Working in his Los Angeles studio, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has continued to make joyous new music during the pandemic.
ByAmerica’s slow-moving immigration bureaucracy may have changed the history of rock and roll. When Ringo Starr was 18, still going by his given name Richard Starkey and working in a factory in the U.K., he and a friend decided to move to the U.S. to be closer to the blues and country musicians they revered. They zeroed in on Houston when they learned that it was the home of blues great Lightnin’ Hopkins.
“I figured they had a factory there where I could work, too,” says Mr. Starr. They went to the American consulate and filled out visa forms. But when they returned, eager to pick up their papers and cross the pond, “they gave us more forms,” Mr. Starr recalls. “I don’t know if you were ever 18, but that’s the wrong thing to do to teenagers! We went, ‘More forms?! Rats.’ And we ripped them up and went on our way.