RINGO STARR PRESS CONFERENCE
RYMAN AUDITORIUM, NASHVILLE (TN)
Ringo Starr played two nights at the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on January14 and 15 to sold-out crowds. Not only that, but he was joined by many special guests and by all accounts both shows were extremely successful. Starr has also recently released his new solo album, Look Up, his most successful album since 1974’s Goodnight Vienna. Look Up is a country album with many guests, some of whom performed with him at The Ryman. It made sense for Starr to perform at The Ryman to celebrate the release of his new album. While in Nashville, Starr and Look Up’s main producer, T Bone Burnett, took time out for a press conference to answer questions about the new album.
The obvious question is what made Starr decide to record a country album after all this time. His first country album, Beaucoups of Blues was released in 1970. Starr credits T Bone Burnett. “He was the inspiration because I met him at this party. I met him many times, but this was getting together. ‘Hi, what are you doing? What are you doing?’. I said ‘I’m making EPs and if you got a song, send me the files. He sent me the most beautiful country track I have heard in many years. It is sort of 50s country, and I thought I would make a country EP now.
“He came to L.A., we were chatting, and I thought ‘I am going to ask him to do an EP, would he produce it?’ Starr continued. “I asked him if he had songs, and he said ‘yeah, I have songs’. He had them in his pocket, nine! So, I said ‘let’s make an album’. And that’s how it happened, no real plan, we just bumped into each other.”
Burnett added that it didn’t take him long to write all the songs for Starr. “Probably three weeks, or something like that, not a lot. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. This is a problem I’ve had my whole life.”
Starr interjected, “yeah we’ve heard about that.” Burnett and Starr enjoyed a good laugh after the comment.
Starr worked on The Alpha Band’s second album, Spark In The Dark. Burnett was a member of that band. The pair have known each other ever since. “We bonded as friends in the 70s. I was a resident in L.A. for a while and I had a lot of parties and any party I had, he was there. And I did not invite him once,” laughed Ringo. “We got to know each other a little bit, and that’s how this album came about. Olivia [Harrison] was reading Poems For George at the Sunset Marquis Hotel, and I was there, and he was there. I love the man”
“I’m glad to be getting to be friends with Ringo,” Burnett noted. “I have to say too American music, rock ‘n’ roll…in 1957 I was eight, nine years old and a friend played me a Jerry Lee Lewis record. I remember listening to it over and over again, rolling on the floor, laughing at the explosion of freedom and love and just everything that was in that. It was very different from Fort Worth in the 50s, which was very rigid. It was an uptight scene I was living in. I thought ‘I want to do that, that is what I want to do,’
“By 1959 that whole rock ‘n’ roll revolution was over. Jerry Lee was disgraced, Elvis was in the army, Little Richard was in the Ministry, Buddy Holly had been killed in a plane crash, Eddie Cochran had been killed in a car wreck and I thought ‘this isn’t what I want to do with the rest of my life.’ And then The Beatles played in New York, in February 1964 and they gave us back our music at that point. And they opened up doors and windows that so many of us have walked through or climbed through over the years. So, I have this deep gratitude to all those cats, and Ringo in particular. The gift that they have given us, that he has given us is immeasurable. So to even get to be friendly with Ringo means a tremendous amount to me.”
LOOK UP ALBUM REVIEW
During the press conference, Starr discussed his love of country music and what attracts him to that genre.
“It was emotional. It was emotional music when I started listening to it and I am quite an emotional person myself. So, you know, in the 50s every country song was either the wife left, the dog’s dead or I needed some money for the jukebox. All those great singers. Besides Hank Williams, we all start with him, or I did. Hank Snow, from Canada. It’s weird I remember him so well. He was more country than a lot of country guys. Kitty Wells. Who can sing better than Kitty Wells, all that emotion. It was great, so that is why I loved it. But I also loved the blues, and I loved pop music of the day. I wanted to sound like Jerry Lee or Al Hibler. And Eddie Cochran. Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, which I was a part of, were going to play this gig in Liverpool, and all the local bands were there, and it just happened that Rory and The Hurricanes were the top band and Eddie Cochran hit the tree. He died. As teenagers we were like ‘well he could have waited until after the gig.’ That’s the way you are as an 18-year-old. That is what you are like. I have had three of them myself, I know exactly what it is like. They were all great, Eddie was great. Buddy was beautiful. I came in a little older than him [Burnett] but the same route, really.”
Starr is famous for flashing the peace sign and his signature “Peace and Love”. The message has not been lost on Burnett.
“Nobody in the world has generated more goodwill than Ringo during my lifetime,” Burnett stated. “So much of his work is very lighthearted, but when you listen to everything he has recorded, there is a lot of deep, serious stuff in there. Ringo has paid his dues.”
“If you want to sing the blues,” Starr added. “It seemed like there was no hardship, or rows with each other. He was doing everything which I loved. He would send them to me, and I would do what I do. I would play drums and sing the song, and he loved that. We were going along on a great ride together.”
“Yeah, I used to think conflict was the important part of making art, and now I just think it is destructive.”
Ringo agreed, “unless you’re heavy metal. Next record!”
But Starr got very serious about the need for music and peace in the world today.
“I think there is always a need for music and always a need for joy. The world keeps going round and there is a lot of craziness and violence and people making demands on other people. That’s the world we all know. I was born in 1940, there were a lot of people out there that didn’t like us. So, it is part of our world. It is a pity, but I do this (showing his peace sign) and hope that someone else will do it, so then there are two of us doing it. I can’t say or demand it, I just do it. That is my way of doing it really. It translates into every language. Peace and love.”
During the press conference, Starr was very clear that The Ryman means a great deal to him.
“I came to the Ryman, 10 years ago, and I just felt incredible to be at The Ryman. I got into country music long before most people were born, and just to be here is just a blessing. The vibe here is so great. We ended up spending my 72nd birthday here. The Ryman for me, it is just a blessing that I can play here, and I feel a little extra piece of my heart when I play here.”
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Background Photo Credit: Scott Robert Ritchie
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