Intervju med Ringo Starr inför utgivningen av hans nya album
Skivan släpptes den 24 april och nedanstående intervju med Ringo Starr ägde rum i Los Angles, USA, tisdagen den 21 april. I nedanstående video svarar Ringo Starr på frågor om sitt nya album Long Long Road. Samtidigt berättar han om olika artister som har varit närvarande under inspelningarna och hur han och T Bone Burnett satta ihop skivans låtar.
Ringo Starr:
There are a lot of great players in Nashville, and he [Burnett] knows most of them. He puts his band together that I joined in. He would send me tracks with some meat on it, it makes life easier…I’d put the drums on…and sing it, then send it back to him…It was a great way of working.
Speltid: 14:26.
Please welcome my brother Jeff Bridges and my other brother Ringo Star.
Well, I loved the front line.
It was uh you know played as separate bands in Germany and we the guy Kashmir
put us both on the same club. So there’s a two band battle and the weekends we do eight hours between the two bands. So we
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really got to know how to play and react.
But you know I used to watch you talking about the Beatles. I Yeah, that band not the three stooges.
And uh yeah, I love that front line. It was great. And you know I didn’t plan it. I was working with Rory and I got a
phone call. would you join the boys? And I said, ”Yeah, I’d love to.” And uh I said to Brian, ”Well, when?” He said,
”Tonight.”
I said, ”I can’t I can’t be there tonight. I’m in a band here. We can’t just dump the band.” So I said, ”I’ll be with you on Saturday.”
And then you know the rest.
It was a good That was one of those lucky decisions. I was uh uh Yeah. Well, we’re talking about that now because of,
you know, long long road. It’s like the road I’ve taken. I was just like thinking and thinking about it a while
back and uh you know from Liverpool in two bands and then three vans and we
got out of Liverpool, we went to London for the first and then we went to New York and you know all of those stop
out and it is I And what would have happened because when I was 18 and a half, I wanted to immigrate to Houston,
Texas because of a lightning because of Lightning Hopkins, the blues player. I didn’t go because God’s on my side, but
I didn’t go because of the embassy. They gave us formers, this guy and I, we wanted to go there and they gave us a
list of factories we could phone to see if we could get a joke because we came from the factory.
And then we went back with those forms and we said, ”Yeah, yeah.” We filled them in. They said, ”Oh, thanks. Here’s some more forms.”
And you know, excuse my language, ladies, but you know, when you’re 18, [ __ ] off. I’m not filling nothing else.
Are you crazy? We just ripped them up in front of the guy. And uh but that’s another path I could have taken. Who
knew? I took this path and I ended up here with you guys. Well, I want to ask you about your drumming because it’s so good on this and the both these albums.
You mean it’s only good on this? But the way that you do, you know, uh, you know, remote recording, you just,
it’s so creative the parts in every one of these songs. And also, I mean, I listen to that Carl Perkins track and you are right on top of Dennis Crouch
and I’m going, how can they not be in the same room? Yeah. Yeah. Talk about that.
Yeah. Well, you know, there’s a lot of great players in Nashville and he knows most of them and uh puts his band
together that I joined in. And he would send me tracks with some meat on makes
life easier, not just the guitar dingading, you know, and uh and then I’d put the drums on and send it in some
sort of way and sing it and then send it back to him. and then he complete the deal and put whatever he wanted on top.
So it was like, you know, it was a great way of working.
What I can tell you about that is all of us have been listening to him play drums for 50 years and his feel is
in my DNA at this point. It’s in my cells, you know, so and and I always felt we played with a similar feel
anyway. So, as I said in some of the pre-release stuff, I’ve always thought of him as a Texas musician because he
played so Texas. He’s the swingest drummer in the history of the United Kingdom. I can tell you that
the snare drum or the beat is this big. Okay?
And I play on the back of that.
a lot of other drummers play in the middle and some drummers play in front of it and it just feels right to me to play on the back of it. So there’s
always sort of a swing feel to it, you know, it just came to me. I didn’t like make it up. And so when I was playing it
would be there was always like a body move for the offbeat. When we were recording this
stuff, uh, I was I was Ringo has a room over there and I was sitting about from here to that chair and and u he would play a fill and I was and I would think,
oh, he he he’s gone into the chorus too early, you know, or or he’s gone into the chorus too late or it it uh I would
always think he was doing something wrong until he finished and then I’d realize, oh no, he was just playing, you know.
Yeah. And it and it is emotional because and I feel that in your play like you’re you’re playing the lyrics. You’re playing the feeling of what’s going on.
A record. You’re making a record. There’s the verse. There’s the chorus. There’s the verse.
Well, I’ll go into the first chorus.
Back to the verse. And then the next chorus could be,
you know, I have there’s no like There’s no waiting for that to come so I
can do that. I just do that at that moment. I didn’t like read a book and or somebody came over and showed me things.
It you know everything I did I did working myself way up through the bands
of uh Liverpool. You know the skiffle band. We were all in the band because we had an instrument. What would you play in a skiffleband?
I played a snare drum. Snare drum.
It’s a great fiction movie. Looking around. Oh, really? That’s why when we did Sullivan, I said, I want to be this high.
Not going to be looking around no more.
