Beatles legend Ringo Starr talks to Sunday Mercury music man Paul Cole

Feb 5 2012 by Paul Cole, Sunday Mercury

HE is, he says, amazed that he survived the Swinging Sixties – and the madness that followed the Summer of Love.

Ringo Starr will 72 years old in July, and it’s an age he thought he’d never reach.

Hell’s bells, he was worried about what state he’d be in when he was 64, when he got older, losing his hair, many years from then.

So when he sat down to write Slow Down, the closing track on his new album Ringo 2012, mortality was on his mind.

“We survived the madness of the 1960s, and the substance abuse of the 70s and 80s, and we lost a lot of people,” he says.

“We’re still losing a lot of people.

“I’m personally blessed that I got through that situation.

“Life is too fast but, d’you know what, I’m in it for the long haul. I know about life in the fast lane, so I keep fit and healthy and thank God for these extra couple of years.

“When we came to look for a title for the new album, I was thinking about 2012 because according to the Aztec calendar the world is going to end in 2012.

“But in the end it’s just Ringo 2012 because this is where I am now. The album is me doing what I do here and now, and nobody’s more qualified to do that than I am!”

Then he smiles and admits, almost sheepishly: “For a moment there, I was going to call it Motel California because of a cool picture of an LA motel I wanted on the back cover.

“But I figured my brother-in-law Joe Walsh was already on a good album with a similar name.”

(Walsh is guitarist with The Eagles, whose Hotel California remains one of rock’s all-time best sellers).

“I even thought Wings would be a nice album title, ‘cause I have a song called Wings on there.

“I’m sure Paul (McCartney) would have been cool with me calling my album Wings, but someone else would have found a way to misinterpret that, too.”

Once the name was sorted, Ringo could have called in any one of a dozen top producers. Working on a former Beatle’s album remains a feather in anybody’s career cap.

But no, he’s decided to go it alone. “I got out of bed in the morning, and thought: ‘Who can produce this album?’” he recalls. “Then I looked in the mirror, and there he was. I do feel like I’ve found my best producer.

“We’re back to making records in real time, and not wasting time. I like the pace I’m working at. It’s the old pace, it’s about where I come from, and it worked well then, too.

“Now, because of technology, I can do it at home. I don’t have to go to any studio. I can have a cup of tea with Barbara (his wife Barbara Bach) in the morning, and walk the dog.

“I can make a record, have a life and get it done right. I like it very open and sparse, sort of old rock and roll-ish in its way. And in the end, I’m the drummer, and I say so!”

Although the album has retro rock appeal, Ringo’s focus is firmly on the present.

“I live to the best of my ability in the now,” he says. “Of course, I can revisit the past when I want to – but I don’t live there.