{"id":902814,"date":"2026-05-01T05:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/its-a-long-long-road-brother-how-ringo-starr-found-new-inspiration-in-nashville\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T05:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:21:08","slug":"its-a-long-long-road-brother-how-ringo-starr-found-new-inspiration-in-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/its-a-long-long-road-brother-how-ringo-starr-found-new-inspiration-in-nashville\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s a Long, Long Road, Brother\u2019: How Ringo Starr Found New Inspiration in Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Music <\/p>\n<p>The Beatles drummer is celebrating his country music renaissance with the new LP Long Long Road, surely the best album ever made by an 85-year-old<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It\u2019s good to know that one thing in this crazy world never changes:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/ringo-starr\/\">Ringo Starr<\/a>\u00a0remains the most charming man on the planet.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/beatles\/\">The Beatles<\/a>\u00a0legend might be the most universally beloved figure in the music world, but even at the age of 85, he\u2019s got more songs in him. As he cackles, \u201cIt\u2019s like my 4-year-old granddaughter says: \u2018Siri, play Ringo!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ringo is getting ready to drop his new country album,\u00a0<em>Long Long Road<\/em>, with the single \u201cChoose Love\u201d available today. He made it with producer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/t-bone-burnett\/\">T Bone Burnett<\/a>, a year after their acclaimed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/nashville\/\">Nashville<\/a>\u00a0collaboration\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/ringo-starr-look-up-review-1235231379\/\">Look Up<\/a><\/em>. \u201cI love\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/country-music\/\">country music<\/a>, so it wasn\u2019t hard,\u201d Ringo says. But he gets a little help from his friends, including hot young vanguard artists like Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings, as well as stars like Sheryl Crow and St. Vincent.<\/p>\n<p>Ringo\u2019s relentless vitality is a marvel, 60 years after the man sang \u201cYellow Submarine.\u201d When you see him onstage these days, he\u2019s a whirlwind, constantly in motion. It raises the question: Would Ringo agree he\u2019s still the best dancer in rock &#038; roll? \u201cYes, I agree,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m just sort of a mover.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s truly an inspiration \u2014 he spends the show either drumming or shimmying, when he could probably get away with an armchair. \u201cThat would be so great,\u201d he says. \u201cThe drum chair is like an armchair: \u2018OK, let\u2019s\u00a0<em>goooo<\/em>.\u2019 No, you\u2019ve got to be upright and into it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Long Long Road\u00a0<\/em>shows that Ringo\u2019s still into it, as always. He surprised everyone\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/ringo-starr-country-album-look-up-interview-1235229128\/\">last year with\u00a0<em>Look Up<\/em><\/a>, his first country record since his 1970 solo gem\u00a0<em>Beaucoups of Blues<\/em>. But he sounds invigorated by making a Nashville album that\u2019s legitimately up to date, with cutting-edge musicians. \u201cThat\u2019s who he is,\u201d Burnett says. \u201cHe\u2019s been a convener for a long time, and a collaborator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On\u00a0<em>Long Long Road<\/em>, due on April 24, he\u2019s playing with a cast of new-school renegade pickers including Tuttle, Strings, and Sarah Jarosz. \u201cIsn\u2019t that far out?\u201d Ringo says. \u201cMolly\u2019s been so great, and Billy Strings is amazing. What a great welcoming I had when I went to Nashville. It was just a great experience, so we just got on and made another one.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p> <iframe title=\"Choose Love\" width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" data-lazy-type=\"iframe\" frameborder=\"0\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share;\" nitro-og-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3iFVHH66ytI?feature=oembed&#038;autoplay=1\" nitro-lazy-src=\"data:text\/html;base64,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\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The single \u201cChoose Love\u201d is a twanged-up remake of the title song from his 2005 album, where Ringo sings the line, \u201cThe long and winding road is more than a song.\u201d That line still resonates for him. \u201cIt\u2019s a long, long road, brother,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of my life: leaving Liverpool, living in London, getting to New York, coming to L.A. So that\u2019s why I want to call it<em>\u00a0Long Long Road<\/em>. I wasn\u2019t even going to call it \u201c<em>It\u2019s a \u2026<\/em>\u201d because that\u2019s giving it length. Just\u00a0<em>Long Long Road<\/em>\u00a0can go on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ringo radiates all his famous wisdom and mirth, as well as his wall-shaking laughter. (As John Lennon told him in\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/tv-movies\/tv-movie-news\/a-hard-days-night-reborn-behind-the-beatles-films-new-restoration-103267\/\">A Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/a><\/em>, \u201cYou\u2019re a window-rattler, son.