Ringo Starr recently sat down with Goldmine and talked about his 1973 album ‘Ringo’ coming to its 50th anniversary, the ‘Beatles Anthology’, drums, and more. In the interview, when his musical idol was asked, Ringo mentioned that he loved Lightnin’ Major so much that he was planning on going to America:
“Musically, the major idol of mine was Lightnin’ Hopkins. I loved the blues. Life is weird. At 18 I went to the American consulate in Liverpool because I wanted to move to Houston, Texas because Lightnin’ was from there.”
Starr continued telling the story of him trying to move to Houston because he was so influenced by Lightnin’:
“I worked in a factory at the time and was looking at factory jobs in Houston. And we went to the embassy and they gave us all these forms to fill out and we filled them out, this friend of mine and I, and we were 18. We went back and gave them these forms and then they gave us more forms! Well, we were 18 and we didn’t emigrate. But life has a strange path.”
Regarding the making of ‘Ringo’, Ringo shared some of the memories that stuck with him:
“I have really great memories of working on the album. […] In many ways, it’s the first example of my All-Starr band as many close friends of mine played on the album. John, George and Paul played on the album and also contributed songs. There’s still songs we perform from the album every time I go out on the road with the All-Starrs.”
When he was asked his thoughts about The Beatles’ musical legacy, the drummer answered:
“I’m really proud of the music that we made and it took a while but we were very serious players and the results are the music is still being played today and that’s what’s great.”
You can listen to ‘Ringo’ below.
