Ringo Starr, the 85-year-old former Beatle, will release a new country album titled Long Long Road on April 24, the drummer announced, and the record’s lead single, a twanged-up remake of his 2005 song “Choose Love,” is out today. Produced again by T Bone Burnett, Long Long Road deepens Starr’s recent Nashville turn and pairs him with a mix of rising bluegrass virtuosos and established pop-rock figures who join him across the record.
Burnett, who produced Starr’s 2023 Nashville album Look Up, wrote six of the songs on Long Long Road; Starr contributed three originals. Recording sessions took place in Nashville and Los Angeles and brought in a new-school cast that includes Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings and Sarah Jarosz alongside Sheryl Crow and Annie Clark (St. Vincent). “Molly’s been so great, and Billy Strings is amazing,” Starr said of the welcome he received in Nashville. Burnett called writing for Starr “tremendous fun,” saying the singer’s instantly recognizable voice acts as “guide rails” for new material.
“Choose Love” is a country-leaning rework of the song from Starr’s 2005 album, and its refrain — “The long and winding road is more than a song” — informed the album’s title. “It’s a long, long road, brother,” Starr said, describing the record as a reflection of a life that has stretched from Liverpool to London, New York and L.A. The album also includes a cover of Carl Perkins’ 1950s tune “I Don’t See Me in Your Eyes Anymore,” a nod to the rockabilly influence that helped shape the Beatles and to the Perkins songs Starr first recorded with the group.
Starr’s immersion in Nashville has been building: he made his Grand Ole Opry debut last year at Emmylou Harris’ invitation and filmed Ringo & Friends at the Ryman, a special that featured performances from Brenda Lee, Rodney Crowell and Jack White, among others. The Ryman program included a Paul McCartney tribute and showcased Tuttle performing “Octopus’s Garden.” Burnett noted that Starr has rarely sung duets in his career, but highlighted that two of his few partnerings have been with Tuttle, whose harmonies appear on the new album.
Long Long Road follows Look Up, which surprised many by marking Starr’s first country record since his 1970 solo album Beaucoups of Blues. Starr said he originally asked Burnett for a song after attending a reading by Olivia Harrison, but the sessions expanded into a full album when Burnett arrived with “nine” songs ready. “I can’t help myself,” Burnett said. “He invited me to write a song for him, and look what happened.”
Outside the studio, Starr continues to tour with his All-Starr Band, a rotating ensemble he’s taken on the road since 1990, and he joked that he keeps his energy up with a diet that includes “broccoli.” Long Long Road positions him as an elder statesman still looking forward: mixing fresh collaborators, revisiting early influences and framing country music as an integral part of the trajectory that began in Liverpool’s portside record culture.