Ringo Starr has announced a brand new studio album and unveiled its first single, marking another chapter in a recording career that now stretches across more than six decades.
The 85-year-old, best known as the drummer of The Beatles, revealed that his upcoming 10-track record, Long Long Road, will be released on 24 April. The album features an impressive slate of collaborators, including bluegrass star Billy Strings, singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow and alt-rock artist St. Vincent.
It follows the release of the album’s first single, It’s Been Too Long, which arrived on Tuesday and features acclaimed Americana musicians Sarah Jarosz and Molly Tuttle. The track sets the tone for a record rooted in country and Americana influences — a direction Starr has increasingly embraced in recent years.
Long Long Road was co-written with renowned American producer T Bone Burnett, a Grammy- and Oscar-winning figure whose career spans collaborations with Bob Dylan in the 1970s and celebrated film soundtracks such as O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line. The pair previously worked together on Starr’s 2025 album, Look Up, which became a milestone moment in his solo career.
Look Up marked Sir Ringo’s first ever number one album on the UK’s Official Country Chart, a significant achievement for the Liverpool-born artist whose real name is Richard Starkey. While he has long flirted with country sounds — from his Beatles-era covers of Carl Perkins tracks to his 1970 solo album Beaucoups of Blues, recorded in Nashville — the success of Look Up signalled a full-circle moment.
Speaking about his renewed creative partnership with Burnett, Starr said: “I'm blessed to have T Bone (Burnett) in my life right now and working with me on these records.”
He continued: “After we did the last record, which I love listening to, this one just sort of happened.”
Reflecting on the album’s title, he added: “I like to say sometimes I make the right moves, like you can go left or right at any point, and one of the right moves was hooking up with T Bone for Look Up, and now for this one, which I'm calling Long Long Road, because I've been on a long long road.”
Recorded between Nashville and Los Angeles, the album features several musicians who also played on Look Up, further cementing the collaborative chemistry developed during that project. Starr has also highlighted the influence of rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins, whose music was an early inspiration for The Beatles.
“I recorded two Carl Perkins songs with The Beatles, and both T Bone and I wanted one on this record and he found this beautiful track I'd never heard before, I Don't See Me In Your Eyes Anymore,” Starr said.
@marcelofrota6 Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins - Matchbox/Blue Suede Shoes #paulmccartney #carlperkins ♬ som original - The Beatles Revolution
Burnett, for his part, praised Starr in glowing terms. The producer revealed the pair were inspired to write together after attending a poetry reading, describing the former Beatle as an artist of the “highest calibre”.
“I've loved Ringo's playing and his singing for my whole life,” Burnett said.
He added: “I wrote him a Gene Autry type song because I always heard Ringo as a Texas artist, the way he played felt just like Texas music to me.”
For Starr, the new album underscores a late-career renaissance that few artists of his generation manage to sustain. As the oldest surviving Beatle, he remains remarkably active — touring regularly with his All Starr Band and continuing to record new material well into his eighties.
His legacy with The Beatles alone would guarantee his place in music history. The band remain the best-selling act of all time, with an estimated 600 million records sold worldwide. Yet Starr’s solo output — including hits like Photograph and It Don’t Come Easy — has ensured he is far more than just the drummer from Liverpool.
With Long Long Road set for release on 24 April, the album appears to deepen his exploration of American roots music while celebrating the journey that brought him there. More than sixty years after Beatlemania first swept the globe, Sir Ringo Starr is still recording, still collaborating, and still finding new roads to travel.
