4 Songs Brothers-in-Law, Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh Co-Wrote From 1983 Through 2019

By the mid-1970s, Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr first met during a jam session, but they wouldn’t start collaborating until the early 1980s on several of Starr’s solo releases. After the Eagles’ initial split in 1980, Walsh had already released several solo albums and was collaborating with B.B. King, Lionel Richie, Richard Marx, Sheryl Crow, Diana Ross, Foo Fighters, Rod Stewart, Kenny Chesney, and dozens of other artists throughout the decades.

Walsh also briefly joined Starr’s All-Starr band in 1989 and has played with them on and off since, then married Starr’s wife’s sister, Marjorie Bach, in 2008.

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“He’s my brother-in-law, and he wants to involve me in making music, and what am I gonna say, ‘no?’” said Walsh. “I’m really, really, really blessed to be in this family that I’m in that came along with my wife, and I still get in the studio.

Walsh added, “I’ll be playing guitar, and I’ll look over and go, ‘That’s f–king Ringo Starr.’ I don’t believe it. It still happens sometimes.”

Here’s a look behind some of the songs the brothers-in-law collaborated on since the early 1980s

[RELATED: The Story Behind “Song for Emma,” the Ballad Joe Walsh Wrote to Help Mourn the Death of His 2-Year-Old Daughter]

“In My Car,” Ringo Starr (1983)

Written by Joe Walsh, Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr), Kim Goody, Mo Foster

Walsh first started working with Starr on the former Beatle’s ninth solo album, Old Wave. The album was produced entirely by Walsh, who also co-wrote five tracks on the album with Starr (credited by his real name Richard Starkey as a co-writer)—”In My Car,” “Going Down,” “Hopeless,” and “Alibi,” along with “Everybody’s in a Hurry But Me,” which they co-wrote with late Who bassist John Entwistle, and Chris Stainton. Walsh also contributed “Be My Baby,” which he wrote on his own, for the album.

“Fill in the Blanks,” Ringo Starr, featuring Joe Walsh (2010)

Written by Joe Walsh and Richard Starkey

Starr and Walsh circled back to one another on Starr’s sixteenth album, Y Not, along with Paul McCartney, who duets with Starr on “Walk with You” and plays bass on the track “Peace Dream.” The latter track references their late bandmate John Lennon—Just like John Lennon said / In Amsterdam from his bed “One day the world will wake up to see / The reality.“

Walsh also contributes guitar on several tracks and is featured on the album opener, “Fill in the Blanks,” another one he co-wrote with Starr.

Faded to action
Fill in the blanks
No more distraction
Thanks but no thanks
Fill in the blanks

Just an empty feelin’
Searchin’ my soul
Change of disposition
Reachin’ a goal

“Bridges,” Ringo Starr (2015)

Written by Joe Walsh and Richard Starkey

In 2015, Walsh also contributed the mid-tempo “Bridges” on Starr’s self-produced eighteenth album, Postcards from Paradise. Like its predecessor, the album also features a collection of guest songwriters, including Dave Stewart, Glen Ballard, Steve Lukather, Todd Rundgren, and Richard Marx.

Each and every road is filled with choices
Have to decide which way to go
You can say where you’re at
Turn around or go back
Or take a chance on what’s ahead
You’ll never know

Down every road you come to bridges
Some are crossed and some get banned
And some you turn get down
And new ones get built from what we learned

“Gotta Get Up to Get Down,” Ringo Starr (2019)

Written by Joe Walsh and Richard Starkey

Though Walsh didn’t write anything on Starr’s next release following Postcards from Paradise, he did play guitar on his 2017 album. Give Me More Love. Walsh returned to the writer’s chair on Starr’s and follow-up What’s My Name in 2019, co-writing the opening “Gotta Get Up to Get Down.” On the track, Walsh is even heard rapping.

Everybody’s on the Internet, what’s up with that
Your body just waitin’ for your brain to come back
Can’t be cool just sittin’ around
You gotta get up to get down

What’s My Name also features a return performance by Paul McCartney, who appears on Starr’s cover of John Lennon’s Milk and Honey track “Grow Old With Me,” one of the last songs the late Beatle wrote before his death in 1980.

Walsh went on to play guitar on “Rosetta” from Star’s 2025 country album Look Up.

Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images