Oh, Maggie Maggie. Kind of folky, too. Yeah. Yeah. And uh and if you had, you know,
in the uh late 50s, if you had the drum or you had the guitar, you were you were in. The only mistake I made one time,
oh, I was putting a band together and uh somebody told me, ”Oh, this guy like three streets away. He plays trumpet,
man. I was down at the club the other night, this club, and he was playing when the Saints.” So I said, ”Oh, man.
Putting a trumpet down, you know.” Okay. So I gave him I didn’t give him a call.
guitars and the drums and that and then you know we played when the Saints and
then we played another song you know and it’s all jamming. We played another song and I’m like it’s not playing on this one.
and they would get to another song and what’s going on? He’s not playing on the He could only play when the saints go marching in.
That was all he could do. So I said, ”Good night.” I’ll tell you,
you know, but nobody told me that part of the situation.
I’ll tell you a funny story. Ronnie Hawkins sold me just completely off the off the charts, but um he wrote a song
called 40 Days that was a big hit in the 50s. And Chuck Barry had had a song called 30 Days just shortly before that.
And Arc Music sued him and he went up to Chicago for the for the lawsuit and he got on the he got on the stand and he said,
”Judge, let me tell you something. Oh 30 days, oh 40 days of when the Saints go marching.”
Right. Yeah. And it got thrown out of court. According to Ronnie, you know, allowed one line.
Yeah. Right. You know, Linen used when the saints go marching in for the for the low harmony on uh I saw her standing
there. Well, I’ll never dance with another is this the whole thing when I saw her stand when I saints go marching.
Yeah.
Hey, speaking of Lennon, the last thing we did together about 10 years ago was
John Lennon’s recording bus. Is that still going on? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know that,
as far as I know, I mean, we were both in New York doing the bed in. Yeah.
A new version of bed in was me and him in bed with Yoko, right? She was there and Well, Yoko was there. Yeah. But, uh,
but that does that mean I I honestly have not been involved in the bus, but I thought I saw something a
while back, Bob. Yeah, we did. They were coming here, weren’t they? Yes.
I think they were the bus was coming here or it’s going to somewhere.
Do you do any mentoring? Any drum mentoring? Do you have like Yeah, I do. Young guys, lot of kids. Yeah. And a lot of kids you’ve got, you know,
I’ve got to be kind because they put them on the kit and it’s never going to work for them. And I’d always say, you know, maybe you should try piano.
I’ I’ve got to share with you my grandson who’s four years old and you are his favorite drummer. Yeah. He dressed up as the uh Beatles.
He was Ringo for Halloween. And he does this. I’m I’ll send you some stuff. You get get a kick out of it. Just totally,
you know,
if you go on the internet now, there’s so many I mean from three on.
Oh, and playing drums. Oh, it’s amazing.
But also they’re playing guitars and they’re playing. I have 10 grandchildren and like nine of them are musicians and three of them are doing okay.
Yeah. You know, it’s uh but yeah, the drummer, you know, I gave Zach the same lesson. I gave everyone the same lesson.
It’s just a boom chick to see if you can do the four, including if you do your head five. And it’s just like very
It’s all you have to do. Keep that together. And then I say, ”Okay, lesson number two.
Let’s see if you if it’s working.”
Hi, Ringo. Um, so, uh, love the album and and noticed you had some really great guest appearances on there with
St. Vincent and Joe Crow and Tuttle and stuff like that. And that it makes me wonder um what are you listening to these days? What what other music out
there? What new music that you’re are you I try and listen on the radio to see what’s going on. And
there’s some really great bands out there and there’s some, you know, girl singers, boy singers, um that I just enjoy.
Um, but you know, I love the blues,
love country,
I love Motown, I love Marvin Gay, I love Ray Charles, you know, somebody said, you know, you did one of those question things and they asked me and
and who is your favorite? What was the the favorite record? And I go,
I can’t answer that. There’s too many in my life meaningful for to pick one, you know, and even if I had picked Ray
Charles who was great. Well, you got Stevie on that side and you got, you know, Al Hibler in my book on the other
side. It’s it’s very difficult for me to do that to just pick like the one.
There are a lot of really beautiful female vocals on this. Molly, St. Sarah Cheryl,
Billy Strings, of course you’re going to mention him because he’s incredible. But Molly, I love Molly because she was just
like she was out, but she’s coming out and you can see her career now. Not because of my record, just because of
her is going, you know, higher and higher. So, she’s becoming like a well-known face. And I love that. I love
to see people I’ve met. Aren’t aren’t those the me too? Aren’t those the first two duets you’ve done with Molly on the
last two records? Had you done a duet before? I don’t know.
Yeah, I don’t think so. So, Molly’s your first duet partner. She’s my duetist.
Yeah. Anyway, but there’s a lot of other people though. You should tell them some of the names.
Well, you you said them. St. Vincent was such such a wonderful artist and Billy I’ve just finished a record with Billy
Strings that I will say is a classic to everybody here and and uh he’s a he’s a genius young
musician. Cheryl Crow of course is a hall of Yeah.
So u you know every band I asked for Cheryl to be on the record.
That’s right. I said to because he was in a call show because you know I’ve bumped into her so many times. I’ve been to see her. I think she’s just great and
you know have a bit of a greatness on my record.
Yeah. So we’ve we’ve been told to wrap it up. So thank you all so much for coming. Thank you for coming.
Peace and love.
