Ringo Starr Is Going Country (Again)

Ringo Starr recently teamed up with superstar producer T-Bone Burnett to produce and co-write his first album in six years, Look Up. Due out on January 10, 2025, this will be The Beatles’ drummer’s first country record in more than 50 years and follows his newly released single “Time on My Hands.”

Starr’s passion for country music even once led him to attempt a move to Texas from England (the paperwork proved too daunting). He eventually recorded one of his first solo albums in Nashville. He made the decision to make Look Up in 2022 after a chance meeting with Burnett who has won several Grammy Awards for his work on film soundtracks like Cold Mountain (2004) and Walk the Line (2005). After exchanging pleasantries, Starr told Burnett, “Well, I’m making EPs in the studio. And you know what, it would be great if you felt like joining in and doing a track, and I’ll put drums and vocals on.”

Burnett co-wrote nine of the 11 songs on the album which features Americana, bluegrass, and country artists like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Larkin Poe, Lucius, and Alison Krauss. Starr explains, “I’ve always loved country music. And when I asked T-Bone to write me a song, I didn’t even think at the time that it would be a country song – but of course it was, and it was so beautiful. I had been making EPs at the time and so I thought we would do a country [one]—but when he brought me nine songs, I knew we had to make an album!”

Starr adds, while sitting down in a West Hollywood hotel suite, “Well, I was the country guy in the Beatles.” The 84-year-old singer-drummer once played drums on one of Burnett’s albums as a recording artist, a 1977 release by his then-group the Alpha Band. However, Starr admits to having no memory of it but does remember Burnett from the mid-70s. He recalls, “I had a house somewhere in L.A. Sometimes it was hard to find, and I would throw parties, with a lot of musicians, and somehow, he was always there.”

As for his part, Burnett had this to say, “I have loved Ringo Starr and his playing and his singing and his aesthetic for as long as I can (or care to) remember. He changed the way every drummer after him played, with his inventive approach to the instrument. And, he has always sung killer rockabilly, as well as being a heartbreaking ballad singer. To get to make this music with him was something like the realization of a 60-year dream I’ve been living.”

On his new single, “Time on My Hands,” Starr, in keeping with tradition of the genre, sings, “The lesson’s been learned / I’m over her now / That bridge has been burned.” He notes, “I always say, well, there are three things that classically define country – you know, the wife’s left, the dog’s dead, and there’s no money for the jukebox. And that’s how it was when it started.”

Soon after the album’s release, Starr plans to celebrate by doing two live performances at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium January 14-15, 2005.

-Sharon Oliver

Photo: Ringo Starr (Getty)