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From "The Long and Winding Road" to Long Long Road.
Ringo Starr opened up about his new aforementioned album, which dropped last Friday (April 24), revealing a meeting with renowned producer T-Bone Burnett resulted in a country-inspired record.
"I asked him for a song, and he sent me a country song," the music icon told PEOPLE in an interview published on Tuesday (April 28). "I was shocked. It was the most beautiful country song in the world, and I decided I wanted to do a country record. He came into town and I asked him to produce it."
The former Beatles drummer explained how deeply personal the album became, largely due to the lyrics Burnett and Starr wrote together.
"One of the saddest lines was 'why do we die?' and I wouldn't sing it!" Starr admitted. "I made it 'why can't we fly?' and sent it back to him. But that's country, isn't it? Like, you're in the bar, the wife's left, the dog's dead and you don't have any change for the jukebox. There's a sad aspect to country music. I was reflecting on myself. It's meditation. This has been a long, long road with a few bad moments but lots of great moments. I'm blessed."
In addition to his collaboration with Burnett, the "You're Sixteen" musician also recently worked with another music legend: former bandmate, Paul McCartney. The two icons have a duet on McCartney's upcoming new album, a track entitled "Home to Us."