Ringo Starr Is Working on New Music, Including a Country EP
Ringo Starr doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. In fact, when asked recently if he has any plans for retirement, the former Beatle said: “No. I tell everybody: ‘As long as I can lift a drumstick, we will play.’ And I love to play. I still love to play.” That means new music is on the horizon—three EPs this year alone, including a country project.
Ringo Starr is touring again after last year’s suspension
Starr and the All-Starr Band’s 2023 fall tour was recently announced following the previous announcement of the band’s 2023 spring tour, which begins May 19 at Pechanga Resort in Temecula, CA. The first show immediately sold out after going on sale.
Last year, the band’s 2022 summer tour was suspended due to band members Winter and Lukather contracting COVID. The shows were pushed back into the fall, when Starr made up the losses six days in a row, one show per day. But after that, the famous drummer tested positive for COVID himself, twice. So additional tour stops needed canceling.
The musician is eager to get back to it.
“We’re off and running!” He told the San Diego Union Tribune. “I’m saying: ‘Let’s go on tour now.’ I’m feeling like we’ll get through it all. But who can tell? (COVID) is a little less vicious than it was in 2021 and especially, in 2020. It’s eased off a bit now and we all missed live gigs.”
Ringo Starr’s new music
In addition to all of his tour plans, Starr has new music brewing. This year, he plans on releasing three EPs. He’s excited to work closely again with his fellow musicians following years of lockdown.
“Everyone was wearing masks, which we’re not now, and I thought: ‘OK, let’s make an EP,’” he said. “So, this year I’m going to be doing three EPs! We’ve done one and we’re very busy (doing) the next one now, and Linda Perry is on it.”
Among those three EPs, Starr says one of them will feature country music.
“Just by chance T Bone Burnett sent me this beautiful country song,” he said. “It didn’t fit with a rock EP, so I said: ‘OK, now we’ll do a country EP.’ It’s not like I plan everything. Life just happens and I have time right now.”
Why the former Beatle is enjoying putting out EPs right now
This is not the first year Starr has found himself focused on EPs. In early pandemic times, between 2020 and 2022, he recorded and released three EPs with hopeful, we’ll-get-through-this themes.
His last full album, What’s My Name, came out in 2019, and it seems Starr doesn’t have plans to jump back into a full album again anytime soon. He’s enjoying working on more bite-sized projects, which he can do from his home studio.
“The good thing with an EP is that it looks like it’s a short journey,” he said. “And it gives me a chance to invite people I’ve never worked with, or worked with very seldom, and to use one of their songs. And I always write one, of course.”
