Ringo & Friends At The Ryman

Not unlike Donny and Marie, Ringo Starr has always been a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.

OK, maybe in Ringo’s case — a lot of rock and roll.

But even during his storied career with The Beatles, the longtime country music aficionado led his bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon in rousingly respectful covers of such country classics as Carl Perkins’ “Honey Don’t” and Chet Atkins’ “Act Naturally,” and wrote or co-wrote the country-flavored “What Goes On” (for their Rubber Soul album) and “Don’t Pass Me By” (for The Beatles, a.k.a. The White Album). In 1970, after the Beatles breakup, Ringo went to Nashville to record the all-country Beaucoups of Blues, as his second solo album.

Ringo returned to the genre last year with Look Up, a well-received all-country LP co-produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett and recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles. He will be performing several cuts from the album during Ringo & Friends At The Ryman, a two-hour special celebrating Ringo’s music and legacy through the lens of country music. It was taped Jan. 14 and 15 at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, The Mother Church of Country Music, and will air at 8 pm ET Monday, March 10 on CBS.

Joining Ringo on the bill: An all-star lineup including Sheryl Crow, Rodney Crowell, Mickey Guyton, Emmylou Harris, Sarah Jarosz, Jamey Johnson, Brenda Lee, Larkin Poe, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, The War And Treaty, Jack White and more. In addition to performing songs from Look Up, the artists will reimagine some of Ringo’s solo hits and several Beatles classics, such as “With a Little Help from My Friends,” “Yellow Submarine,” and “It Don’t Come Easy,” blending classic rock with a country twist.

We recently had the pleasure and privilege of speaking with Ringo Starr to talk about Look Up and Ringo & Friends At The Ryman. And yes, we also had time for a question about The Beatles.

Cowboys & Indians: It’s been years since you recorded a country album. Why did you think the time was right for you to get back in the saddle, musically speaking, with Look Up?

Ringo Starr: It wasn’t planned, really. It just came about an hour at a time, a day at a time. I was recording EPs, right in this very room, when over at the Sunset Marque Hotel here in L.A. one night, Olivia Harrison was reading from her book of poems that she wrote for George. There were a lot of people there, and I ran into T Bone Burnett. We exchanged pleasantries about, you know, “What’s going on? What are you up to? Are you still recoding albums?” And I told him, “No, I’m making EPs. If you have a track, why don’t you send it to me if you have a song that you feel might be good for me.” So he sent me a beautiful country track, a country song.

C&I: And that was the first step toward Look Up?

Ringo: Right. So the next time he comes to L.A., we’re talking, we're just chatting about this, that and the other. And I had this thought: “I didn’t mention it to him, but maybe I could have him produce an EP.” Anyway, the chat goes on, and we’re talking about songs, and I said, “Well, how many songs have you got?” And he put his hand in his pocket — and took out nine songs.

C&I: Sounds like he had read your mind ahead of time.

Ringo: [Laughs] And I thought, “Well, maybe we can produce an album. I’ll go back to doing like 10-track albums and a CD of proper length. They’ve only been EPs from me for the last few years.” So I said, “Would you produce an album?” And he said, “Yeah.” And that’s how it started. We plugged in here, and I played drums to four of the songs while he was here. And I was in this room behind me, with the doors open a bit. I’m just guessing what I’m playing — it’s an emotional thing. I just drum, and then I'd see [Burnett] coming out from behind the door, going thumbs up, drums up. So I just kept playing.

C&I: Nine of the 11 songs on Look Up were written or co-written by Burnett, one was written by Billy Swan, and the other co-written by you and Bruce Sugar. Meanwhile, you sang and played drums on all the songs and co-wrote the album’s closer, “Thankful,” featuring Alison Krauss. Quite a lineup.

Ringo: And we also had people like Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, thanks to T Bone.

C&I: Of course, this isn’t your first rodeo. You were already doing the occasional country song back when you were recording with The Beatles. Probably the all-time best was your cover of Carl Perkins’ “Act Naturally.”

Ringo: And years later, Carl and I recorded it together. We even made a YouTube video together. It still blows me away that we did it together.

C&I: Who have been some of your favorite country artists? Ones that have influenced you the most?

Ringo: I came in with Hank Williams. And my all-time favorite woman in country is Kitty Wells. I love Kitty Wells — she just touched me. But there’s a lot of other good country artists. Like, always liked Hank Snow. And of course, I keep mentioning this because I’ve met Willie Nelson many times and he actually played on this record for me. The funny thing is, I saw this photo of him from the ’50s — and he’s in a suit! it still shocks me to this day that he had a period where he wore suits. He started as that ’50s guy.

C&I: Well, if you look back at footage of rock bands in the ’60s, whenever they performed on Ed Sullivan or some other show — they’re all wearing suits. Even The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are wearing suits.

Ringo: [Laughs] Yeah, we were wearing suits.

C&I: Have you always been a fan of country music?

Ringo: I love country, I love the blues, and I love Motown. I love a lot of different music. But early on, I was sort of into country and the blues because the other side of the country coin was the blues. In fact, in 1959, before The Beatles, when I was a factory worker, I went to Houston. That’s  where [legendary bluesman] Lightning Hopkins lived, so I wanted to live there. Even tried to get a job. I went to the American Consulate, and they gave me a lot of forms — and a list of factories I could apply to. I kept filling out these forms, and I’d turn them in, and then they gave me more forms. And you know what it was like when you were a teenager. I finally gave up.

C&I: Well, you didn’t do so badly for yourself back in Liverpool. George Harrison told me years ago that while the four Beatles were first touring together, “We had great fun in the bathrooms of all the hotels of the world, because that was the only place we could go, with all the crowds everywhere else.” Sounds familiar?

Ringo: When we came to America for the first time, we’d have a whole corridor of rooms and our own, but we always shared two suites. And to get away from it all in a way, the four of us would go and lock ourselves in the bathroom, just hang out together, have a cigarette, have a beer, whatever, just hanging out. I mean, we loved it. Everybody wanted interviews, and we had people take us to nightclubs at night, so we were having a great time. But sometimes the day just got a little too long and we’d go and just chat to each other. So yeah, George was right.