Ringo Starr’s most notable endeavor post-Beatles is his creation and career with his band, Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band. Founded in 1989 and still going strong to this day, Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band always includes Ringo, of course, as well as some of the finest rock ‘n’ roll musicians of all time. Minus the core members, Gregg Bissonette, Steve Lukather, and Colin Hay, a few of the musicians who have been a part of the group include Joe Walsh, Billy Preston, Levon Helm, Jeff Lynne, Todd Rundgren, and many more. One musician who had an invitation to join the band but never did was Starr’s old pal and bandmate, George Harrison.

Following the breakup of The Beatles, George Harrison went on to have an incredibly successful solo career. Arguably, the best solo career of a Beatle. Prior to his passing, George Harrison scored three No. 1 hits, two No. 1 albums, and several Top 10 songs and albums. Needless to say, Harrison was a hot commodity, and that is seemingly why he never joined Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band.
George Harrison Jokingly Stated That He Was Too Expensive

Per the list we just gave you, Ringo Starr didn’t toss invitations out willy-nilly. He chose the best of the best, and consequently, his band was not only great, but also a celebration of the sound and culture of the peak days of rock ‘n’ roll. Nevertheless, one high-caliber talent Ringo Starr could never book was his buddy, George Harrison.

Source: Peter Burditt/americansongwriter.com

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Before George Harrison's death at 58, the Beatles’ lead guitarist delivered one final hit that carried deep personal meaning. In 2001, Harrison recorded the only song he's ever developed with his son, Dhani Harrison.

In his music career, Harrison had previously written a song in honor of his song after his birth in 1978. The song "Unknown Delight" was released on his 1982 album Gone Troppo. It took almost 20 years before Harrison could record a song with his son, and it unknowingly became his last.

The song "Horse to the Water" was recorded by Harrison on guitar and on lead vocals, while his son also played guitar. Instead of the song being released as their own, it became part of the 2001 album Small World, Big Band. It was performed by Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and Friends.

According to American Songwriter, Harrison and his son's parts were sent out to Holland in London, where his band finished the rest. All the while, Harrison sang the track while battling throat cancer.

"Horse in the Water" was recorded in early October 2001, with Harrison having died almost two months later on November 29, 2001. The song was later released shortly after his death in December.

In May of that year, Harrison had undergone surgery to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs, and in July underwent treatment for a brain tumor. The month of his death, he was in New York getting radiotherapy for non–small cell lung cancer that had spread to his brain.

The Beatles' guitarist died on a property belonging to Paul McCartney and was in the company of his wife, son, his daughter Olivia, and close family and friends present, including musician Ravi Shankar.

Fans have long seen the song as Harrison’s lighthearted reflection on his continued smoking habits, despite their risks and his cancer diagnosis. True to his wit, he listed the copyright under "R.I.P Music Ltd." instead of "Harrisongs."

Source: Gabriela Silva/yahoo.com

Liverpool's most notable quartet has no shortage of famous admirers. The English music industry would be unrecognizable without The Beatles, the band that helped lay the foundations for modern music. Whether it's the penmanship of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, paired with the musical sensibilities of George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the group pushed the limits of pop-rock, psychedelia, and even Indian music across their seven key albums. Although generations of musicians would embrace the band's spirit of innovation, a certain early fan took one of their songs for a spin. In fact, this song by The Beatles achieved even greater fame thanks to the reinterpretation of this fellow English singer.  The Beatles Wrote It but Joe Cocker Turned It into a Bluesy Masterpiece

One notable fan of Sgt. Pepper's is none other than rocker Joe Cocker — specifically the track "With a Little Help from My Friends." A year after Sgt. Pepper's release, Cocker recorded the song for his debut album of the same name. The cover is unlike anything performed by The Beatles, which originally features drummer Starr on the vocals and was written as a light, peppy pop-rock tune with a simple 4/4 time signature. Cocker went the opposite direction, re-arranging the song into a slower, fuzzy guitar-soaked piece with a complex waltz-like 6/8 meter, lush orchestration, and a gospel-like choir.  Joe Cocker Electrified Woodstock 1969 with "With a Little Help from My Friends"

Cocker's debut album caught the attention of the US charts, peaking at number 35 on the Billboard 200. However, it was his 1969 Woodstock performance of "With a Little Help from My Friends" that won the hearts of his American audiences. The hotbed of the hippie movement, Woodstock served as a critical turning point for rising musicians of that era, including Jimi Hendrix, Santana, and Cocker himself. Despite his album doing fairly well in the States, Cocker was considered a newcomer to the land.
Surrounded by press, The Beatles wave at fans as they arrive in New York City in 1964.

McCartney has sharp ears for talent, and he ensures they receive their due recognition. In early 2025, he issued a February 25-dated letter via his publicist, Bob Merlis, showing his full support for the late Cocker's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which took place on November 8 that year. This wasn't the first time McCartney voiced his support for fellow artists deserving of acknowledgment. In 2024, he urged the Hall of Fame to induct Foreigner. In the letter, he specifically pointed out Cocker's cover of his song.

Source: Dyah Ayu Larasati/collider.com

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In 1980, Frank Veteran was a resident in surgery at Roosevelt Hospital on New York City’s west side. At 30 years old, he was in his fifth and final year of surgical training Between the pressures of medical school and his job, he’d had little time to keep up with current events, let alone the comings and goings of his childhood heroes.

