Ringo Starr, musician: I never play music alone

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2:04Hello, I'm BBC reporter Regan Morris, and this is the interview from the BBC World Service. The best conversations coming out of the BBC. People shaping our world from all over the world. If you're not a little bit afraid, then you're not paying attention. You have never seen a people so united. Do not make that boat crossing. Do not make that journey. Being born in America, feeling American, having people treat me like I'm not. We're more popular than populism. For this interview, I met musician Ringo Starr. at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood, a rock star hangout just behind the Sunset Strip.

2:47Born in Liverpool, England during the Second World War in 1940, Ringo, real name Richard Starkey, found fame as the drummer of the legendary British band The Beatles, widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in music history. After joining John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison in 1962, the four-piece band became a global pop music sensation, through hits such as She Loves You, Yesterday, Penny Lane, and Hey Jude. They also released multiple studio albums and starred in five major motion pictures. Although the band split up in 1970, their legacy continues to live on. They remain one of the best-selling musical acts of all time over half a century later, alongside the likes of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.

3:35And such was his and the band's cultural impact that Ringo, one of two surviving members of the Beatles, received a knighthood at Buckingham Palace for his services to music in 2018. But despite achieving seemingly all that can be achieved in a music career, the 85-year-old seems to be showing no interest in retirement. He's just released his 22nd album as a solo artist. And life as a solo artist has proved to be something of a cultural shift for Ringo when compared to his time in the group, where songwriting duties were typically undertaken by John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney. At the very beginning when I started writing, I'd bring my songs in and I'd say, I've got this song, whatever, whatever.

4:20And they'd all be just laughing hysterical because all I'd done is rewritten another song. I'd just change the words. And so it took me a while to get through that moment into writing my songs, you know. And in the end, they started turning out really good. Now you're a prolific songwriter. I am. And I like to write with people too. I like to play with people.

4:51Welcome to the interview from the BBC World Service with Ringo Starr. Before our conversation began, I had to check something important. I've been calling people at the BBC asking, and I have to call you Sir Ringo. by etiquette. No, Sir Richard. Sir Richard, I'm just going to call you Ringo. Oh, that'll do. No, no, just call me Ringo. Okay. I'm working. You're not from the BBC. I am from the BBC. I'm one of the Americans. Yeah, this is the BBC. Oh, my God, that's a surprise. I feel nervous, very nervous. A British national treasure in the American is here to do it. Ringo, thank you so much for doing this.

5:35It is such a genuine honor to meet you, and I love your new album. Ah, I can go now then. Thank you, thank you, yeah. So The Long, Long Road, it was recorded in L.A. and Nashville, but it feels a lot more Nashville. Is that fair? Yeah, no, that's absolutely true. I mean, it's a country album, and there's no better place to do a country album and country land, Nashville. And what happened was that, you know, when T-Bone and I came to the moment of, I asked him to produce the record, and he told me he had lots of songs.

6:17He puts, you know, we picked the songs between us. He'd send me some songs, and I'd say, I'll do those three, but not that two, whatever. And I want to do this one that I'm co-writing. And he'd say, okay. and we sort of got on like that, putting it together. And so we'd pick a song, any song he wanted, and he'd put some meat on it in Nashville. He knows a lot of players there and he has a groove. He loves to use, so it's like a band. And then he'd send it to me and I'd play drums and sing the song. and then we'd send all that back to Nashville and he'd put it all together and add stuff on top of that and you collaborated with Cheryl Crow and St Vincent Cheryl's great, we met Cheryl a long time ago in Monte Carlo, they used to have a music festival there and she was it and I gave her the award but I bumped into her many times on the road she'll come and see us or we went to see her.

7:27She's a really nice girl. And, you know, and Molly's great too and, you know, Billy Strings and just all the players on it, you know, that's T-Bone's end. He knows them all. I know of them, but he knows them. And because they're recording in Nashville, they just pop in and play. It's great. and you just said you you would play the drums but you're going on tour who's your drummer on tour no i'm the drummer you're the drummer i was going to say next to me is a drummer because for the songs i come down and sing from the front of the stage we need a drummer and greg bisonet is a great friend he's a great player and so he takes over well we put we play together uh through any of the other songs collins or luke's you know and uh and then when i go down front he's the drummer i imagine that's a hard job being a ringo star's drummer uh no we have a lot of fun we play together which is great so it gives the band a bit of meat i believe you were talking to rick rubin on his podcast about how you you never play alone you only play music with other people is that i do uh i once i went up you know like the old movies into the back room and played the drums and all the neighbors get off when i was a lad and i think that's what did it and i've never but if you play piano bass guitar i don't care saxophone i'll play with you all night you know i'll play with that's how i did it i made all my mistakes on stage in Eddie Clayton group, Rory, the Beatles, you know, not the only mistakes, there's things you have to find.

