The Moment Ringo Starr Made His First Country Album

When Ringo Starr went to Nashville to record the album that became 1970’s Beaucoups of Blues, it was an experience that took him by surprise.

He’d been reticent about the idea of even going to Nashville in the first place when he first encountered producer Pete Drake, also known for his steel guitar prowess. The pair were brought together because they were both guesting on George Harrison’s sessions for what became 1970’s All Things Must Pass.

“At that moment when Pete landed, George’s car had broke or something. So I said, ‘Well, take my car.’ The driver it took my car to pick him up,” the legendary Beatle recalled during a new interview with David Wild and Phil Rosenthal for the Naked Lunch podcast.

That proved to be a fortuitous moment of circumstance, as it turns out. Riding to the studio in Starr’s car, Drake saw the automobile had a lot of country music cassettes. During a break in recording, he engaged the drummer in conversation. “[Pete] said, ‘You should come to Nashville and make a record,” he remembers now.

“And I’m thinking [about] what’s the last year has been. A month in Nashville? Six weeks? I don’t think so, No,” Starr decided. “And I said that to him, ‘You know, months in Nashville?’ He said, ‘Months? [Bob Dylan’s] Nashville, Skyline took two days.”

“And I said, ‘Oh, that sounds okay. So I flew to Nashville,” he continued. “And guess what? Day one, we picked five songs, we recorded five songs and we finished five songs. The next day, we picked five songs. In the morning, the band went in and played them, I sang them, we finished them. It took two days.”

“Far out,” he said, punctuating his memories of the experience.

Watch Ringo Starr’s ‘Long Long Road’ Video

Ringo Has Always Loved Country Music

It’s hardly surprising to learn how much Starr loves country music when you think about some of his contributions to the Beatles, particularly his cover of “Act Naturally” by Buck Owens and his own “Don’t Pass Me By.”

As he told Wild and Rosenthal, it was a musical love that had deep roots. His newest album with T Bone Burnett, Long Long Road, is the second of two country-tinged records he’s made with the producer. 2025’s Look Up was their initial foray into the studio together and the core group of musicians who have played on both records have become known as the Texans.

It’s an affectionate nod by Burnett to the similarly named group that Starr played with during his early days in Liverpool. “Blues player Lightning Hopkins was my hero,” the drummer recalls, thinking back to that time period.

“You know, besides Hank Williams and the country bunch, I also had the blues,” he explains. “I was a teenager getting into music listening [to artists like] Johnnie Ray, Frankie Laine, [going] that far back. I was growing up and [discovering lots of records]. That’s how I got into it.”

How Ringo Heard Country Music (and Many Other Things)

Radio Luxembourg provided an additional musical oasis for Starr and his friends. They aired a program from the pioneering rock and roll DJ and promoter Alan Freed on the weekends.

Because Luxembourg had the “biggest antenna,” as he describes it, Freed’s song picks made it to Liverpool. “My friend Roy [Trafford] and I, he also loved country, blues [and other kinds of music], that’s what we did. [We were] two teenage boys, listening to all of these different acts that we couldn’t hear in England.”

“The BBC wouldn’t play anything, it was very difficult. [With Liverpool] being a port, a lot of lads brought the records in,” he continued. “They’d been home three days and spent all of the money and they were selling their records and we could buy them. It was great.”

How Ringo Helped to Open an Important Door For T Bone Burnett

As the producer shared during the same conversation on Naked Lunch, he’d been a lifelong fan of both Starr and the Beatles and the group proved to be a crucial gateway for him at a time that he needed it.

“I never thought once of doing a record with him or anything [although] he came in and played on an Alpha Band record [1977’s Spark in the Dark].

The Alpha Band was a group that Burnett had been a member of, that had formed out of the experience of several of them playing together in the band for Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue. Starr played on two tracks and while it was memorable for Burnett and the members of the group, it was just another day in the drummer’s ongoing life and career, one which he admits now that he doesn’t remember.

The 60-Year Dream Sparked by the Beatles

For Burnett, it was one event that occurred during what he describes as a 60-year “dream” initiated on the Ed Sullivan Show when he saw the Beatles perform. It was crucial, because the revelatory experience came at a time when the future musician and producer was questioning whether or not there was a real path forward for the life and career he hoped to pursue.

“I first heard Jerry Lee Lewis in 1957 singing ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.’ I remember rolling around on the floor laughing and thinking, ‘This is what I want to do with my life.'”

“But then by 1960 Jerry Lee was disgraced, Chuck Berry was in jail. Buddy Holly was dead. Eddie Cochran was dead. Rock and roll got dismantled. Elvis Presley was in the Army in Germany,” he continues. “And so I thought, ‘Oh, well, this isn’t going to be a life after all, rock and roll is too dangerous.’ In1964 the Beatles happened, and it opened up a vista that I’ve since lived in my whole life.”

READ MORE: When the Beatles Changed Everything on the ‘Ed Sullivan Show’

What Else is Ringo Doing in 2026?

The good news for music fans is that the legendary Beatle is heading back out on tour starting in May with his All-Starr Band. They’ll begin May 28 in Temecula, California and are presently set to play a total of 12 concerts that will wrap up June 14 in Los Angeles. The road is one place that he continues to enjoy and from his point of view, it all ties together, something that’s been documented in fine fashion with his newest album.

“Long Long Road has to do with my life,” he confirms. “I was looking at myself and [how it] started in Liverpool, and the twists and turns [that happened]. You know, getting to New York, getting in the band. Getting [to do] a lot of great stuff. There was, you know, quite a few left turns [Starr chuckles] I haven’t been in the left turn for 30-odd years now. There’s a lot of right turns and that’s how this happened.”

Watch Ringo Starr and T Bone Burnett on ‘Naked Lunch’