Ringo Starr Once Explained Why George Harrison Never Joined the All-Starr Band
Ringo Starr became famous drumming for The Beatles, but he didn’t rest on his laurels when they disbanded. He kicked off a modestly successful acting career before the group broke up, released solo records steadily since the 1970s (aside from a semi-retirement in the 1980s), and toured with several iterations of his All-Starr Band. Ringo and fellow Beatle George Harrison remained close enough that the drummer shared some incredible final moments with his one-time bandmate. Still, even though Ringo repeatedly asked George to join his All-Starr Band, the guitarist essentially refused in the most George way possible.
Ringo Starr has constructed his All-Starr Bands for more than 30 years
Ringo entered a music-making hiatus after releasing his 1983 album Stop and Smell the Roses. When he emerged at the end of the decade, it was with his first version of his All-Starr Band. Joe Walsh (The Eagles), Clarence Clemons (The E Street Band), and Rick Danko and Levon Helm from The Band, among others, joined him.
Every iteration of the All-Starr Band has included at least one other drummer sharing the stage with The Beatles legend. Gregg Bissonette has been part of every All-Starr band since 2008. Simon Kirke (Bad Company, Free), Sheila E., and Zak Starkey (The Who’s current touring drummer) have also joined the All-Starr Bands in the past.
Billy Squier, Todd Rundgren, Nils Lofgren, and Peter Frampton some of the notable guitarists to play with Ringo’s All-Starr Bands. Ringo said he repeatedly asked, but George refused to join an All-Starr band in the most George way possible.
George Harrison never joined the All-Starr Band because of the money (in a good-natured way)
Ringo gets selective with his choices for the All-Starr Band. He has dozens of musician friends, but he’ll only take hitmakers on the road with him. His former Beatle bandmates made dozens of hits after the band broke up. Still, in a conversation with Conan O’Brien (via YouTube), Ringo explained why George never joined the All-Starr Band despite repeated invitations:
“I used to invite George every time, and he’d say, ‘You’d have to give me all the money.’ And Paul’s always busy, I don’t know.”
Ringo Starr details how George Harrison refused to join the All-Starr Band
The way Ringo tells it, George refused to join the All-Starr Band by turning the tables on the drummer by setting too high a price. At the same time, George might have been in a place where collaborating in a supergroup wasn’t for him.
The Beatles were a supergroup of sorts, and he corralled several famous guitar-playing friends into forming The Traveling Wilburys in 1988. George played on albums by Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Duane Eddy, Ravi Shankar, and Carl Perkins in the 1980s and 1990s. He showed up on Ringo’s 1998 solo effort Vertical Man, too.
George never joined the All-Starr Band, but he stayed busy and teamed up with Ringo before he died in 2001.
Ringo and George worked together several times after The Beatles broke up
George never toured with Ringo’s All-Starr Band, but the two Beatles were hardly strangers following the band’s demise. They were on hand to accept the Fab Four’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and they played together several times before George showed up on Ringo’s Vertical Man.
George wrote three songs on Ringo’s self-titled solo album in 1973, including the No. 1 hit “Photograph.” He collaborated with the drummer on the Goodnight Vienna album in 1974, Ringo’s Rotogravure, and Stop & Smell the Roses.
Ringo returned the favors. He was one of the only drummers George trusted in his early solo days. Even though the guitarist forgot, Ringo drummed on most of All Things Must Pass.
Ringo Starr explained why George Harrison never joined the All-Starr Band, but the two legendary Beatles still found ways to work together.
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