Ringo Starr Said Joining The Beatles Was Like Going to School, but Not Because He Had to Learn the Songs
Ringo Starr’s steady beat and underrated skills behind the drum kit made him the perfect drummer for The Beatles. It’s not a coincidence that the Fab Four shot to stardom soon after Ringo joined. Still, it wasn’t a cakewalk. Ringo said joining The Beatles was like going to school, and not just because he had to learn new songs.
Ringo Starr joined The Beatles just before they first hit the charts
Ringo was well known to The Beatles before they asked him to join.
Various childhood illnesses kept him out of school for years, but he discovered his passion for drumming during one hiatus. He never completed his childhood schooling, but that might have been a wise choice. Ringo built a reputation as Liverpool’s best drummer with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, who performed in Hamburg, Germany, during some of The Beatles’ residencies there.
For all his talents, Ringo still had to clear some hurdles when he joined the Fab Four. He didn’t play drums on the band’s first single because producer George Martin wasn’t familiar with his talents. Ringo said joining The Beatles’ was like being at school, but not because he had to learn new songs.
Ringo said joining The Beatles was like going to a new school: ‘Everybody knew everybody but me’
Ringo earned praise from George Harrison before the guitarist even knew his name, but joining The Beatles wasn’t as easy as simply backing a different band.
The drummer had to learn a handful of new songs when he first joined. Later, he had to find a way to conjure the perfect beat for the songs the prolific John Lennon and Paul McCartney started writing.
Yet the most challenging part was building relationships with his new bandmates. As Alan Clayson writes in Ringo Starr: Straight Man or Joker, Ringo said joining The Beatles was more like school:
“It was like joining a new class at school, where everybody knew everybody but me.”
Ringo Starr describes joining The Beatles
Ringo wasn’t the only drummer to feel the same way. Jimmie Nicol joined The Beatles for part of a 1964 tour when Ringo had his tonsils removed. “The boys were very kind, but I felt like an intruder. You just can’t get into a group like that,” Nicol once said, writes Clayson. “They have their own atmosphere, their own sense of humor. It’s a little clique, and outsiders just can’t break in.”
The drummer maintained solid relationships with his Fab Four bandmates
Ringo had an intimate relationship with a drummer gunning for his spot in the Beatles. He also maintained close friendships with his Fab Four bandmates over the years.
George praised Ringo before he knew him. Nearly two decades later, George proved he had a close relationship with Ringo when he filmed the 1978 Ringo TV special days after a mountain climbing accident in Hawaii.
John and his drummer were close, too. They were suburban London neighbors, Ringo later bought John’s house, and the drummer moved in with his former bandmate for a time in the 1970s. When he ended his self-imposed musical retirement, John wrote a song for one of Ringo’s solo albums. Out of respect, Ringo refused to record the song after John died, and it later turned into a top-10 hit.
As the last two surviving Beatles, Ringo and Paul have a close friendship, too. The bassist helped the drummer enter the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (and gave the induction speech). Paul summed up his musical relationship with Ringo by simply saying they have a magical bond that can only come from decades of playing together.
Ringo Starr said joining The Beatles was like joining a new class at school because he didn’t have relationships with his bandmates. He quickly ingratiated himself with the Fab Four and built lifelong friendships with his bandmates.
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