Sir Ringo Starr inadvertently has his late Beatles bandmate George Harrison to thank for his new country album.
The Fab Four drummer worked with T Bone Burnett on the LP, titled ‘Look Up’, with the American musician co-writing and producing the 11 tracks that feature.
Ringo, 84, had known Burnett, 77, for many years, but it was a chance between the pair back in November 2022 at a party to launch Olivia Harrison’s book ‘Came the Lightening – Twenty Poems for George’ at the Sunset Marquis hotel in Los Angeles that inspired them to record together.
After being sent one song by Burnett, the pair met up in Los Angeles and the guitarist told Ringo he had nine tracks in total ready to go and so they quickly decided they would make a country music album.
Recalling being at the event to support George’s widow Olivia, Ringo said: “We bonded as friends in the ‘70s because I was a resident in LA for a while and I had a lot of parties and any party I had he was there. I did not invite him once! He would be there and he’d come with one of the band. So he would be there and I got to know him a little bit.
“How this record came about was because Olivia was reading poems for George at the Sunset Marquis hotel and I was there and T Bone was there and a lot of other people were there. ‘How are you doing? What’s going on?’ I’m doing this. If you’ve got a song that you think would be good for me send it down.’ That’s how it started.
“He was the inspiration. He sent me this song and it was the most beautiful country track I’d heard in many years. It was sort of ‘50s country and so I thought, ‘I’ll just make a country EP now.’”
Speaking during an online Q+A attended by media including BANG Showbiz and hosted from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, he added: “He came to LA and we were chatting and I thought, ‘I’m going to ask him to do an EP, get him to produce.’ I asked him if he had any songs and he had them in his pocket – nine! So I said, ‘Let’s make an album.’ That’s how it all happened. There was no real plan, we just bumped into each other and ended up here.”
Burnett – who was the guitarist in Bob Dylan’s band through the 1970s – admits it was a dream come true to work with Ringo, because it was The Beatles and the rock ‘n’ roll stars of the 1950s who inspired him to become a musician.
The producer said: “I’m glad to be getting to be friends with Ringo. I have to say, too, American music, rock ‘n’ roll … in 1957 I was eight years old, nine years old, and a friend played me a Jerry Lee Lewis record, ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’. I remember listening to it over and over again, rolling around the floor laughing due to the explosion of freedom and love that was in that record. It was very different to what had been before in the ‘50s which was rigid. I thought, ‘I want to do that, that’s what I want to do.’ By 1959 that whole rock ‘n’ roll revolution was over. Jerry Lee was disgraced, Elvis [Presley] was in the army, Little Richard was in the ministry, Buddy Holly had been killed in a plane crash, Eddie Cochran had been killed in a car wreck. I thought, ‘This isn’t what I want to do with my life.’
“Then The Beatles came and played in New York in February 1964 and they gave us back our music at that point. They opened doors and windows that so many of us have walked through and climbed through over the years. So I’ve got a deep gratitude to all those cats, Ringo in particular. The gift that they’ve given us, that he’s given us is immeasurable. To even get to be friendly with Ringo means a tremendous amount to me, I’ve got to say.”
Other contributors to ‘Look Up’ include songwriters Billy Swan and Bruce Sugar, whilst Burnett enlisted some of Nashville’s finest and hottest talent for the record, including Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, Lucius and Molly Tuttle.
Ringo sang and played drums on all the songs and co-wrote the album’s closer ‘Thankful’ featuring Alison Krauss – who is well known for her collaborative albums with former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant.
‘Look Up’ is out now.