9:25And that's how I've done it. And I tell all my grandkids, get an event, get a few of your schoolmates together. You know, just they're practicing and playing by themselves. Get with people. T-Bone Burnett the legendary producer who you just made this album with this is your second album country album with him he describes your sound as Texas I know I know but you know what's it mean well I didn't realize he says that is this true that you long before the Beatles back in Liverpool your band was it called the Texas Ravers the raving texans i was never in the texans so this is now he told me that i think i don't think that's me but you know you've got to let him get on with this i see so that's not true you weren't in a texas no i don't remember any band called the texans um jerry and the pacemakers and a lot of other bands at that time in liverpool it was great time for musicians i think a lot of it came because the call of it stopped you know if you were born after september i think it was

10:471939 uh you didn't have to there was no call up for you and so to go to the military i left the factory and became a musician didn't have to go to war yeah one of the songs on the album is that beautiful cover uh the carl perkins song yeah you you've had a real affinity with him i did i did i you know i loved him and i loved you know a lot of other players and jerry lee lewis i always wanted to sing like jerry lee but that never happened um eddie cochran that time johnny even further back Frankie Lane even further back and you know because as you grow and if you listen to more different music you know you all go through the Jamaican moment and reggae and you know I just love music really you know I'm not like only that but you have loved country music for quite some time and when you were with the Beatles I believe you only wrote two songs and one of them was a country song kind of don't don't pass me by can you well we did it in a country fashion yeah I think it would have been more country now if we'd done it with people yeah country for the Beatles don't pass me by don't make me cry don't make me blue yeah can you take us back to what it was like introducing that song to the band or playing it for the first time?

12:20Well, that was way into the band. At the very beginning when I started writing, I'd bring my songs in and I'd say, I've got this song, whatever. And they'd all be just laughing hysterical because all I'd done is rewritten another song. I'd just change the words. and so it took me a while to get through that moment into writing my songs and in the end I started turning out really good Now you're a prolific songwriter I am and I like to write with people too I like to play with people and right now this friend of mine Bruce Sugar who if I put the drums on these tracks he's the engineer Yeah, because he's at the studio in my house.

13:15That's where he is. And, you know, that's how it is. And you recently played at the Grand Ole Opry, I believe, for the first time? Yeah, that was an amazing night. I played the Ryman with the All-Stars several times. And that was, you know, every time, just before I went on, it was like, man, this is the Ryman. You know, if you like country music, this is the Ryman. And then they invited me to play at the Grand Ole Opry, which is great, because they have a huge piece of the Ryman stage at the Grand Ole Opry. So you're standing at the Ryman, really. and they asked us to play and it was a great night because there was like five or six bands and we all did three numbers and it was a great audience and yeah, I'm at the Grand Ole Opry they made me an honorary resident and the Nashville Musicians Union let me join them so it was just great giving and loving and you know because the last time i was there with pete drake a legend in their time um a long time ago was that is there anything like that i mean that sounds like a real bucket list moment or is there any place you haven't no that was an incredible even the Ryman was a, what a, wow, the Ryman, Ring of the Ryman was big enough.

15:02And then after years, just last year, up to last year, then the Grand Ole Offery invited me. And that was like, oh, God, you know. But is there anywhere you haven't played, I guess, or any experience? It was an experience. It was like, because you understood it. if you follow music, but the Ryman was the place, and now it's the Grand Orlophrie, which is the place, and I'm standing on it. That's incredible.

15:39You're listening to The Interview from the BBC World Service. Ringo Starr is charming. He seems surprised that I'm not a Brit, that the BBC has sent an American to interview a British national treasure, a global icon. I'm a little nervous about that as well. We're conducting the interview in a bungalow amid the gardens of the Sunset Marquis Hotel. This is where rock royalty comes to escape and to party. We're steps away from the Whiskey-A-Go-Go and the Roxy, iconic rock and roll clubs on the Sunset Strip. When the Beatles came to LA in the 1960s, it was at the peak of Beatlemania, and they were often mobbed by fans.

16:23There are photos of rock stars all over this hotel, including Ringo Starr, who I can hear laughing as I pace the lush green gardens ahead of our interview. Ringo, in his trademark dark sunglasses, black jacket, and a white star on his black t-shirt, goes out of his way to make me feel at ease. Peace and love, he says, the soothing catchphrase of an 85-year-old music legend who looks, moves, and sings like a much younger man. He laughs easily, bursts into song often, and flashes a peace sign for the cameras. And although he's still got that Liverpool accent, his vibes are pure peace and love, California.

