Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings and Alison Krauss are among the guests on Starr's T Bone Burnett-produced country set.

Ringo Starr has opened up about picking songs for his new country album, Look Up, saying he "only listened" to the tracks and "didn’t know who had written them". The album, which is set for release on 10th January 2025, is a collection of 11 songs – many of them co-written T Bone Burnett, while other contributors include Billy Swan and Bruce Sugar.

"We met Johnny Cash on the last gig the Beatles did, in San Francisco," Ringo Starr says today. "That was the last time we did gigs, and Johnny was there to see us off." Starr, 84, remembers it vividly,

Lean, athletic, a full head of black hair and beard and the obligatory sunglasses. Ringo Start exudes a classic, timeless coolness like few others do. You just can't believe that the ex-Beatles drummer is 84 years old.

Ringo Starr seems to have been slowing down for decades. Yet, when he does push the boat out, he invariably sets sail for unchartered waters. Look Up finds him produced by hipster T.Bone Burnett, who wrote or co-wrote nine of these 11 songs.

"I liked the records he made. It has an edge," Starr says of the reclusive grandson of Hank Williams, who mixes country with heavy metal

When the Beatles fell apart in 1970, Ringo took refuge in his boyhood country dreams, for the underrated solo album Beaucoups of Blues. He flew out to Nashville to bang out a three-day quickie with pedal-steel master Pete Drake and a crew of Music Row session cats.