Colin Blunstone had hoped to be on the road this year with his legendary 1960s Brit-rock band The Zombies.
But those plans changed in July when The Zombies founding member Rod Argent suffered a stroke and stepped away from touring.
Now Blunstone, who joined The Zombies a year after the band formed in 1961, is on the road solo, including his gig at Tucson’s Rialto Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 22, with Scottish folksinger-songwriter Al Stewart and The Empty Pockets.
“I’ve known Al Stewart for years. He’s a wonderful performer, and I’m really looking forward to it,” Blunstone said early this month, days before he was to meet Arizona rocker Alice Cooper in Florida for Cooper’s “Rock Legends Cruise XII.” “We’re big mates, so it’ll be great fun to be playing 10 or 11 dates in the West.”
In addition to Blunstone and Cooper, “Rock Legends” Feb. 13-17 included Styx, Foghat, John Waite, Gary Hoey, Nikki Hill, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening and others performing nightly on the sold-out cruise ship.
Colin Blunstone of The Zombies is sharing the Rialto Theatre marquee with fellow 1960s British star Al Stewart.
“It’s extra fun because Alice Cooper’s on there, but these cruises are really good because there’ll be 3,000 or 4,000 people on that huge ship and they’re all real music enthusiasts, so they’re great audiences to play to,” Blunstone said.
For his Tucson concert, Blunstone will draw from deep catalogues of The Zombies, which was off-and-on since 1961, and The Alan Parsons Project, which featured him as a guest vocalist on four albums between 1978-85.
He also had a solid solo career, releasing nine albums from 1969-2009.
“I’ve been recording for over 60 years,” said the 79-year-old Blunstone, who admits he’s flirted with the notion of retiring but isn’t quite ready to take the plunge.
“I think that’s a conversation that I have with myself fairly regularly,” he said, adding that the conversation always ends with a pledge to bow out when his voice starts to fade. “I’ve had a wonderful career, and it’s a sort of a win-win situation, really, because I love being on the road and I love performing, but I’m really looking forward to retirement, as well.”
Blunstone is on the road on the West Coast through early March with a new solo band that includes The Zombies drummer Steve Rodford, who joined the band in 2004, and Danish guitarist Søren Koch.
Saturday’s show at the Rialto, 318 E. Congress St., starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $48 to $88 through ticketmaster.com.
