Sir Ringo Starr 'only wants to be in a band'

Sir Ringo Starr has no desire to be a solo artist and "only wants to be in a band."

The Beatles drummer has been touring with his group Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band since the 1980s, with the line-up changing more than a dozen times over the years, but Ringo is adamant he never wants to go it along because he hates the idea of being "out there on my own."

He told The Sunday Times newspaper: "I only want to be in a band. 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."

Ringo's latest project is a new country album called Look Up, which is a collaboration with famed producer T.Bone Burnett, who helped write nine of the record's 11 songs.

The music legend admitted he had no plan to make a country album until Burnett recently sent him a song which he couldn't resist.

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He added to the publication: "There was no plan to make a country record. He sent me this beautiful country track, and that blows me away even today.

"I thought he’d be sending me a rock-pop sort of song, because you’re just in that world."

Look Up is his 20th studio album, and as he and his band continue to tour, he admitted that it is still "fun" to him but often tends to perform the classics on the road rather than playing newer tracks for his fans.

He said, "The band sounds great. We have a fun time and we just do it.

"In the late Nineties, I would put in, like, two or three from the new album, and you could feel the room empty. It happens to everybody.

"I was with [Sir Elton John's] mother at Wembley Stadium. He came on and said, ‘I’m only going to do the new album.’ Me and his mother left after three tracks because we didn’t know them."

Ringo Starr Look Up tracklist:

1. Breathless (featuring Billy Strings)
2. Look Up (featuring Molly Tuttle)
3. Time On My Hands
4. Never Let Me Go (featuring Billy Strings)
5. I Live For Your Love (featuring Molly Tuttle)
6. Come Back (featuring Lucius)
7. Can You Hear Me Call (featuring Molly Tuttle)
8. Rosettz (featuring Billy Strings and Larkin Poe)
9. You Want Some
10. String Theory (featuring Molly Tuttle)
11. Thankful (featuring Alison Krauss)

- Written by Bang! Showbiz and republished with edits and permission

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