Ringo at 80: I’m still ready to roll
Ex-Beatle can’t wait to tour after pandemic
Sir Ringo Starr had no plans to slow down before the coronavirus pandemic intervened. His youthful appearance and fizzing energy belie his 80 years – and had it not been for Covid, he would have been back on the road in 2020.
But even a former Beatle cannot escape a global health crisis.
As it stands, his All Starr Band is due back on stage in June, though he admits the plans are far from set in stone due to the ongoing pandemic.
In lieu of touring, he’s been keeping himself busy by making new music – the single Here’s to the Nights, an uplifting track perfect for the pandemic, features a starstudded guest list including old chum Sir Paul McCartney.
Ringo, a working-class Liverpudlian also known as Richard Starkey, says from his home in Los Angeles: “I like to do stuff, so I’m just doing stuff. I have a little guest house here and it’s now my studio. It’s been my studio for the last 10 years, actually.
“This time it was a little awkward because people were getting tested to come and play. Or, if they had a studio, they could play in their own place. So that took the pressure off the lockdown a little because I was drumming and singing and hanging out with musicians.
“I do go to the gym quite a lot. And also I took half of the gym, now that’s where my paint studio is.
“So I can make a mess without Barbara getting crazy.”
Barbara is American ex-model and actress Barbara Bach, 73, Ringo’s wife of 39 years who is best known for playing Bond Girl Anya Amasova opposite
Sir Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me.
While lockdown proved to be the undoing for many a relationship, the Starrs are as strong as ever.
Ringo says: “I’m blessed she’s in my life.”
The couple once had a booze habit, admitting in their 1992 book Getting Sober: “We used to go on long plane journeys, rent huge villas, stock up the bars, hide and get deranged.” They have been sober since.
They have no children together but Ringo has three with late first wife Maureen Cox and Barbara has two from her marriage to Italian businessman Count Augusto Gregorini.
The Starrs have had their home in LA for the better part of a decade.
Ringo cites the California sunshine as one of the biggest attractions but
I’m blessed she’s in my life.. I can make a mess without her getting crazy
RINGO ON LIFE IN L.A. WITH HIS WIFE BARBARA BACH
I love that, getting up with him. And it’s magic for the audience as well as us
RINGO ON SHOWS WITH EX-BEATLE BANDMATE PAUL MCCARTNEY
he also loves the fact that h f famous friends are nearby.
He spent 10 years in the Beatles as drummer with supernova talents Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison but his ever-changing supergroup, the All Starr Band, has been going more than three times that long, and involved bandmates almost as famous.
The line- up has included Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Ginger Baker from Cream, Eric Burdon from The Animals, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler and The Kinks’ Ray Davies.
Ringo says of the band: “It gave me a chance to be down the front, Mr Personality, while playing the drums for all these other tracks.”
Audiences from New York to Paris
ALL STARS All Starr Band at L’Olympia, Paris, in 2018 have lapped up Ringo hits including Photograph and It Don’t Come Easy, along with guests’ biggest numbers.
The current pause in performing has given him a chance to look back, putting together a book entitled Ringo Rocks: 30 Years Of The All Starrs.
Reflecting proved to be emotional. He recalls: “The first band was like everything else – it’s brand new. And, ‘Oh, wow, it’s working’. And actually, people are coming to see it...”
When putting together the song Here’s to the Nights, which will be on the EP Zoom In, out in March, he flicked through his contacts and had Foo Fighters singer Dave Grohl and
Grammy-winning blues man Ben Harper come over. And, of course, he got the other surviving Beatle involved. In fact, they had just got off the phone when I called.
They last took to the stage together in July 2019 at LA’s Dodger Stadium. Ringo hints that they could perform together again, saying: “I love that, getting up with him. And it’s magic for the audience as well as us.”
The book Ringo Rocks: 30 Years Of The All Starrs is available now from juliensauctions.com