Ringo Starr will release his first studio album in six years, Look Up, tomorrow (January 10).
The Beatles’ drummer had sworn off releasing full releases in recent years and turned his attention to shorter-form, extended-play works. Country album Look Up will mark Starr’s first long-form release since What’s My Name? in 2019.
In an interview with The Country Show’s Bob Harris, Starr shared that the album’s origins came from an idle chat with T Bone Burnett, producer of Look Up. The pair had been sharing their love of country music, and it soon snowballed into a fully-fledged album, with Starr featuring alongside a string of featured artists, including Alison Krauss and Molly Tuttle.
Speaking on BBC Radio 2 earlier this evening (January 9), Starr said: “What he [Burnett] loves is what I love, and that’s where I came in, country in the 50s. You know?. That’s how we got together because he came in and we were just chatting and the last thing on my mind was let’s make an album but… the conversation and songs and that… let’s do it, will you do it, and he said yes and here we are.”
Starr later shared that the “very organic” process of chatting with Burnett which led to Look Up’s creation. He added: “It wasn’t like the big plan, he’s coming over we’re gonna talk about this. No, he’s coming over, just gonna chat and say hi, and it ended up with an album called Look Up…. Very organic, that’s what I love.”
When it came to choosing songs for the album, Starr says he had no idea who had written the songs beforehand. He said: “I only listened to the song, I didn’t know who had written them. Billy’s [Strings] came on and I said, ‘oh yeah’. But I just said yes because I loved it, I didn’t know it was different writers.”
Starr, who had previously released country album Beaucoups of Blues shortly after the break-up of The Beatles, says it’s been a “great” experience returning to country. He said: “I’d like to say it’s this or that, I’m just blessed God gave me this body and this life even though some of this life was very difficult. Musically it’s been great.”
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