“They said ‘we’re going to let you on the plane, but you’re going to have to be sniffed by the dog'": Ringo Starr talks to Jimmy Kimmel about his duet with Paul McCartney, the Beatles biopics and having to prove his ID

Ringo Starr has a new album out this week – Long Long Road – and he went on Jimmy Kimmel’s show last night to promote it.

The ex-Beatle trotted out onto the set, looking slim, stylish, and more agile than an 85-year-old has any right to be, and, of course, was hit by a wave of audience affection commensurate with his status as a living piece of shared cultural history.

What do you ask the most famous drummer in the world that he hasn’t been asked fourteen thousand times already? Incredibly, Kimmel found a few things.

Ringo Starr on Watching Paul McCartney Perform, New Beatles Movies & Abbey Road Album Cover - YouTube

Watch On

When was the last time Ringo was asked to show ID to prove he is who he is? Incredibly, “two tours ago,” he said. “We were touring America, and I didn’t bring my passport or anything, and we got to one airport and they wanted identification.” The drummer simply said to ask any passing punter. “And all these people said ‘IT’S RINGO!!!!’”

Apparently, that wasn’t good enough for the officials in charge, though in the end, they let Ringo on. “They said ‘we’re going to let you on the plane but you’re going to have to be sniffed by the dog. So the dog sniffed me and I got on the plane.”

Aside from his new album, he’s also on a track on the new McCartney album, The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, which is out in late May. It’s a duet between the two old pals, which was started when Ringo jammed with Andrew Watt at the producer’s studio. “Paul got the song and then put everything else on it. So it was like in reverse – the drums were on first. But it’s really great. It’s amusing, and it’s very real, cos that’s where we come from.”

Kimmel also asked about the upcoming Sam Mendes Beatles biopics. Last year, Ringo met up with Mendes and corrected a couple of things in the script, as well as Barry Keoghan who plays him. “I think he’ll do a really good job,” he said of Keoghan, before adding: “You know the thing I really had to do? I was looking at it like it was a documentary and once I finally said, ‘it’s not a documentary, it’s a film, I could relax.”

As for Long Long Road, it’s another country album after last year’s Look Up and Beaucoups Of Blues from 1970. At a time in life when most artists – most people in general – slow down, Ringo appears to be speeding up: it’s his tenth album of the 21^st Century.