Doing it on Zoom is the only way right now we can come together. What’s it like playing music long-distance?įriendship is a very important thing.
I was talking to her band and I’m saying, “How old are you? 40? And you’re still doing it?” Because at that age you think 5 years is a long time. She had this band and we had three songs at the beginning. I remember when we were opening in England for Helen Shapiro. You know what I mean? Feel that love and give it back - it’s spiritual. It seems like your music is always about bringing people together, isn’t it? Then with Giles and the remastering, people can hear the drums and they’re like, “Is that you?” “Yeah, that’s me.” So far out. It was like I was just playing snare for some of the tracks. It got lower, lower, lower, lower, lower. When we started, if anything had to get lost, at first it was the bass drum. But I love all the Beatle remasters because now you can hear the drums. Well, I was always being liked by the kids.
It’d be set to music and it would just download direct.Īre you surprised by how kids keep discovering the Beatles? How great is that? Soon, I do believe they’ll be planting a little chip in our heads. Every generation has a listen to us, you know? Now with the streaming, we’re streaming a lot. It’s incredible, and I’m lucky that the band I was in keep coming back on a daily basis, because the kids, every generation, still discover the Beatles. It all comes back - music just travels through time. Only like 18 months ago did I finally take the cassette player out of the system! But now the cassette is back - it’s next to the vinyl player. I only heard it, so you must know more than me because you work for the music paper. I heard this incredible story that the kids are back into cassettes. It’s a five-track EP, and I know what EPs are. New Year’s Eve, they’ll all sing along with us, we hope. I just thought it was so relevant to the days we’re living in right now. The record is called Zoom In, because we’re on Zoom. You have more energy than any 10 people put together. That helped - I made a record and did some painting.Īmazing. And it gave me a couple of miserable days, because I want to play. I was disappointed that the pandemic got in the way of my two tours this year. Who knew what this pandemic meant? We have got it on for next year, but we’ll have to wait and see. I want to go out on the road.” The first tour was May, but we didn’t cancel until March. Everybody’s moaning like me, “We want to go out. I would still be out there, but I’m afraid nobody’s out there. Until the pandemic, you’d been on tour non-stop all these years. Lenny Kravitz came on at the last minute.
Dave Grohl, and Ben Harper were the first ones up. Joe Walsh, Sheryl Crow, Jenny Lewis, Chris Stapleton, Benmont Tench. And we’ve all had them with friends we won’t forget.Īll these people joined in and helped me out. Everybody I know, we’ve all had quite a few nights we don’t remember. It’s about us all coming together, so it seems appropriate for today. How did that happen?ĭiane Warren wrote it: “Here’s to the nights we won’t remember, with the friends we won’t forget.” So it has a beautiful sentiment. As Ringo says, “New Year’s Eve, they’ll all sing along with us, we hope.”Ĭongratulations on the new song. “Here’s to the Nights” is a wry sing-along with lyrics from Diane Warren. But as he always warned us, it don’t come easy. For one of rock & roll’s most beloved figures - and one of its most gregarious legends - it was a challenge to adapt to making music in the age of social distancing. Ringo worked in his home studio on a five-track EP set for March, with the timely title Zoom In. He got a little help from his friends for “Here’s to the Nights.” The song has long-distance vocals from pals like Dave Grohl, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, Chris Stapleton, Ben Harper, Ringo’s brother-in-law Joe Walsh, and many more - including a promising British bass player named Paul McCartney. His new single, “Here’s to the Nights,” is a quintessential Ringo ode to peace and love, just in time to sing out the end of a 2020 where everybody had a hard year. The Beatle drummer kept busy making music this year, even though it was the first time in years he couldn’t hit the road with his long-running All-Starr Band. Ringo Starr might have just turned 80, but he can’t be accused of taking it easy.