Bob Belber: Montauk Son of Fisherman Authors Memoir

Bob Belber, who just released a memoir titled Life with the Stars, saw his first star at 8 years old on his father’s commercial fishing boat just off Montauk Point. They were towing their nets and Bob was picking fish on deck when there was a loud splash. When this frightened boy looked to his left, he saw a huge black submarine less than a football field distance away and on the black turret was a big red star. It was a Russian submarine inside U.S. waters. A Russian sailor descended a ladder and walked to a cannon on the bow of the sub. The barrel swung and it was pointed right at the fishing boat. Bob’s father told him to stand at the entrance of the pilot house with him so the Russians could see that the only two people onboard were Bob and his Dad. Ten minutes later the barrel went back to pointing forward and the sailor went back up the ladder. The sub submerged seconds later. This was just one of the many incredible stories in Bob Belber’s memoir Life with the Stars.

Bob has been in the entertainment industry for more than 41 years. He was the GM of the Starlite Music Theater in Latham, upstate New York, from 1983-93 and he booked more than 500 live concerts that were hosted at this theater-in-the-round (which is like Westbury Music Fair).

Bob shares incredible encounters from the theater days including sharing a bottle of tequila with Willie Nelson on his bus, paying cash to Rodney Dangerfield so he could pay “his guy” and funny-as-hell moments with Luther Vandross, Connie Francis, Megadeth and even the Chippendales.

SMG, which was the largest facility management company in the world back in the 1990s and 2000s (including management of Nassau Coliseum), hired Bob as the GM of the Albany County Civic Center, then known as the Knickerbocker Arena. Bob booked the same huge artists and bands that were playing in Madison Square Garden including the Rolling Stones, Billy Joel and Elton John, Paul McCartney, Genesis, U2, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and so many others in Albany, from 1996 to present day.

The author shares stories that took place with many of these superstars. It seems that everyone always wants to know “what happens backstage at the major concerts?”

The memoir brings readers back in time to the late 60s when Bob was on his father’s fishing boat off the coast of Montauk at just 10 years old. On one of the trips, the boat was towing nets very close to the beach (known as Ditch Plains) in Montauk. It was 5:30 a.m. with the sun just coming up and Bob’s father handed the binoculars to Bob and told him to look up on the beach. Bob saw a group of guys and gals totally naked running around the beach, including the unmistakable Mick Jagger. Bob’s father told his son that the band had rented a beach cottage just over the dune for the summer. Then one of the men in the group saw how close the boat was, and he ran out to the water’s edge, in the buff, and began to throw rocks at the trawler with no success of hitting them.

Other truly inspiring and hilarious true stories involving Paul McCartney, Lil Wayne, Michael Buble and so many more are re-lived in Bob’s book – “Life With The Stars.”

Lil Wayne was minutes from canceling a sold-out concert until Bob got involved. Bob had booked him into the arena in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., and as the show is loading into the facility, Bob shares a rare moment that saved the show from being canceled but the readers of Bob’s memoir will laugh like hell when they hear what Lil Wayne himself said about Bob’s idea to save the show.

“He did not want to go through the metal detector with his girlfriend. We had to stop the buses, stop the load-in, everything if we couldn’t work this out,” Belber explains. Ends up, the problem wasn’t the metal detector, but the visibility of it. “I talked to him and worked out that he’d meet the head of security at the side door who would use a wand on him and his girlfriend. I still remember what he said. ‘Now, there’s a white [MF] who gets it.’ ”

In the early 2000s the United States had just sent troops into Iraq. As the Director of Booking – US, Bob routed a 19-city tour of the Vince Gill & Amy Grant Christmas Show. He wanted to arrange a connection to the concert in San Antonio, Texas, and the servicemen and women in Iraq. Bob contacted the U.S. Army to see if a connection could be made between the families attending the show in mid-December in San Antonio with their loved ones who were serving in Iraq. He didn’t have the budget for the satellite, but contacted the general who oversaw the U.S. Broadcast Television Network, nicknamed AFARTS. Bob indicated to the general that he had no budget at all, but he felt this interaction could be great for morale. The general referred him to the senior VP who headed up the satellite company. Bob went to great efforts to explain to the SVP what he wanted to do and why. Roughly 15 minutes later, the SVP called Bob back and said, “we’re in.” The satellite time would be provided at no cost.

At the halfway point of the show, Amy went to the front of the stage and told everyone to remain in their seats because she had something special for them. She called seven ladies with their children up on stage. Amy went to the first lady on the first barstool and asked her, “if you could have anything in the world for the holidays, what would you want?” She teared up and said, “I wish my husband could be home with us.” Then suddenly, the whole back of the stage was illuminated with a video screen from edge to edge. The camera zoomed in on the husband and he said, “Hi, Honey.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the arena. The entire concert from start, through interaction and through the end of the show was broadcast live to 118 military bases around the world in the middle of the night. Two weeks after the tour ended, Amy Grant sent Belber a box with a framed gold record that he displays on his office wall today, with a note that said what they did in San Antonio that night was one of the best things that Amy and Vince had done in their careers. Bob tells everyone that it was absolutely the best thing he had done in his career.

Belber doesn’t hold back in the book. He shares some great stories. What also comes through is his love for the business, for the concertgoers and for the entertainers.

While the list of artists and stories is long, Belber also gives readers a peek into how these massive shows come together in a seamless performance.

“Most big shows start the load-in at 8 a.m,” Belber says of a show that won’t start until 8 or 9 p.m. “Sound check isn’t until three or four, but we have to be fully loaded and ready to go. We also do a tremendous amount of work before the show gets there.”

Whether the artist is nice or demanding, Belber and his crew have to be prepared for anything and everything.

“We handle stage hands, security, what the act needs onstage, ushers, ticket takers, concessions, and everything has to be reviewed before they go on,” Belber explains.

And, don’t forget that they also are responsible to Albany County, which owns the facility.

“ASM Global, which owns SMG, generates over 100 million dollars a year in economic impact for the Capital Region/Albany market,” Belber says.

The easiest way to get the Life with the Stars book is to order it at lifewiththestars.com. The book ($28.99, 212 pages, published March 8, 2025) also is available on amazon.com in hardcover or paperback. Barnes & Noble BN.com is selling the e-book version of “Life With The Stars” and soon will be selling the paperback and hardcover options. Books will be in retail stores in May.

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publisher of Dan’s Papers.