Ringo Starr made an appearance on Linda Perry’s Twitch show, The Art of…with Linda Perry on Tuesday, Nov. 9 and the 81-year-old shared some tidbits about his time as a Beatle and exactly what the world needs now.
Videos by American Songwriter
In the interview, Perry got Ringo to touch on everything from his thoughts on the state of the world, his view of today’s music industry, the making of his “Let’s Change the World” video and much more.
Just when we thought we knew everything there was to know about the Beatles drummer, we were able to glean a few more things from the interview, like the fact that Ringo is ready to get on a spaceship if and when it comes and that Linda Perry wrote the song “Coming Undone,” which Ringo recorded.
In additon, Ringo shared some advice for fans who want to start a band. “Just get together,” Ringo says. “It takes you guys, you girls, it doesn’t matter, just to get together and rock it up in somebody’s kitchen. It doesn’t matter where. Just plug in these days and just see where it goes.”
Here Are 5 things We Learned From Ringo Starr:
1. Ringo recorded a song written by Linda Perry
“When we were doing the song you wrote for me, “Coming Undone,” it was so beautiful, I love what the song says and it does happen, it comes undone somedays,” Ringo says. “All the effort you put in it was so great for me, besides singing with me, you’re playing the bass, you’re playing guitar. It gives more meat to the track.”
2. Ringo is getting on a spaceship if and when it comes.
When Linda gave her theory that all the bilionaires are heading to space to get away from the climate situation on earth, Ringo noted that he wants to join them.
“Well I’m coming brothers and sisters,” Ringo laughs. “I’m going up. I used to say that to Barbara [his wife] like, ‘Well, I love you darling but if the spaceship lands, I’m getting on it‘ She would say, ‘What about the kids?’ Nope, I’m gettin on the spaceship.”
3. Ringo just loves to play.
“I come from this world where I just love to play. I’m blessed. I truly believe in my heart that if I hadn’t have joined that other band, I was with Rory (Rory Storm and The Hurricanes) then I went to the Beatles, but all the people in Liverpool were saying, ‘You’re leaving Rory?‘ I said, ‘Yeah I’m leaving Rory because I love that frontline.’ I loved it. No one knew it was going to come here. No one knew where it was taking us. But we became the topper most of the popper most.“
4. The Beatles rehearsals happened because of Paul McCartney.
“I have to mention [this] every time,” Ringo begins in his explanation of the Beatles’ rehearsals. “We made a lot more records than three of us [John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr] would have made because Paul is a workaholic. He’d be the one calling, ‘Let’s go in the studio, lads.’ John and I would’ve been in the garden, you know, looking at the trees or whatever, and we’d go and make music. But when we got into the studio, that’s where we started. Paul had written a song, two songs, three songs, John’s got some, [and in] the earlier days they’d written songs together. And we just used to put it down.
“There’s not a lot of takes on anything we did, because we were a band and we knew each other,” he adds. “I always felt it was psychic… And it’s the magic of music. I loved it. I still love it when that happens.”
5. Ringo’s “Let’s Change the World” video stars foster kids from “Kids in the Spotlight.”
“A guy who knew a guy told me about these kids. I wanted a chorus happening [on “Let’s Change the World”] like we did on the last one, but I wanted it like regular, not a lot of pop stars from the ’60s,’70s ‘80s or ‘90s, you know. They told me about these Kids in the Spotlight. I thought that was great. I told them let’s have all these kids singing just the end choruses over and over again. So they got like forty kids, from eight to twenty say, and it was so great. But these kids are foster kids. A lot of them have no permanency where they are because they get moved around all the time. I heard the story that a lot of them come back and say, ‘Can you put me somewhere else, get me another foster home.‘ That’s very hard. I thought it would a great way to promote ‘Change the World.’”
Kids in the Spotlight is a nonprofit organization that provides a platform for foster care youth to tell their stories.
Read more about Perry’s show, The Art Of… HERE and read more coverage on Ringo Starr HERE.
