Ringo Starr, at 84, continues to stay active with a new album, a concert special, and upcoming tour dates. Despite his busy schedule, his children have become somewhat tired of hearing him talk about retiring.
“I sometimes say, ‘That’s it for me,’ after a tour,” Starr told PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “But my kids just say, ‘Dad, you’ve been saying that for the last 10 years.’ They get fed up with me.” However, whenever he thinks about slowing down, Starr often receives a call offering more gigs. “Then we’re off again!”
This summer, Starr will tour with his All Starr Band for 10 shows in June, followed by six performances in Las Vegas in September. He has been leading the band since 1989, and the current lineup includes musicians like Steve Lukather, Colin Hay, and Warren Ham. Starr reflects on the early days of the band, saying, “I’d call musicians from a phone book, and we started in a Texas field. It’s been great ever since because I love to play live and the audience loves it.”
The upcoming tour will also showcase Starr’s latest country album Look Up, released in January. The album, his second country project after 1970’s Beaucoups of Blues, has been a big success, making it into the Top 10 on Billboard’s album sales chart and reaching No. 1 in the U.K. “It sort of took its own way. We can make the right turns sometimes,” Starr said, adding, “I’ve been surprised a lot lately.”
Starr credits producer T Bone Burnett for helping bring the album to life. The two reconnected in Los Angeles, where they discussed Starr’s work on EPs. “He sent me this beautiful country track. Who’d have known?” Starr recalls. Soon, Burnett presented Starr with nine songs, and Look Up was born.
Starr joked that at one point, he considered naming the album Be-Yond-Say, after Beyoncé’s country album. “I thought it’d be fun, but I was talked out of it,” he said. “Now, it’s called Look Up, and I love that title because it’s better to look up than look down.”
Country music has long been a passion for Starr, who was introduced to it as a teenager in Liverpool. “Sailors would bring back American records, and we’d buy them when they went broke,” he recalls. As a member of The Beatles, Starr recorded country songs like “Act Naturally” and co-wrote “What Goes On” and “Don’t Pass Me By.”
In January, Starr brought his love for country music to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, performing some Beatles hits with a country twist, including “With a Little Help from My Friends.” The performances were recorded for the special Ringo & Friends at the Ryman, now streaming on Paramount+. The show featured Starr’s friends, such as Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, and Mickey Guyton.
“I love that I have the freedom to make a right turn,” Starr said of his ever-evolving music journey.
