Why The Beatles’ Pete Best Avoided Offers to Cash in on His Time With the Band
After two years with The Beatles, drummer Pete Best’s time with the band came to an abrupt end. Not long before the band got their first No. 1 hit, they fired Best and replaced him with Ringo Starr. A number of people who were tangentially attached to The Beatles wrote books about them or sold their stories to news publications. Best resisted doing this for years.
Pete Best joined The Beatles in 1960
In the early days of The Beatles, they worked with several different drummers. When one drummer, Norman Chapman, had to leave the group for the National Service, they found themselves without a drummer ahead of their residency in Hamburg, Germany. Luckily, Best was looking for a job.
His band was about to break up, so Paul McCartney called Best to ask if he wanted to join them for the trip. Best agreed, and he went on to play with the band for the next two years.
Pete Best didn’t want to sell his story about his time with The Beatles
Eventually, the band decided that they wanted a different drummer, so they fired Best. Shortly after, the band began its massive rise to success. Because of this, many magazines and news sources started reaching out to Best. They wanted to pay him for the stories of his time with The Beatles. He refused these offers, even though he spoke about needing money to afford a house.
“I did have offers to tell my story and make a lot of money,” he said, per The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “I had been hurt by the many things said about my playing and me. But I didn’t want to drop them in it.”
He said that he didn’t want to come across as bitter, particularly because he didn’t hold onto any bad feelings toward the band.
“It would have seemed like sour grapes,” he said. “I just let them get on with it and hoped on my own to get going again.”
Best added that he would not take money from his former bandmates if they offered.
“I don’t want them to feel sorry for me,” he said. “I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t take anything from them anyway, on any condition. Not now.”
He showed the band more grace than they showed him
Best ultimately did release books about his time with The Beatles. The first, The Best Years of the Beatles, which Best wrote with author Bill Harry, came out in 1996. To his credit, he waited until nearly three decades after the band’s split to write about them. By doing this, Best showed his former bandmates more grace than they showed him.
When The Beatles fired Best, they didn’t want to break the news to him directly. Instead, they had their manager, Brian Epstein, fire him. After this, they avoided speaking to Best altogether, though he said he didn’t hold this against them.
“I never felt hatred for them, even at the time,” he said. “At first I did think they’d been a bit sneaky, going behind my back all the time, scheming to get rid of me, then never telling me to my face what they had decided. But I got over that after a while. I suppose I could see why they’d been sneaky.”
Best easily could have profited from his stories of Hamburg, particularly because of the debauchery during the band’s time there. He didn’t, though, allowing The Beatles to hold onto their public image of being good and charming. By waiting to share his stories, Best showed his acceptance of the firing and forgiveness of the band.
