and singer and had the band moving towards a harder "new wave music" direction on some of the tracks. Hawkins resigned from the group in late 1980 to join up with Mick Fleetwood's The Visitor, a side project the Fleetwood Mac drummer was recording in Africa. After Andes returned to guest for the group's February 1981 appearance on American Bandstand, Kim Stone came in to take over bass. Everything seemed to be on track until Larry Burnett suddenly disappeared from the group, after playing a show at Miami Baseball Stadium with Heart, Blue Öyster Cult, Motörhead and Freewheel on April 19, 1981, to return to his hometown of Washington, D.C. to enter a rehab (Burnett eventually kicked a serious drug habit and after working in radio in the late 80s/early 90s, began pursuing a solo career in 2004). The group continued on to play their next show in Las Vegas without him. But after playing a concert with the band in Lahaina, Hawaii with Pure Prairie League in August of that same year, Rick Roberts announced that he also was leaving for a solo career. With the band lacking personnel and increasing in financial debt, Atlantic dropped Firefall from their roster in 1981 and released Best of Firefall at the close of that year. Since his departure from Firefall, Roberts has continued to tour on occasion. In the fall of 1981, he played dates in tandem with fellow former Burrito Brother Chris Hillman. In 1985 he was in a Twentieth Anniversary Byrds Tribute band with former Byrds Gene Clark and Michael Clarke. In 1987–89, Roberts teamed up with ex-Eagle Randy Meisner in the short lived Roberts Meisner Band, and after a return spell in Firefall (1989–1992), he was sidelined due to health issues for a number of years before returning to the road as a solo act. In the summer and fall of 2019, he toured together with fellow Firefaller Larry Burnett. Resumption and later work Unhappy with the way things had turned out, Jock Bartley decided to put together a new Firefall lineup in the spring of 1982. At Ron Albert's suggestion, Bartley got together with two Miami-based musicians, Johnne Sambataro (during the '70s and '80s, he adopted the conventional spelling of John for his first name) and Chuck Kirkpatrick. Sambataro was a singer/guitarist/keyboardist/bassist/songwriter who had sung on record with Stephen Stills, Eric Clapton, Dave Mason, McGuinn, Clark &