Paul McCartney Reveals How His Historic First-Ever Duet With Ringo Starr Came About

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr share a musical connection like none other. The two surviving Beatles have worked together for more than six decades across albums, breakups, animated appearances and various musical projects since the Beatles broke up.

Plus, you can usually count on Starr, 86, to show up and drum every so often with McCartney. But until this year, the two legendary British knights have never recorded a duet together.

That changed this year with “Home to Us,” a McCartney/Starr duet on McCartney’s new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which dropped in May. The album leans heavily on looking back to McCartney’s early days, and the nostalgic song’s lyrics were inspired by their experiences growing up as working-class musicians in Liverpool.

On Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 2, the 86-year-old McCartney explained the circuitous route that led to the new single, which never actually involved the two of them in the studio at the same time.

“It came about because I’d been working with the producer of this, Andrew Watt,” McCartney told Jimmy Kimmel. “Ringo heard I’d worked with him, and after I’d left, Ringo went over to see him and did a bit of drumming with him. I talked to Ringo, and he said ‘Yeah, I’m hoping you’ll make a track out of it.’”

McCartney said the unusual proposal caught him off guard. “I said, I’m not sure that’s how it works! So anyway, Andrew didn’t make a track out of it, and Ringo was well p------."

Time went by, McCartney said, and then opportunity presented itself. “I’m working with Andrew and I said, ‘What a minute, what about that drumming Ringo did? Have you still got it?’” he said. “So he pulled it up, and I said, ‘You know what we’ve got to do? We’ve got to make that track that Ringo thought you were going to make.’”

Starr was up for recording vocals written by McCartney and Watt, and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and Sharleen Spiteri of the band Texas contributed backing vocals. Starr and McCartney both recorded the full lyrics, and Watt assembled them into a call-and-response between the duo. Reviewers praised the warmth that still existed between the two.

McCartney also announced on October 1 that he’s releasing a special digital edition of The Boys of Dungeon Lane that will feature a "flip mix" of “Home to Us” that swaps the vocal parts between him and Starr.