John Entwistle - Late Career

Late Career

In 1990 he toured with The Best, a short-lived supergroup which also included Keith Emerson, Joe Walsh, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Simon Phillips. Toward the end of his career, he formed "The John Entwistle "Project"" with longtime friend, drummer Steve Luongo, and guitarist Mark Hitt both formerly of Rat Race Choir. Out of that came "The John Entwistle Band". Godfrey Townsend replaced Mark Hitt on guitar and took over lead vocals. In 1996, the band went on the "Left for Dead" tour with Alan St. Jon on keyboards. After Entwistle toured with The Who for Quadrophenia in 1996–97, the Entwistle band set off on the "Left for Dead – the Sequel" tour in late 1998, now with Gordon Cotten on keyboards. After this second venture, the band released an album of highlights from the tour, called Left for Live. In 1995 Entwistle also toured and recorded with Ringo Starr in one of the incarnations of Ringo's "All-Starr Band". This one also featured Billy Preston, Randy Bachman, and Mark Farner. In this ensemble, he played and sang "Boris the Spider" as his Who showpiece, along with "My Wife". Towards the end of his career he used a Status Graphite Buzzard Bass, which he designed. From 1999 to early 2002, John played as part of The Who. As a side project, John played bass in a country-rock album project of original songs called the Pioneers, with Mickey Wynne on lead guitar, Ron Magness on rhythm guitar and keyboards, Roy Michaels on vocals and John Delgado doing drums. The album was released on Voiceprint Records. Shortly before his death, Entwistle had agreed to play some US dates with the band including Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, following his final upcoming Who tour.

In 2001 he played in Alan Parsons' Beatles tribute show "A Walk Down Abbey Road". The show also featured Ann Wilson of Heart, Todd Rundgren, David Pack of Ambrosia, Godfrey Townsend on guitar, Steve Luongo on drums, and John Beck on keyboards. Between that tour and his prior tour with Ringo, Entwistle joked that he had played "Yellow Submarine" more often than Paul McCartney. That year he also played with The Who at The Concert for New York City. He also joined forces again with "The John Entwistle Band" for an 8 gig tour. This time Chris Clark was on Keyboards. In January–February 2002 John played his last concerts with The Who in a handful of dates in England, the last being 8 February in London's Royal Albert Hall. In late 2002, an expanded 2-CD Left for Live Deluxe was released, highlighting The John Entwistle Band performances.