Ringo Starr will release Long Long Road April 24 with T Bone Burnett

Ringo Starr will release Long Long Road on April 24, 2026 via UMe, a 10-song collection co-written and produced by T Bone Burnett that reunites the Look Up core band and brings high-profile guests to Nashville and Los Angeles sessions. The album’s lead single, “It’s Been Too Long,” was co-written by Burnett and Daniel Tashian and features the vocals of Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz, signaling a continuation of the country and Americana turn that defined Starr’s 2025 comeback.

Long Long Road tightens an already explicit creative partnership. Burnett wrote or co-wrote six of the record’s ten tracks, while two songs are credited to Starr and Bruce Sugar, one was written by Starr with Mark Hudson and Gary Burr, and the remaining track is a cover by Bernie Benjamin and George David Weiss originally recorded by Carl Perkins. Starr said, “I recorded two Carl Perkins songs with The Beatles, and both T Bone and I wanted one on this record,” and “and he found this beautiful track I’d never heard before, ‘I Don’t See Me In Your Eyes Anymore’.”

Burnett frames the collaboration as generational matchmaking. “I’ve loved Ringo’s playing and his singing for my whole life. And then one night we were at a poetry reading together and he said, why don’t you write a song for me? So I wrote him a Gene Autry type song because I always heard Ringo as a Texas artist, the way he played felt just like Texas music to me. Ringo Starr is a recording artist of the highest caliber, and I wanted to surround him with these young masters, bringing in some of this extraordinary young energy that’s happening around Nashville for both of these records,” Burnett said.

The project was tracked in Nashville and Los Angeles and reunites the musicians who backed Starr on Look Up: Paul Franklin, David Mansfield, Dennis Crouch, Daniel Tashian, Rory Hoffman, Patrick Warren and Colin Linden. Burnett has dubbed the core backing band “The Texans,” a nod to a 1959 Liverpool group Starr once played with. Co-production and additional production credits include Daniel Tashian and Bruce Sugar, reinforcing a collaborative studio approach that blends classic rock phrasing with contemporary Americana textures.

Guest contributors amplify the record’s cross-generational reach. Billy Strings, Sheryl Crow, St Vincent, Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz are listed among collaborators, a roster that positions Long Long Road to attract roots, country and mainstream rock audiences alike. Starr acknowledged the creative chemistry with Burnett: “I’m blessed to have T Bone in my life right now and working with me on these records,” adding that the new album “just sort of happened” after the success of Look Up. Look Up topped the U.K. Country and Americana charts, giving the new release a measurable commercial runway.

UMe will issue Long Long Road on CD, LP, an “Ultraviolet Dream” color vinyl edition and across streaming services, a format mix designed to reach collectors and streaming audiences simultaneously. The record underscores two industry trends: legacy acts leaning into Americana and country collaborations to reframe their catalogs, and labels marketing premium vinyl editions to monetize dedicated fanbases. For Nashville session players and young collaborators, the project also represents concrete work and visibility, bringing attention and revenue into regional music communities.

With its mix of Beatles-era callbacks, country instrumentation and contemporary guest stars, Long Long Road is built to bridge generations and formats when it arrives April 24, giving collectors a color vinyl edition to chase and streaming audiences a new chapter in Starr’s late-career reinvention.