George Harrison Said Ringo Starr Played the Drums Like He Played the Guitar
George Harrison said his fellow Beatle Ringo Starr played the drums like he played the guitar. The two musicians were similar without even trying. Here’s what George said.
George Harrison said Ringo Starr played the drums like he played the guitar
During a 1987 interview on Dutch TV, George explained that his former bandmate was like himself as a musician. George explained that for so many years, they’d all grown up together, so they knew each other’s level of musicianship.
According to George, Ringo never practiced the drums, just as he never practiced the guitar. However, whenever they needed to play, they knew how to do it perfectly.
“As a drummer, I know Ringo is a great drummer, but he’s bad,” George said. “He doesn’t practice, but it doesn’t seem to matter he just picks up the drumsticks. For my songs, he’s very good because he listens to the song once and he knows exactly what to play.
“He was the kind of drummer who never likes drum solos, so he just plays, keeps good time, and he instinctively knows when there’s a little piece that needs a fill. And it’s the same with me. People call me a guitar player and in a way, I am a guitar player, but I never practice.
“There’s years and years in my life where I never picked the guitar up except just to make a record. I know I could be quite good.”
George always knew what he’d get when he asked Ringo to appear in his songs
After working together in The Beatles and on their respective solo work, George and Ringo knew each other as musicians. They knew what they would get when they asked each other to collaborate.
During a 1987 interview, George explained that he knew what he would get when he asked Ringo to appear on Cloud Nine.
“You couldn’t make an ex-Beatle record without having Ringo, could you?” George said. “It’s like a built-in thing. If I play a song to Ringo, I don’t need to say to him, ‘You know, I want it to go like this.’ I just play it, and he joins in. Maybe you could tell him, ‘Stop there’ or ‘Can you do a little fill there?’
“But other than that, he’s got a great feel. I sort of don’t practice much on the guitar. I just pick it up and play it when I need to and he’s the same. He never practices, he’s a very naughty boy. But he just gets his sticks and he just does it, and it sounds just like Ringo.”
George added to Guitar Player that Ringo holds a beat unlike anyone else. “He’ll hold that, rock-steady, all day and night,” George said. “He’ll have a break every hour-and-a-half to go for a pee and have a cigarette, and then he’ll sit back down and he’ll hold it steady.”
The guitarist said the drummer ‘needed’ to play on his 1987 album, ‘Cloud Nine’
During a 1986 interview on Australian TV, George said that he’d decided to make a new album for next year only a week before. That album would eventually become 1987’s Cloud Nine.
George already knew he wanted Ringo to play on the album. The guitarist said it was set in stone that the drummer would appear, even though Ringo had no idea about it yet. Geoge added that Ringo needed to play on Cloud Nine because he had nothing else to do.
“I haven’t told Ringo yet but he’s going to play on it and I think he needs to do that,” George explained. “He needs to play anyway, because he gets a bit bored just not doing anything. So, I haven’t told him yet because I only decided last week to do it.”
Whether or not Ringo agreed with George’s assessment of his stagnation, he would’ve agreed to help regardless. That’s why George and Ringo worked well together.
