Ringo Starr discusses new music, resuming tour and
Ringo Starr and his all-star band played just nine gigs before COVID-19 put the musicians on hiatus. Now, months later, the group is back on tour with a brand new EP and an unexpected hobby learned during quarantine.
“You play it safe because then you keep other people safe,” Starr told CBS News senior culture correspondent Anthony Mason.
While at home, the 82-year-old former Beatles drummer recorded two EPs, and recently released one of them titled EP3.
But as well as creating music during the lockdown, the star said a Tik Tok video he watched inspired him to delve into spin paint – an art form where paint is poured onto a spinning canvas. . He said he’s turned his home gym into an art room and a guest house into a home studio so he can “paint all around.”
“I love it,” she said. “That’s the magic of painting, you do something and then, ‘Wow, look what it turned out’.”
He compared art to music but noted that when performing with others, “you all have to play in the same key.”
His Band of All Stars is currently in its 15th lineup since Starr first assembled the group. “Keep it now,” he said, switching members.
The band now includes Edgar Winter, Steve Lukather of the band Toto, Colin Hay of the Man at Work group, Greg Bissonnette of David Lee Roth’s band, Hamish Stuart of the Average White Band and saxophonist Warren Hamm.
“The first day of rehearsal is always difficult,” said Starr.
The musician also discussed the recent Disney+ movie “The Beatles: Get Back,” directed by Peter Jackson. The three-part documentary series covers the making of the band’s 1970 album “Let It Be.” Starr, who was the documentary’s executive producer, praised Jackson.
“I love what he did,” he said.
The musician’s passion for drumming began at age 13, when Starr – whose real name is Richard Starkey – was hospitalized with tuberculosis.
“To keep us busy, this woman brought in loads of triangles, tambourines, drums that you hit and I hit that drum and I wanted to be a drummer from that moment on,” he said.
At the age of 20, Starr left a factory job to play in Liverpool with a band called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
“But every member of our family came to our house to tell me, ‘Are you crazy?'” he recalled.
Then in 1962, Ringo left the Hurricanes to join the Beatles. In 1989, Starr formed Ringo Starr and His All-Star Band.
“It worked well,” he said.
