple of Jefferson Airplane songs and some early Jefferson Starship, so we leave no stone unturned. Starship has its roots in Jefferson Starship, and Jefferson Starship had its roots in Jefferson Airplane, so that’s the way we frame it in the show. It’s a medley of the musical history of the band so that you can see where it all started, how it all began, and what it evolved into.”
Mickey Thomas said Starship is “the best band I’ve ever been in.”
“Most of the guys in the band have been with me for over 30 years, my bass player over 25 years, and my guitarist for 12 years, so we’ve been together a long time,” he said. “We obviously enjoy each other’s company, and it’s a very high-energy band. It’s a lot of fun not only to listen to, but also fun to look at onstage, so we’re definitely looking forward to it—plus I get to sleep in my own bed that night.”
Starship and Foghat will perform at 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 20, at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, in Indio. Remaining tickets start at $49. For tickets or more information, call 760-342-5000, or visit www.fantasyspringsresort.com.