Ringo Starr has shared an update on the “final” Beatles song – which has been made with help from AI – saying that it “should have been out already”.
The track was first teased by Sir Paul McCartney earlier this year, where he revealed in an interview that The Beatles will release one “final” song in 2023.
According to the musician, he enlisted help from AI technology to work on the song, which allowed him to “extricate” demo recordings from late members, John Lennon and George Harrison, and compile them together with new recordings from himself and Ringo Starr to create a song, over four decades since Lennon’s death.
Now, speaking as part of a new interview with AP News, Starr has shed light on the supposed release date for the long-awaited track – explaining that it was supposed to have been already released by now.
“The rumours were that we just made it up. Like we would do that anyway… This is the last track, ever, that you’ll get the four Beatles on the track. John, Paul, George, and Ringo.”
When asked about when fans can expect to hear the track or find out the title, he responded: “It should’ve been out already.”
This isn’t the first time that Starr has spoken out about the track. Earlier this summer, the drummer clarified that fans needn’t worry about the track being dominated by AI, and revealed that the final result sounds “beautiful”.
“It’s not down to AI… It’s not like we’re pretending anything. That is actually John’s voice, Paul’s voice and bass playing, George on rhythm guitar and me on drums,” he said.
“The two things that are new are Paul’s bass and me on drums… I really worked at it just months ago here. And it works,” he added. “It’s a beautiful song. You know, for all the madness going on around it, it’s still a beautiful track. And our last track.”
McCartney also shared a similar sentiment to reassure fans who were cautious about the use of AI to create the song – declaring that it features nothing “artificially or synthetically created”.
“We’ve seen some confusion and speculation about it. Seems to be a lot of guess work out there. Can’t say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real and we all play on it,” he explained at the time.
“We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years. We hope you love it as much as we do. More news in due course.”
The topic of using AI to create music has divided artists in recent months. Former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher openly praised an AI-generated Oasis album as sounding “mega” and Grimes confirmed that she permits fans to use her voice in their own AI projects.
Meanwhile, others aren’t so supportive of the concept, with Nick Cave labelling it “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”, and later stating that he wanted AI platforms like ChatGPT to “fuck off and leave songwriting alone”.
In other Beatles news, Ringo Starr recently shared details of a new EP, ‘Rewind Forward’, which features contributions from former bandmate, Paul McCartney.
The release will mark Starr’s fourth in three years, and also features contributions from Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, former Eagles member Joe Walsh, former Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench Steve Dudas, as well as Lance Morrison, Matt Bissonnette, Torrance Klein, Weston Wilson, Kipp Lennon and Marky Lennon.
It is set for release next Friday (October 13), and can be pre-ordered here.
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