John Lennon’s Mindset Just Before His Death Led Ringo Starr to Give Him the Ultimate Compliment
The relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney is legendary. Yet John and Ringo Starr had a strong bond, too. Even though John bossed Ringo around in The Beatles, the two bandmates grew close over the years. Ringo visited John just before his 1980 murder, and the drummer could help but compliment his friend’s mentality.
Ringo Starr and John Lennon had a unique relationship
Ringo left his London apartment for a sprawling suburban estate while The Beatles were still active. John lived less than a mile away. Yet the drummer still held the lease and let his former abode become a playground for his famous friends.
Jimi Hendrix lived there. Paul recorded some experimental works there. And John and Yoko Ono stripped naked and shot their Two Virgins album cover in Ringo’s former digs.
John became Ringo’s neighbor when the drummer vacated central London. Later, the drummer moved into his former bandmate’s mansion — and burned some of John’s possessions that were left behind. Ringo roomed with John in California for a period in the mid-1970s. When Ringo visited John just before his murder in late 1980, he was blown away by his mindset, which led to him giving him the ultimate compliment.
Ringo gave John the ultimate compliment after seeing him in 1980: ‘He had the biggest heart’
John’s lost weekend was long over when the 1980s dawned, and he was ready to end his self-imposed musical retirement. Ringo visited his friend in New York, and they made plans to record together in early 1981.
John’s tragic death in December 1980 prevented that from happening,. Years later, Ringo remembered being blown away by his friend’s attitude at the time, writes Michael Seth Starr in With a Little Help. It made such an impact that Ringo gave John the ultimate compliment:
“He and Yoko came over to our hotel, and we had a great time saying ‘hello’ again,” Ringo said. “His head was together. His album was done, and we worked it all out that come January, we were going into the studio together.
“Even though he was always treated in the press as a cynical put-down artist, John had the biggest heart of all of us. He was so up, so happy then — he blew me away, he was so happy.”
Ringo Starr compliments John Lennon having the ‘biggest heart’
Ringo had seen John during some of his lowest points — frustrations boiling over in The Beatles; his separation from Yoko. The drummer said his friend was ready to passionately revive his music career in the 1980s, but he never really had the chance. Still, John’s mindset at the time left a mark on Ringo, and he gave him the ultimate compliment by saying he had the biggest heart of any of the Fab Four.
The drummer later honored his friend by turning down a top-10 hit
John and Ringo remained on good terms even after The Beatles’ acrimonious split. The guitarist gave the drummer a song, album opener “I’m the Greatest,” for his self-titled solo record in 1973. John initially wrote it for himself during an evening at home, but when he decided not to record it, he reworked it and gave it to Ringo for the album.
Lennon had some songs ready for what became the Ringo record Stop and Smell the Roses, which is why they planned to get in the studio in 1981. But Ringo refused to record those tunes for the album. One of them, “Nobody Told Me,” turned into a top-10 hit for John. The song appeared on John’s posthumous 1984 album Milk and Honey, and it rose to No. 5 on the Billboard singles chart during its 14-week run.
Ringo Starr gave John Lennon the ultimate compliment by saying he had the biggest heart of all The Beatles. The drummer showed some compassion, too, when he declined to record a John song in the wake of his murder.
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