Hynde, Preston sit in on new Ringo Starr album

On Choose Love, the former Beatles drummer utilises the talents of the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, Robert Randolph, Billy Preston and the loose-knit collective the Roundheads, which has assisted on a few of his recent projects. The album is due June 7 via Koch Records.

"It takes a band--even more than it takes a village--to make music like this," Starr says of working with producer/multi-instrumentalist Mark Hudson, guitarist Steve Dudas, guitarist Gary Burr and keyboardist/arranger Jim Cox--the Roundheads. "By now, we feel like we know each other's minds, we know where we're going."

Hudson has been with Starr since playing on 1992's Time Takes Time (Private Music), while the rest of the Roundheads have been built through the making of 1998's Vertical Man (Mercury), the following year's I Want To Be Santa Claus (Mercury) and 2003's Ringorama (Koch).

"This has been a joy in my life working with the guys," Starr says. "You can have fun and you can even have that bad day with each other and it's not held against you. So you have the freedom to be who you are and still be together."

The All-Starr Band leader frequently has peppered his full-length recordings with guests, and Choose Love is no exception. Of her work on Don't Hang Up, Starr says Hynde "made her part her own. She changed it and made it better."

Meanwhile, Family Band leader Randolph appears on Fading In, Fading Out and Oh My Lord, the latter of which also features Preston. "When I wrote Photograph and Back off Boogaloo I had George [Harrison] to produce me, and George was always trying to get into them the words 'God' and 'Krishna' and I fought it," Starr says of that song. "And now just with the growth within myself, I have no problem with that now. George, bless him, has his 'Sweet Lord'--this is mine."