Ringo Starr is setting the record straight on an AI-generated replica of John Lennon’s voice. In June 2023, Starr’s former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney got fans buzzing when he announced that a final Beatles song featuring the original Fab Four – McCartney, Starr, Lennon and George Harrison – was in the works with some assistance from AI.
But Starr is clarifying that Lennon’s vocals aren’t AI-generated – in fact, he says that the band would “never” use fake vocals from Lennon, according to Rolling Stone. Starr and McCartney are the only surviving members of the Fab Four. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer at the age of 58 in November 2001. Starr shares that Harrison recorded his parts for the song before his death. “This was beautiful, and it’s the final track you’ll ever hear with the four lads,” Starr affirms. “And that’s a fact.”
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McCartney also clarified his comments in a follow-up Tweet after he announced the news. “Can’t say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created,” he stated. “It’s all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years. No one is more excited than us to be sharing something with you later in the year. We hope you love it as much as we do.”
Lennon’s voice was extracted from an old track called “Now and Then” featured on a demo tape that he gave to Yoko Ono, who gave it to McCartney in 1994. McCartney and their team, which includes The Beatles: Get Back Director Peter Jackson, are relying on the help of AI to pull the track together. “[Jackson] was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette,” McCartney explained of the process. “We had John’s voice and a piano, and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.’”
The final Beatles song is expected to be released later in 2023.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
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