Ringo Starr Reflects on Our Troubled Times: 'I Wish the Whole World Was Living in Peace and Love'
“C’mon, I’m not going to answer that,” Ringo Starr says, exhibiting an atypical testiness when I ask him about Paul McCartney’s recent candid confession that he, John Lennon, and three of Lennon’s friends participated in a group masturbation session. “I mean, I wasn’t even there. What am I supposed to say?”
But Starr did once say that “it doesn’t matter; whichever one of us does something, we all have to answer for it,” and we do have a bit of history, so I decide to press my luck.
The words “but Paul said…” are barely out of my mouth when Starr interrupts.
“Well, Paul says a lot of things,” Starr says, his irritation palpable. But then he lets out a hearty laugh, an indication that all’s well, but also that he’s ready to move on.
In fact, Starr has been moving on for nearly fifty years, since the demise of the most famous rock and roll band in history. He enjoyed a string of hits in the aftermath of the Fab Four—surprising everyone, including John, Paul and George—and was the only one of them to entice all three of the former Beatles to contribute to a solo project. He also racked up an impressive roster of film roles, before his career and reputation took a nosedive in the 1980s, the result of “monumental” alcohol and substance abuse, as Starr, now thirty years sober, recalls.
Source: Jeff Slate/thedailybeast.com