\u201d) Today, his Zoom screen has a background of a tropical beach with palm trees. \u201cI like to have this on,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a backdrop for the winter. Then when the summer comes, we\u2019ll have something else.\u201d He drops quintessential Ringosophical proverbs like, \u201cI just get up in the morning, do my stuff, and do my stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last year, he made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry, at Emmylou Harris\u2019 invitation. He performed \u201cAct Naturally,\u201d the Buck Owens classic he croons on the Beatles\u2019\u00a0<em>Help!<\/em>\u00a0He also filmed the special\u00a0<em>Ringo &#038; Friends at the Ryman<\/em>, featuring stars from Brenda Lee to Rodney Crowell to Jack White, who sang \u201cDon\u2019t Pass Me By.\u201d (Tuttle did the honors on \u201cOctopus\u2019s Garden.\u201d)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-country\/ringo-starr-ringo-friends-at-the-ryman-trailer-1235290988\/\">The Ryman special<\/a>\u00a0also had a tribute from an old mate, Paul McCartney, who knows something about long and winding roads. As Macca said, \u201cHe was the first guy in the Beatles to really turn us on to country music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new album continues his Nashville Ringossance. \u201cI like to think I made the right move, made the right turn,\u201d he says. \u201cHow it happened is we went to listen to Olivia Harrison reading her book [<em>Came the Lightning]<\/em>, her poems for George. She had about 50 people there, and one of them was T Bone, who I\u2019ve bumped into many times since the Seventies.\u201d He asked Burnett to write him a song but got more than he bargained for. \u201cHe sent a country track over. I said, \u2018All right, so I\u2019m going to make a country EP now?\u2019 But then he came into town, and we sat around and I thought, oh, maybe he could produce an album on me. I said, \u2018Well, how many songs have we got?\u2019 And he had them in his pocket \u2014\u00a0nine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t help myself,\u201d Burnett admits. \u201cHe invited me to write a song for him, and look what happened. I wrote a good<em>\u00a0long<\/em>\u00a0song for him.\u201d But after their success with\u00a0<em>Look Up<\/em>, the tunes just kept flowing. \u201cIt\u2019s tremendous fun to write for his voice, for his spirit,\u201d Burnett says. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the most recognizable voices in the world, so his voice is in your head with every word you write. It becomes very easy. It\u2019s like guide rails that you can just chase, to follow down a path.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ringo\u2019s always had country in his soul. \u201cWell, if I talk like that, it\u2019s because of where I come from,\u201d he says, exaggerating his Liverpudlian accent. \u201c<em>That\u2019s very fooking country, innit?\u00a0<\/em>But growing up in Liverpool, we were blessed because it was a port. The ships would go to America and then come back and they\u2019d have all the records, country and blues. Liverpool was like the capital of what\u2019s happening now in America. The boys would bring in all these records. And after three days, they\u2019d spent all their money, so they sold the records. That\u2019s how it was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When the Beatles fell apart in 1970, Ringo made the country album\u00a0<em>Beaucoups of Blues<\/em>\u00a0with the pedal-steel legend Pete Drake, who\u2019d played on Bob Dylan\u2019s\u00a0<em>Nashville Skyline<\/em>. But instead of a superstar country-rock trip, Ringo went to Music Row to do it their way. \u201cPete Drake was the country guy who put it together,\u201d Ringo says. \u201cWe were working in the studio with George Harrison, and I sent my car to get him at Heathrow. He said, \u2018Hey, is that your car, hoss?\u2019 He called me \u2018hoss!\u2019 \u2018I see you like country music,\u2019 because I had a lot of cassettes in the car. \u2018You should come out to Nashville and make a country record.\u2019 I said, \u2018A month in Nashville, could I deal with that?\u201d He said, \u2018What?\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/how-bob-dylan-found-his-new-country-voice-on-nashville-skyline-193769\/\">Nashville Skyline<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>took two days!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sure enough, the Nashville studio cats banged out<em>\u00a0Beaucoups of Blues\u00a0<\/em>fast. \u201cI flew in and the first morning we picked five songs, recorded them in the day, then finished them at night. The next day, five more songs, first the band then me, so we did the album in two days. Takes you two days to plug in now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Ringo and T Bone took care not to make<em>\u00a0Long Long Road\u00a0<\/em>a retro trip. Like\u00a0<em>Look Up<\/em>, it\u2019s full of fresh blood. \u201cIt\u2019s Been Too Long\u201d features vocals from Tuttle and Jarosz. \u201cRingo\u2019s sung only a few duets in his life,\u201d Burnett says. \u201cBut two of them have been with Molly Tuttle. They sound beautiful together. I love Annie Clark [St. Vincent] from Dallas; she\u2019s a soul sister. Sheryl Crow, such an amazing woman. They\u2019re for-real artists, and Ringo\u2019s a for-real artist, so I wanted to put other people with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><img title=\"music\" alt=\"music\" decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"https:\/\/cdn-ilegigk.nitrocdn.com\/sccIUIbmWTauRiOqCExZqNNyEmbLBkSx\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-5f9caa1\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2dffdef82ba8deacd0cf6f60e55d5059.SSMQ-TBone-R27-2.jpg\" data-old-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgMSAxIiB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Ringo Starr reunited with producer T Bone Burnett for \u2018Long Long Road.