While knocking around the British club scene with his band Dean Martin's Dog, Robbie met James Honeyman-Scott. The two hit it off, and it was this friendship that led Jimmy to contact Robbie in 1982 about joining The Pretenders as part of a revamped and expanded lineup of the band. Jimmy sadly died in June '82, and Billy Bremner took over initially, but Robbie was auditioned and joined The Pretenders in September '82.

He toured extensively and recorded two albums with the band ( Learning to Crawl and Get Close ) before leaving to join Paul McCartney's band.

Honeyman-Scott had mentioned McIntosh to Hamer's Jol Dantzig in conversations about the "new" Pretenders idea, so Dantzig was aware of Robbie even before he joined the band. So, it was a bittersweet moment when Dantzig finally met McIntosh on his first tour of the states with The Pretenders, but they found they had more than just Jimmy in common.

Above: McIntosh onstage with The Pretenders.

Below: Trying out Paul Stanley's Scarab
at the Hamer offices in Arlington Heights.