Ringo Starr, 85, Releases Country Album 'Long Long Road'
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- Ringo Starr releases country album 'Long Long Road' on April 24, with lead single 'Choose Love' available now—a reworked version of a title track from his 2005 album.
- T Bone Burnett returns as producer after last year's 'Look Up,' recruiting new-school pickers Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Sarah Jarosz, Sheryl Crow, and St. Vincent for the sessions in Nashville and L.A.
- The album is Ringo's first country record since 1970's 'Beaucoups of Blues,' which he recorded in two days with Pete Drake after Drake spotted country cassettes in Ringo's car at Heathrow.
- Ringo made his Grand Ole Opry debut last year at Emmylou Harris' invitation and filmed 'Ringo & Friends at the Ryman,' which featured a tribute from Paul McCartney noting Ringo was 'the first guy in the Beatles to really turn us on to country music.'
- Of the album's nine songs, six are Burnett compositions and three are by Starr, plus a cover of Carl Perkins' 'I Don't See Me in Your Eyes Anymore'—Perkins being one of the Beatles' earliest heroes.
- Burnett traces Ringo's country DNA to Liverpool's port-city record trade and his pre-Beatles skiffle band the Texans, calling his drumming a 'Texas feel' and noting 'Baby Don't Go' carries a New Orleans second-line intensity.
- Ringo's All-Starr Band has toured with a rotating cast since 1990, and he says three of his grandchildren are now drummers.
Why it matters: At 85, Ringo isn't coasting on legacy—he's actively championing the next generation of roots musicians, pairing himself with artists like Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings on a second consecutive Nashville album. The project also reframes country music's transatlantic origins: Burnett traces the chain from Arnold Shultz through Bill Monroe, George Harrison's Chet Atkins guitar, and Carl Perkins straight back to Ringo's Liverpool dock workers hauling Nashville 78s home in the 1950s.
