Paul McCartney has confirmed that his new album will feature a song called ‘Home To Us’, which will be his first ever duet with fellow Beatles legend Ringo Starr, and also feature Chrissie Hynde and Sharleen Spiteri.
The track will feature on ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’, which arrives on May 29 (pre-order here) and marks his first since 2020’s ‘McCartney III’.
It will see McCartney revealing previously unshared memories of his formative years in Liverpool, in what has been described as his “most introspective album to date”.
Already, the record has been previewed by the powerful lead single ‘Days We Left Behind’, and at a special fan album playback event at Abbey Road last night (Tuesday May 5), Macca revealed his first ever duet with Ringo Starr.
Dubbed ‘Home To Us’, the song is the first of McCartney’s solo tracks to feature his former Beatles bandmate, and it will also be the only song on the upcoming album to feature a guest drummer.
Also on the song is Sharleen Spiteri and The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, who each feature guest vocals. Andrew Watt has been brought on as producer, and McCartney plays the majority of instruments on the LP – much like in his 1970 solo debut album, ‘McCartney’.
“Ringo went round to the studio and drummed a bit. I said to Andrew, we should make a track and send it to him. So this song is done totally with Ringo in mind,” McCartney explained.
“In writing the song I’m talking about where we came from. In common with a lot of people, you come from nothing and you build yourself up. Ringo was from the Dingle, and that was well hard. He said he used to get mugged coming home, because he worked. Even though it was crazy, it was home to us,” he added.
“I made the song around that idea and sent it to Ringo. He sent me back a version where he just added some lines to the chorus, so I thought, maybe he doesn’t like it. I rang him and he said he thought I only wanted him to sing one or two lines, and I said I’d love to hear him sing the whole thing. So we took my first line, Ringo’s second line, and then we had a duet.
“We’d never done that before. Then we wanted some backing vocals and I had the idea it would be nice to hear girls. Chrissie Hynde said she’d do it, and Sharleen Spiteri, they’re mates. So they did it.”
The 50 lucky fans who were at the exclusive listening event at Abbey Road yesterday got to hear the album in full ahead of its release later this month. The new single with Starr will be released on Friday (May 8).
Confirmation of the Ringo Starr duet comes following reports emerging last month about a guest feature from the iconic drummer, although nothing was officially confirmed at the time.
As well as exploring his upbringing in Liverpool, ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’ is also set to find McCartney “in a candid, vulnerable and deeply reflective mood, writing with rare openness about […] the resilience of his parents, and early adventures shared with George Harrison and John Lennon long before the world had ever heard of Beatlemania”.
Starr, meanwhile, has also just shared new music of his own, and released his 22nd solo album ‘Long Long Road’ on April 24 via UMe.
It sees him joined by St. Vincent, Sheryl Crow and Billy Strings and has been produced by T-Bone Burnett. He recently spoke to NME about the record, and explained how he sees country music making a comeback.
“The sound of country now is getting a bit more country,” Starr said. “I felt they went through their rock passage with pedal steel. It was very pop-y for a while.”
As for the guest stars on his record, he shared: “Everyone on there brings something different because they’re all great players and singers. They’re great musicians who have been at it a while, and they all came through T Bone. In my eyes, he’s never made a mistake on my records.”
