Lineup Changes
Miles Joseph (vocals, guitar) and Gabriel Katona (keyboards) played on the group's third album, Room With a View (1980). But Ronn Moss left Player by 1981 to pursue a full-time acting career (he played the role of Ridge Forrester on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful until 2012). After Moss left, Beckett kept the band going with Friesen, Joseph, Katona and Rusty Buchanan (vocals, bass) and the band released their fourth album, Spies of Life, on RCA in late 1981. The band continued until 1983 and played on the music series Solid Gold in both 1982 and 1983 with the new lineup.
Peter Beckett went on to be a member of Little River Band from 1989 to 1997 and played "Baby Come Back" at its performances.
J.C. Crowley (who still occasionally wrote with Beckett) became a Nashville performer and songwriter, recording his only solo album, Beneath The Texas Moon, in 1988. In 1989, he had country hits with "Paint the Town and Hang the Moon Tonight" (No. 13) and "I Know What I've Got" (No. 21), and was named "Best New Male Country Performer". He wrote a number of songs recorded by Nashville artists, including Johnny Cash and The Oak Ridge Boys. He also won a battle with cancer in the late 1990s and now lives in Topanga, California.
Although Player officially retired as a touring band, Moss and Beckett have partnered on occasion. The duo recorded an additional studio album as Player, released in Japan in August 1995 as Electric Shadow and renamed Lost in Reality when put out on River North Records in the U.S. in May 1996. On December 16, 1997, Player played live for the first time in years at the L.A. Music Awards at the Hollywood Palladium, with a lineup consisting of Beckett, Moss, Elliot Easton (of The Cars) on guitar, Burleigh Drummond of Ambrosia on drums, and Tony Sciuto of Little River Band on keyboards. A compilation album, Best of Player, was released in 1998.
The response to the group's reunion show was so enthusiastic that they had several offers for more concert dates. River North Records dropped the band, and Player tried to buy back the rights to the Lost in Reality CD but were unsuccessful.
Player toured in 1998 with a lineup of Beckett, Moss, Sciuto, Drummond, guitarist Steve Farris (formerly of Mr. Mister) and percussionist Ron Green, with guitarist Dave Amato (from REO Speedwagon) and drummer Ron Wikso (formerly of Foreigner and The Storm) filling in as needed depending on the schedules of the others. A 2000 lineup of Player included drummer Craig Pilo, guitarist Michael Hakes, Green, Sciuto, Moss, and Beckett playing more shows across the United States. Michael Hakes died on November 19, 2003 from complications of leukemia. After Hakes' death, the band stopped touring and concentrated on other projects.
In 2007 Player reunited once again with a lineup of: Beckett, Moss, Pilo, Green, Ricky Zacharaides (guitar) and Ed Roth (keyboards).
By 2009 Rob Math (guitar) and Johnny English (keyboards) had come in to replace Zacharaides and Roth.
In April 2012 Player announced they would be releasing a new album later in the year on Frontiers Records, to be preceded by the worldwide digital release only of a 3-song EP entitled My Addiction on April 30. That December, it was announced the new album, Too Many Reasons, was slated for release in Europe on February 22, 2013 and in North America on February 26.
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