“I was into the Beatles, and I followed them,” Veteran told me when we spoke in 2005 for a Guitar World Presents special issue. “But by the time I was the chief resident in surgery, I wasn’t listening to them anymore. I was too busy. I didn’t even realize John Lennon was living in New York.”

One of three chief residents at Roosevelt, Veteran was on call for emergencies every third night. There, he attended to the routine injuries of city life.

“Gunshot wounds, stab wounds. You wouldn’t have to be in the hospital all the time, but if anything happened, you’d have to come in and take one of the younger residents through the procedure,” he explained. “When you were chief resident, you were the primary head doctor. You ran the whole show.”

On the night of December 8, 1980, the show was unlike any Veteran had seen before.

He’d spent the evening at his girlfriend’s apartment, on 10th Avenue, across from the hospital. Around 11 o’clock, as they were getting ready for bed, his beeper went off.

“They said, ‘We have a gunshot wound to the chest,’” Veteran recalled. “I asked, ’What’s status of the patient?” They said, ’Well, Dr. Halloran’ — one of the younger residents — ‘is opening his chest.’ I said, ‘Well, if Halloran is opening his chest, you don’t need me.’”

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Opening the patient’s chest, Veteran explained, is a last resort, performed when the heart has stopped and the patient is unlikely to live. “But they said to me, ‘No, we need you now!’”

Source: guitarplayer.com

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In the experimental, psychedelic operetta that was The Beatles’ 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, drummer Ringo Starr got to don the role of Billy Shears, singer of the affable, tongue-in-cheek second track, “With a Little Help from My Friends”. (Shears was a subtle reference to the man who allegedly replaced Paul McCartney in the infamous “Paul is dead” conspiracy.)

McCartney, along with John Lennon, wrote the song specifically for Starr. The track was a little dopey, which was both a friendly tease of their bandmate and, from a performance standpoint, a character that Starr could portray well. “We always liked to [write a song] for him. It had to be not too much like our style,” McCartney explained to Barry Miles in Many Years From Now. “I think that was probably the best of the songs we wrote for Ringo, actually.”

Starr had no qualms taking up the mantle for novelty songs like “With a Little Help from My Friends”, “Yellow Submarine” the previous year, or “Octopus’s Garden” two years later. But there was one lyric from the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band track that he refused to sing.

Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com

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George Harrison fought a long and hard battle against cancer, but his full autopsy report is still a mystery 24 years later.

Harrison battled several different forms of cancer and sought treatment all over the world before he died at the age of 58 on November 29, 2001. Those who were present during his death said he left his body in the spiritual way he'd been practicing for decades. After the tragic event, which left Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr the last surviving Beatles, his loved ones gave him a send-off he would've loved.

However, more than two decades later, some mysteries still surround Harrison's death. His autopsy report was never released, and there were issues with the place of death that was initially added to his death certificate.

In 1997, after Harrison discovered a lump in his throat, doctors diagnosed him with throat cancer. They successfully removed the lump and Harrison underwent two radiation treatments at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, one of the U.K.'s leading cancer centers, per Rolling Stone.

Harrison played down his illness by saying, "I am very lucky. I'm not going to die on you folks just yet." However, not long after becoming cancer-free, Harrison almost died in a home invasion in 1999. The former Beatle was left with multiple stab wounds and a collapsed lung.

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota examined Harrison on an annual basis. In March 2001, they diagnosed him with lung cancer. That May, he underwent successful surgery to remove a growth. However, by the summer, he was told that his cancer had spread to his brain.

Harrison and his wife, Olivia, began a worldwide search for treatment. It was reported that he was recovering from his lung surgery in a villa in Luino, Italy. However, he was actually receiving "grueling" cobalt treatments for a brain tumor at the San Giovanni hospital in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

In November, the Harrisons' search for treatment led them to Staten Island University Hospital in New York City. However, the treatment didn't work, and as Harrison's health began failing him, he and his family began staying in Los Angeles.

Once there, Harrison used Olivia's maiden name to check into UCLA Medical Center as Jorge Arias. However, doctors couldn't do much but alleviate his pain. His wife and son, Dhani, made him comfortable in his final days. As a very spiritual person, Harrison was not afraid of death. He had been preparing to die for years and wanted to leave his body peacefully. Dhani even claimed he bore no scars on his body at the moment of his death, which was a special feat in itself.

Harrison died peacefully on Nov. 29, 2001, with many of his friends and family in attendance, while the Hare Krishna Temple chanted to God. When he left his body, Olivia said he lit the room. "There was a profound experience that happened when he left his body," she explained in Martin Scorsese's documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World. "It was visible. Let's just say you wouldn't need to light the room if you were trying to film it. You know, he just lit the room."

Harrison's official autopsy report was never released, but his cause of death was listed on his Los Angeles County death certificate as "metastatic non-small cell lung cancer." According to Beatles Bible, his body was wrapped in a shawl and covered with holy oils. Twenty minutes after he died, staff from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery collected his body. Harrison's family and friends said prayers.

Source: Hannah Furnell/irishstar.com

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