Ringo Starr’s Family Delivered ‘Quite a Blow’ to His Ego

Ringo Starr was already a well-known drummer in Liverpool before The Beatles added him to the roster. But the fame he achieved in the Fab Four was a different beast. The notoriety led Ringo’s family to treat him differently, which he said was “quite a blow” to his ego. He ignored his family’s advice to pursue music as a full-time job. When Ringo achieved international superstardom because of it, he felt like an outsider among his relatives.

Ringo Starr’s family gave ‘quite a blow’ to his ego when they treated him differently because of his fame

In the middle of 1962, Ringo was an ace timekeeper and a key member of Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, a well-known Liverpool band. By August of that year, he upgraded when The Beatles added him to the roster. By March 1963, he was the drummer in the hottest group in England. 

The Beatles became world famous by the end of 1964. They never wanted for anything. Fans monitored every move they made. Sycophants, groupies, and people-pleasers surrounded the Fab Four hoping to grab a sliver of the spotlight. People treated The Beatles like royalty — superior beings surrounded by mortals. 

Ringo Starr’s family did the same thing. It was a blow to his ego, and he said it put him in an impossible situation (per 150 Glimpses of The Beatles by Craig Brown):

“Suddenly, I was ‘one of those [people],’ even within my family, and it was very difficult to get used to. I’d grown up and lived with these people, and now I found myself in weirdland. Once we’d become big and famous, we soon learnt that people were with us only because of the vague notoriety of being a ‘Beatle.’ And when this happened in the family, it was quite a blow … I couldn’t stand up and say, ‘Treat me like you used to,’ because that would be acting big-time.”

Ringo Starr

Brown’s book discussed a time the superstar drummer spilled a bit of tea into his saucer, and his family rushed to clean up the mess for him. The same people who never treated him differently after he spent a substantial part of his childhood in the hospital. The ones who more or less supported his drumming dream — his grandpa loaned him the £46 he needed to put down a deposit on a drum kit in 1958 (per Ringo: With a Little Help author Michael Seth Starr) — treated him differently once he climbed to the pinnacle of his profession.

Nearly every day from 1963 until the end of the decade and beyond, Ringo had the world at his fingertips. He lived a rarefied lifestyle. Others wanted to experience it by pampering or sucking up to him. Ringo’s relatives did the same thing, which was quite a blow to his ego. 

How his kin reacted to spilled tea stood in stark contrast to how Elsie Starkey handled her son’s fame. Even when he became a world-famous drummer and a father, she still saw Ringo as her little Ritchie Starkey.

Ringo described how The Beatles handled their fame — by keeping each other grounded

Ringo’s family and many others treated The Beatles differently when they became famous. The same thing happened to Elvis Presley when he became the face of the rock ‘n’ roll movement The difference between the two, as Ringo saw it, was the Fab Four kept each other grounded when no one else would.

Elvis surrounded himself with yes men when he was at the peak of his fame. Ringo said The Beatles handled their fame differently, per Ringo: With a Little Help:

“We’d get in the car. I’d look over at John and say, ‘Christ. Look at you. You’re a bloody phenomenon!’ And just laugh because it was only him. Elvis went downhill because he seemed to have no friends, just a load of sycophants. Whereas with us, individually, we all went mad, but the other three always brought us back. That’s what saved us. I remember being totally bananas thinking, I am the one, and the other three would look at me and say, ‘Scuse me, what are you doing?’ I remember each of us getting into that state.”

Ringo Starr’s family became swayed by his fame and treated him like royalty. They knew him when he was Richard Starkey but treated him differently when he was the world-famous drummer for The Beatles. At the very least, he could always rely on his bandmates to keep him grounded and treat him like anyone else.

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