Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE, known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. He occasionally sang lead vocals, usually for one song on an album, including "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Yellow Submarine" and their cover of "Act Naturally". He also wrote the Beatles' songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of others, including "What Goes On" and...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionDrummer
Date of Birth7 July 1940
CityLiverpool, England
People only look at me as a Beatle, but my friends look at me as a whole person. That's how life works, but it's not bugging me anymore.
I hate click tracks. A lot of people I know like to use click tracks. Like my son is perfect on the click tracks. It makes me to edgy.
I'm quite honored by it. They [people] tell me that , 'If it hadn't of been for you, I wouldn't have played drums.' Hey, don't blame me, I was just up there doing my stuff. So no, I never take it as any real pressure.
I made all my mistakes playing with people.
From 13, I wanted to play drums. I wanted to play with good people and I'm still doing it. I still love it so that's why I do it.
I don't like talking. It's how I'm built. Some people gab all day and some play it smogo. I don't mind talking or smiling, it's just I don't do it very much. I haven't got a smiling face or a talking mouth.
I don't talk about myself in the third person, and I laugh at people who do.
People in Liverpool don't move very far, you know.
I think the most exciting thing is that you expect people our age to know the music, but actually a lot of kids know the music, and if anything is left, we have left really good music, and that's the important part, not the mop-tops or whatever.
There's a woman in the United States who predicted the plane we were traveling on would crash. Now, a lot of people would like to think we were scared into saying a prayer. What we did actually--we drank.
People only look at me as a Beatle but my friends look at me as a whole person. That's how life works, but it's not bugging me anymore.
I've always been playing with other people, and that's how I learned. I got a kit of drums I couldn't play, but I also knew a guitarist and a friend of mine played bass and could teach us bass, and we just played. And I learned...
For me, I want to get across the stage to the people. I want to point at you, thirty, forty rows back, and you know I'm pointing at you, and we're having a laugh and getting it together.
When I run on stage now, a thousand people don't even see you, they're in their phone.