QUESTION: "Time Takes Time" has a seventies feel to it. I especially like the tracks you did with Jeff Lynne.
RINGO: Oh, that's interesting, because two of them wrote I wrote. So that's a double-plus.
QUESTION: I really like the fact that Jeff Lynne was playing everything and you were just playing drums and singing.
RINGO: Yeah, well i think that "Don't Go Where the Road Don't Go" is a really strong record, too.
QUESTION: Obviously you worked with Jeff before on Tom Petty's video and George's last album.
RINGO: Well, that's how it started. I started with Jeff because I'd known him. I worked with Jeff on George's album and I'd done some other stuff with him. So when it came to starting the album, I called him to see if he'd like to do a couple of tracks and he said yeah.
QUESTION: And what was the thinking on doing the tracks with different producers?
RINGO: Well, it was because I hadn't made an album in several years that we thought we'd do it this way. It's not new for me. I just felt this was the way to do it right now.
QUESTION: Is it different producers for different types of songs or different feels?
RINGO: Well, that;s how it started. It started also that I didn't want to get into a project with one producer and maybe it wasn't going to work all the way down. You have to have a lot of fun on three or four tracks and just come into a job then. And then you move on and it's all fresh again for the next guy, you know. Fresh for me and for them.
QUESTION: Were these all people you wanted to work with?
RINGO: Yeah, sure. Look at their credits. I feel I got lucky, you know. Throughout the year, everyone has some free time for me, it took a year because Jeff and i went to Europe for two months. Then i came back to work with Don Was. I mean, everyone was setting it up. And it was Peter Asher and this year we came back just to do those two more tracks that we always wanted to do and did it with Don. So it worked out really well.
QUESTION: Yes, and "Don't Go Where the Road Don't Go," definately has that ELO feel as well.
RINGO: It certainly has that Jeff Lynne stamp on it. I mean the separation and the clarity is because everything was recorded separate. That's how he gets that sound.
QUESTION: I talked to him when he did his solo album, which was a neat album. But I also talked to Dave Edmunds a few years ago about being produced by Jeff Lynne after being a producer himself and he said he likes Jeff because he makes great-souding records.
RINGO: He does, he does. And he's a lovely man.
QUESTION: Of course, bringing people together on one album is a trademark of yours, too.
RINGO: Sure, also with the band for the tour. That's how I do it. But on the album, mainly the bands were brought together by the producers. It was okay by me because each producer brought along some really good players.
QUESTION: It must have been fun making the record.
RINGO: It was. It was a lot of fun. It was interesting just being the drummer on the tracks. We didn't have anyone else around at the time, which meant a change. I'm really just focusing musically. Just getting back into my craft as a musician and an entertainer.
QUESTION: I remember when you did the last tour, you were saying it was really good to just get back there and actually play live.
RINGO: Sure, it's what we do. There was the fantasy, the dream of a young boy of thirteen, and it came true and then he forgot it. And now he's getting back into it.
QUESTION: How about writing. Like you say, there's four songs that you cowrote. Is that something you didn't do for awhile?
RINGO: I didn't do anything for awhile, never mind writing. Now I'm doing that as well and that's also a thrill.
QUESTION: A whole beginning of sorts?
RINGO: Yeah, it's like starting again. But starting over from a place that I'd already been. It's like the battery went dead on the car. And we just changed.
QUESTION: Is rock 'n' roll - I mean, you were pretty much of a rock 'n' roll guy. That's you.
RINGO: I'm the best rock 'n' roll drummer on the planet.