Ringo Starr is not slowing down.

The 85-year-old drum legend, who is adored by hundreds of millions of music lovers for his work in The Beatles, just released the brand new album “Long Long Road.”

It’s his second T-Bone Burnett country music album in as many years, following “Look Up” in early 2025.

Starr, who has more than 20 solo studio albums to his credit, also can found on his fellow Fab Four buddy Paul McCartney’s “The Boys of Dungeon Lane” record, which just hit stores last week.

The two Beatles greats team up for their first-ever vocal duet on “Home to Us,” which was released as the second single (following the equally nostalgic “Days We Left Behind”) off McCartney’s album.

Starr is also still heavily involved with His All-Starr Band — the current lineup of which features Steve Lukather (the brilliant guitarist and better-than-decent singer from Toto), Colin Hay (the fun frontman of Men at Work), Warren Ham (another Toto talent who shines on saxophone and vocals), Hamish Stuart (bassit/guitarist/vocalist from Average White Band), Gregg Bissonette (who has drummed for everyone from David Lee Roth to Pat Boone) and Buck Johnson (keyboardist who has worked with Aerosmith and Hollywood Vampires).

I recently had to chance to chat with the Beatles icon, who was just finishing up rehearsals for the concert tour by Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band. That trek includes several stops in the Golden State — June 5 at Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln, June 6 at Vina Robles Ampitheatre in Paso Robles, June 11 at San Jose Civic and June 14 at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

Here’s our interview.

Q: Hey, Ringo, buddy. So cool to finally get the chance to speak with you. How are you doing?

A: I’m doing good, thank you. What’s happening, man?

Q: Just been looking forward to my chat with you. How are rehearsals going?

A: Rehearsals went great. We only do two days, a couple of hours a day, to get back into it.

Q: I was peering over your discography and, if my math is correct, you’ve now released 22 full-length solo albums. That’s an impressive tally for a guy who was really embarking on a second career, having already carved out his legend in stone with the Beatles. What’s kept you so motivated to record solo albums over the years?

A: Well, it’s making music that I love and, you know, hanging out with musicians. If you look at any of my records, including the “Ringo” one (1973), which was like the first big, big solo album — The Band was on it, Dr. John was on it.

It’s like, what day is it? Tuesday? Let’s make a record.

But there’s no big plans, like, “I guess in 14½ minutes from now, we’ll do this.” I’m not like that.

Q: And you’re still going strong with the touring.

A: I’ve been touring since ’89. You know, someone asked me to put a band together and I just said, “Yeah.” Then I thought of what I’ve said. And it’s worked out really well.

So, I’m still touring because I like to play — I like to play live — and it’s a really cool thing to do. And I got great guys in the band.

Q: Oh, you certainly do. But have you had the chance to teach that Steve Lukather guy how to play guitar yet?

A: (In a joking tone) Yeah, I’ve taught him now. He’s playing a lot faster than he used to.

Q: You did go like five years without putting out a full-length album, following the release of “What’s My Name” in 2019. And now you’ve delivered two albums — “Look Up” and “Long Long Road” — in less than a year and a half. What do you credit this burst of creativity to?

A: Well, I got back into country with T-Bone Burnett. Last year, we put an album out. This year, we put an album out. And Universal is putting a “best of” out this year sometime.

So, we’re just moving along, you know.

Q: Plus, you found time to record a number with your pal Paul McCartney — Home to Us” — which has Fab Four fans around the globe feeling giddy. How did that song come about?

A: I didn’t plan it. He just surprised me with it and said, “sing the choruses.” So when he sent it over, I sang the whole deal. He said, “Oh, man, you’re sounding great. Let’s do it as a double.” So, we’re both on it.”

Q: And what was the experience like for you to record your first-ever true vocal duet with Paul?

A: Oh, great. Anything I do with Paul is great.

He’s played on several of my CDs and, you know, he comes over, brings his bass and — you know — he knows how to do it.

Q: Speaking of people who know how to do it: What’s it been like to work with T-Bone on your last two albums?

A: Yeah, T-Bone’s great. I met T-Bone in the 70s — only to say hello, we never hung out, really, or went to dinner or anything. Just bumped into him many times.

I like the part of my life where I have the time just to make a right turn. And, you know, the right move just came out of the blue.

Olivia Harrison was having a reading of the poem for George she wrote and she had like 50 guests — and (Burnett) was one of them and so was I.

(Starr speaks from Burnett’s perspective) “Oh, hey, man, how’s it going? What are you doing?” I said, “Well, I’m making EPs.” This was a couple of years ago. In the pandemic, I went down to EPs.

And I said, “If you get a track, why don’t you send it to me?”

You know, what I’ve been making is sort of pop rock.

Anyway, he sent me a track — and it was the best country track I’ve heard in so long.

And so that’s what started the ball rolling.

Q: So, how did you go from one killer cut to T-Bone producing a full album for you?

A: He came into town and we were talking about songs. I wanted him to produce an album, but I didn’t know how to ask him, really.

But the conversation went on and I said, “Well, how many songs have you got in your pocket on a stem?”

He had 9 songs.

So, it gave me the courage to say, “Well, you want to produce an album for me?”

And he said sure.

That’s how it started.

So, there was no big plan. It’s just like the day went on and this is what happened, you know?

Q: Country is red hot these days and there are a lot of pop artists chasing the trend. Yet, you started exploring the genre decades ago — in the early ‘70s with the solo album “Beaucoups of Blues” and even before that when you sang lead on the Beatles’ version of the Buck Owens and the Buckaroos’ hit “Act Naturally” way back in 1965. What has always so intrigued you about country music?

A: I was like 18 when I started to listen to it. The emotion in it was great. I love the, you know, “she’s gone, the girl’s gone, the dog’s dead, no money for the jukebox.”

I just loved it.

But I loved also the blues. I tried to emigrate to Houston, Texas, because that’s where I heard (Lightnin’ Hopkins) lived. But that didn’t work out.

So, you know, you have big plans — and sometimes they don’t work. But sometimes they do.

And I’ve been pretty lucky that the plans I’ve made have actually worked out.

Q: You’re coming back to the Bay Area with your All-Stars. Of course, this area has a special place in Beatles lore — since the Fab Four played its final ticketed concert at the old Candlestick Park in 1966. Do you ever think about that connection to the Bay Area when you come back here to play a show?

A: Well, they do come up. But it’s not like I am flying there just so I can have that moment again. (Laughs)

Yeah, we made some choices and one of them was to go on tour and we did that quite well. And then we realized — well, I realized, I can’t talk about the others, but I know it’s true — we love the fans and we love the screaming, but that’s all we could hear in the end.

We didn’t have all the wi-fi gear that we have now. We had no monitors or anything. So I used to have to look at the back of the band of John, Paul and George — because they all had certain moves and timekeeping — to find out where we were sometimes.

I couldn’t do any real fills .. because it went silent when I tried to do that.

So we decided let’s go in the studio and see what happens.

And a lot of good things happened.

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