Ringo Starr Was Convinced 1 of His Songs Would Lose Him the Chance of Being Knighted
TL;DR:
- Ringo Starr released the song “Elizabeth Reigns” on his Ringo Rama album.
- Ringo Starr thought the song would lose him the knighthood.
- In 2018, Ringo Starr was knighted.
In 1997, Paul McCartney was knighted, and Ringo Starr received the honor over two decades later. Starr was happy to accept, but he hadn’t anticipated it. He believed that McCartney would be the only Beatle to receive the knighthood. Starr thought that one of his songs would disqualify him.
The drummer released the song ‘Elizabeth Reigns’ in 2003
While Starr was in the studio with musician Dean Grakal, the latter asked what “ER” meant. It referenced the queen’s Golden Jubilee, and Grakal began to write a song about it.
“‘Elizabeth Reigns’ was a question from Dean Grakal,” Starr told Goldmine in 2003. “‘What does ER mean,’ because when we were recording at my place, Rocca Bella, it was Jubilee madness all over England. And the concert was corning on, one of the boys were there. And anyway on a day off they went into town and saw all these banners about the big Jubilee.”
At first, Starr didn’t want to write a song about the queen, but he eventually joined them.
“So they’d found all this British heritage, and I’m the only Englishman there,” he said. “So they started writing this thing and I joined in.”
Ringo Starr thought he wouldn’t be knighted because of the song
In the song, Starr sings, “We don’t really need a king/Six hundred servants/Use her detergent/Scrubbing the palace floor/And all of your sins are/As big as the Windsors/So lets point our fingers/No more.”
Starr explained the lyrics.
“They’re just like everyone else, the royal family,” he said. “I wanted to get in the line, ‘We’ll point the finger no more ’cause all of our sins are as big as the Windsors,’ you know, the divorces, and the madness and the kids. So that’s what it was all about, and the track turned out really cool.”
Though he liked the song, he was certain it would have consequences.
“And in the end I say, ‘There goes the knighthood’ [laughs],” he said. “So I feel you’ll only ever see Sir Paul McCartney. [laughs].”
Prince William knighted Ringo Starr in 2018
In the end, though, Starr was wrong. Like McCartney before him, he was knighted at Buckingham Palace in 2018.
“It means a lot actually,” Starr said, per BBC. “It means recognition for the things we’ve done. I was really pleased to accept this.”
He joked that he would wear the medal to breakfast, but he wasn’t sure about being referred to as “Sir.”
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “It’s new and I don’t know how you use it properly.”
Still, he turned to BBC reporter Colin Paterson and told him, “But I expect you to use it.”
