Vertical Man

Vertical Man is the eleventh studio album by Ringo Starr, issued in 1998. The release represents Starr's attempt at a comeback following the enormous success of The Beatles Anthology project. Like some of his best-loved projects, Starr would engage the help of many of his musician friends in making Vertical Man, including Scott Weiland, Brian Wilson, Alanis Morissette, Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Steven Tyler, and former-Beatles, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick mixed the tracks, and Starr and Hudson served as producers.

Background and recording

Ringo Starr met songwriter Dean Grakal at a party on New Year's Eve 1996, during which the pair had a discussion about songwriting, with Grakal proposing that they form a team with Mark Hudson, whom Starr had met years prior while Starr was working on Time Takes Time (1992). Starr spoke of the writing process in an interview with Billboard magazine: "This is the first time I've really been involved [in my record]. Whereas before, I'd just sort of pick out other people's songs or songs other people had written that I thought were vaguely trying to say what I would have liked to say, on this, we're really trying to say what I want to say, thank you."