Ringo Starr says he “only wants to be in a band”

Ringo Starr has said he’s not interested in being a solo artist as he “only wants to be in a band”.

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The Beatles drummer has toured with his All-Starr Band since the ’80s, which he explained in a new interview with The Sunday Times is partly due to his lack of desire to be “out on my own”.

“I only want to be in a band,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t want to be out on my own. There’s no way you can go out there and do ‘Yesterday’ just on drums.”

Starr recently released ‘Look Up’, his first country album in over 50 years which saw him join forces with a host of collaborators, including producer T.Bone Burnett, who co-wrote nine of the record’s 11 songs.

The musician said, prior to Burnett sending him a track that sparked his interest, he had no plan to make a country album. “He sent me this beautiful country track, and that blows me away even today,” Starr revealed. “I thought he’d be sending me a rock-pop sort of song, because you’re just in that world.”

The record, which was released last Friday (January 10), featured the singles ‘Time On My Hands’, and ‘Thankful’ featuring Alison Krauss. Elsewhere on the LP, Starr’s first since 2019, are contributions from Billy Swan and Bruce Sugar.

As for Beatles news, fans of the Liverpool rock veterans had a lot to celebrate in 2024, including an upcoming documentary from producer Martin Scorsese, a 60th anniversary reissue of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, a huge 1964 US album boxset celebrating 60 years of global Beatlemania, and the first performance of ‘Now And Then’ by Paul McCartney.

Meanwhile, Starr recently surprised fans at Paul McCartney‘s final gig of 2024 with a performance during the last date of his former bandmate’s ‘Got Back’ 2024 tour.

During the encore segment of the show, McCartney said to the audience – followed by deafening applause: “We’ve got another surprise for you. Bring to the stage the mighty, the one and only Mr Ringo Starr.”

McCartney quipped as Starr walked on: “Should we rock? Get on your kit la”. The two then dove into two Beatles classics, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’ and ‘Helter Skelter’.