When Ringo Starr was gearing up to record his first country-music album in 54 years, he was in tune with the genre’s surging popularity, including Beyoncé’s twangy pivot, Cowboy Carter. “We were all aware of Beyoncé. I think it’s great she made that move,” Starr, 84, tells Rolling Stone.
But the former Beatles drummer says Look Up, his collection of 11 new rootsy songs (out Jan. 10), was inspired not by country mania, but by a chance meeting with old-timey music champion T Bone Burnett at a book reading by George Harrison’s widow, Olivia. “I said, ‘I’m doing these EPs, and if you’ve got a song, why don’t you send it to me?’ And he sent me this beautiful country song,” Starr remembers.
Burnett, the mastermind producer behind the…