\u2019 (Photo: Scott Ritchie)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the way Ringo has always preferred to operate, as a team player. \u201cIt works for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI just love to play. I\u2019ve got a lot of grandkids, and three of them are drummers. I\u2019ve played on a lot of people\u2019s records over the last 10 years. I put my stuff on, send it back, and I say, \u2018Use me or lose me!\u2019 It may not be what they wanted, but anyway, not many of them have\u00a0<em>losed<\/em>\u00a0me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s heading back out on the road with his All-Starr Band, which has kept touring with a rotating cast since 1990. \u201cThe audience and I, we know each other,\u201d he says. \u201cI know they love me and they know I love them, so we can have some fun. I tell the band, \u2018We\u2019ve got to stay up.\u2019 And that\u2019s what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We should all have this man\u2019s energy level. \u201cWell, you\u2019ve got to eat more broccoli,\u201d he says. \u201cAll the good things about me, I blame broccoli for. So now I say, peace and love and broccoli.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His plainspoken voice sounds reflective on\u00a0<em>Long Long Road<\/em>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0it\u2019s almost certainly the best album ever made by an 85-year-old. It was recorded in Nashville and L.A., with six Burnett tunes and three by Starr. (\u201cGive me a bit of a melody and a chord and I can write songs,\u201d Ringo says with pride.) He also does a vintage 1950s tune by rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins, one of the Beatles\u2019 biggest heroes, titled \u201cI Don\u2019t See Me in Your Eyes Anymore.\u201d Ringo sings it with the stoic sense of fate that\u2019s always haunted his singing ever since classics like \u201cIt Don\u2019t Come Easy\u201d or \u201cPhotograph.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All four Fabs were deeply immersed in country sounds. \u201cLook, the Beatles, if they came out today, would be called an Americana band,\u201d Burnett says. \u201cAll the way through, George Harrison played a Chet Atkins Country Gentleman guitar, and he played Carl Perkins-style finger-picking, which all goes back to Arnold Shultz, who taught Bill Monroe. Bill was the mandolin player in Arnold Shultz\u2019s band, and his Uncle Pen was the fiddle player.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Ringo was the most twangful of the lads. Before he even joined the Beatles, he played in a Liverpool skiffle combo called the Texans. \u201cHis drumming feel is very much a Texas feel,\u201d says Burnett, a son of Fort Worth. \u201cIt\u2019s a swing-time feel like Milton Brown and the Brownies.\u201d Ringo\u2019s always had the Lone Star State in his sound, as well as a lot of New Orleans. \u201cHe\u2019s got a similar kind of intensity that Earl Palmer had, the drummer who played on all those Little Richard records. \u2018Baby Don\u2019t Go,\u2019 on the new album, has a very New Orleans feel, very second-line. But the way he does it, it comes out completely original.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Long Long Road\u00a0<\/em>reaches back to some of his earliest Americana influences. \u201cOn this record, we\u2019ve done a Carl Perkins song,\u201d Ringo says. \u201cI hadn\u2019t heard \u2018I Don\u2019t See Me in Your Eyes Anymore\u2019 before. He writes in the way I love to sing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Singing the Perkins tune was the moment that brought Ringo\u2019s entire musical journey full circle. \u201cThe first two songs I ever recorded with the Beatles were both Carl Perkins songs. And it\u2019s like, we\u2019re back to Carl again. That\u2019s how it is. I mean, I don\u2019t sit here and make the big plan. I just say yes to something, and it unfolds as we go along.\u201d For Ringo, it\u2019s still simple as that.<\/p>\n<p>From <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/ringo-starr-country-album-long-long-road-interview-1235540586\/\">Rolling Stone US.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/rollingstoneindia.com\/its-a-long-long-road-brother-how-ringo-starr-found-new-inspiration-in-nashville\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Music The Beatles drummer is celebrating his country music renaissance with the new LP Long Long Road, surely the best album ever made by an 85-year-old It\u2019s good to know that one thing in this crazy world never changes:\u00a0Ringo Starr\u00a0remains the most charming man on the planet.\u00a0The Beatles\u00a0legend might be the most universally beloved figure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":902815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[131522],"class_list":{"0":"post-902814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-news","8":"tag-podcast-music"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}