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18:15I think I might just have solved a murder. Vera. Now we're getting somewhere. Agatha Christie's Poirot. Bonjour. And more beloved favourites. I'm a policeman. I'm professional. I'm a time lord. I'm the Duchess of York. Once you know them, you never quite forget them. I be in vain. I just am special. Stream the best of British TV on BritBox. Watch for the free trial today at ripbox.com. Okay, let's return to my conversation with Ringo Starr. Country music now is very cool. Even Beyonce is making country music. She made a great album. Yeah. What was it back in the 1950s and 1960s, though, in Liverpool?

18:57How on earth did you get into country music? Liverpool, as everybody who lives there knows, was because it was a port, we started with, you know, in a lot of families, one of the sons was in the Merchant Navy and they were bringing the records over because that's when it started to get big, you know, late 50s. And it's still known right now as Liverpool is the capital of country music in England. because they had English bands coming over. I think Liverpool went for the country. They loved country. I know I loved it. I can't speak for anyone else, but that's just how it was from Liverpool. I used to love listening to country music because it always had an emotional side to it.

19:57And so you'd feel that. I make fun of it by saying it was like the wife's left, the dog's dead and I don't have any change for the jukebox I'm down, I don't have no money for the jukebox

20:18It's just a thing for me but I love the blues I tried to emigrate to Texas to be by Lightning Hopkins it was just he got to me with his voice and his playing he was the blues guy that got to me you tried to immigrate there to Jews we did you've heard the story we went down to the American not embassy in Liverpool whatever it was and we wanted this guy and I to immigrate and they gave us forms they gave us a list of factories we could apply to because we came out of a factory and then we went back and they gave us well okay yeah that's good that's good now fill in these forms more forms I'm 18 you know you have your like attitudes when you're 18 and I riffed them off and never went wow good for the world Yeah, well, you don't know.

21:25So out of that came this. You know what I mean? We laugh at that in the band. If I'd have got to Texas, things would have been great. Different. And now you live in Los Angeles. I live in that. Well, I've been, you know, I've had a house in L.A. since the 70s, a couple of rented houses and apartments. And I've always loved the attitude of L.A. Besides, I love the heat and the light. It's just been a good place for me. It's a very peace and love kind of place. Well, yeah, very peace and love. I remember when we came in the 60s, it was like hippie time. And it was so great. The Sunset Strip was great.

22:17And it reminded me of Chelsea in England, you know, when everything was changed in England. All of these designers came out and clothes changed. And, you know, and a lot of them were just living in an apartment in Kings Road and they were making it at home. And I think that shirt is one of them made at home. So there's a huge attitude, spiritual change going on in the world musically and attitude, you know, was changing. I was going to ask you some things, if they're true or not. Is it true you coined the phrase hard day's night? Yeah. Is it true that you've never had pizza or a curry? This is getting bigger than, yeah.

23:09I've never had a pizza or a curry. I never have. Because allergies, you have allergies too. I have, yes. Things make me really ill. Oh, I'm sorry. Is it true that you were the first Beatle to try marijuana? Yeah. I took the first puff. And your life has been so well documented. There's a movie coming out about you very soon, another one. The one that's coming out about Dion? The Barry Keegan playing you. And the one that's coming about George and Paul. All movies, the man is crazy. Have you met Barry Keegan? I did, yeah. I met him here, actually. He came over to the house before he started. And we just hung out and said hi and, you know, be friendly.

24:08very nice guy what did he want to know from you well it wasn't like one of those how do you pick up your fork which hand do you use to pick your nose it was none of that it was just hanging out saying hi and I think there's enough footage out there for him to get to know me you'll see the attitude no I'm excited I did go to the set the set is incredible because they're doing those fall movies. And I had a bit of trouble because I was thinking documentary. And they're not documentaries. They are films. And I had to get used to that. Because, no, that didn't happen then. Or this did that. No, this is your story.

25:04and you know so we'll see The four movies Are you worried about the box office? You always said you were the second favorite Beatle or something Are you worried about who's going to get more box office? No, I must have said that a long time ago They were putting the four lives in those years in their own space I'd like it to be at one of those new theatres where they have like four or five actual cinemas in them. Let's put us all on. All at once? Yeah, that would be great. Well, you could do it in the night then. Like 11 o 'clock you see John, you know, 3 o 'clock you see Paul, 6 you see George, midnight you see Ringo, whatever, you know.

25:55That would be cool to sit there and bring sandwiches. Yeah.

26:06Thank you for listening to The Interview. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can find many more episodes of The Interview wherever you get your BBC podcasts, including chats with other music icons such as Stevie Wonder, Patti Smith, and Pete Townsend. Until the next time, bye for now.

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