Paul McCartney Reveals How New Duet With Ringo Came About

By Editorial Staff | Published: May 28, 2026 4:00 PM EDT

One of the highlights of Paul McCartney's new album "The Boys of Dungeon Lane" (out tomorrow, May 29th) is his duet with his former Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr called "Home to Us", which is the first time they have teamed up for a duet.

McCartney spoke with Apple Music's Zane Lowe for a far-reaching interview and during the chat he revealed how the duet with Ringo came about. Here is the exchange: Paul: Ringo knew that I'd worked with Andrew [Watt] and we'd done one track, which is the opening track of the album called "As You Lie There". So he went over to see Andrew.

Then I was working with Andrew and I said, "You remember that Ringo came over and did some drumming, didn't he?" He says, "Yeah." I said, "Let's hear it." So he got it up. And I said, "Oh it's good. It's nice drumming." So I said we should write a song around that. We had some time, so we did it. And I wrote the words about where we both came from. I came from a place, Speke, he came for a place called Dingle, and it was poor living. Looking back on it now, I would have to say that nobody had any money and the houses were pretty rough. But we didn't know any better. And it was cool. So we had friends, we had mates, we had uncles and aunties and all that stuff. So you were on that level and you enjoyed it, you know? So anyway, I knew that Ringo had been through that like I'd been through it. So the song sort of says, it might have been a bit rough where we live, but it was home to us. So we did it, I put the vocal on it as a guide vocal for Ringo. And then we sent it over to him and I said, "Would you sing on this?" You know, thinking he'll just replace my vocal, but he didn't get the idea. He sort of sang on it a little bit, the chorus, it's harmonies, just a tiny bit. So I rang him back up and said, "Didn't you like it? Didn't you want to sing the whole thing?" He said, "I didn't think you wanted me to."

Zane Lowe: Hilarious. These are two guys who have known each other their whole life, still circling one another, trying to figure out how to get it done. It's life, baby.

Paul McCartney: That's true. That's how people do it. Anyway, I said, "No, no, no I'd love you to sing the whole thing." So he did very nicely. And then it suddenly became obvious that I could take a line, he could take a line. So we have the first Paul and Ringo duet.

Watch the full interview below or anytime on demand with an Apple Music subscription here