Why Ringo Starr Named His ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ Character ‘Billy Shears’
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the most experimental album by The Beatles. It was so different from their previous albums that The Beatles weren’t even the same people. They all took on the persona of a fake band led by Sgt. Pepper, with Ringo Starr adopting the name “Billy Shears.” However, Billy Shears has a connection to The Beatles that led to many fan conspiracy theories.
Ringo Starr used the name ‘Billy Shears’ on ‘Sgt. Pepper’ to tease Beatles fans
One of the most famous music conspiracy theories ever is the “Paul is Dead” theory. The conspiracy suggests that Paul McCartney died in a car accident in 1966 and The Beatles had replaced him with a look alike. The cover of Abbey Road contains multiple “clues” that supposedly confirm Paul’s death.
One essential part of this theory is who replaced McCartney. The theory suggests manager Brian Epstein held a competition for a Paul look alike. After Paul was killed, Epstein paid the police and journalists to keep things under wraps while introducing the new McCartney, William Campbell Shears, a.k.a Billy Shears.
In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, McCartney said the song “With a Little Help From My Friends” was written with Billy Shears in mind. They wanted to give Ringo Starr a song on Sgt. Pepper’s to sing that fit not only his talents but also his alter-ego’s. They also selected that name to poke fun at Beatles fans and this theory.
“The song was performed very much in the style of the Sgt Pepper album as a whole – the style of a live show in which the song is sung by a certain ‘Billy Shears’. For those old enough to remember, Billy Shears was the name of the person who supposedly replaced me in The Beatles when I’d ‘died’ after a road accident in 1966. That was a crazy rumor that had been doing the rounds. Now Billy Shears showed up, large as life, in the guise of Ringo Starr! So, this song is Ringo’s intro as a character in this operetta.”
The Beatles pretended to be other people for creative freedom
Sgt. Pepper’s is the first album by The Beatles after they decided to stop touring. This gave them time to perfect their craft and focus more on songwriting and production. The idea of adopting the identity of characters was McCartney’s, who thought it would feel less restrictive creatively. In an interview with Barnes & Noble, McCartney explained why he thought the risk paid off.
“The whole idea for that record was that we were gonna have alter egos because we thought if we make another record under The Beatles when I walk up to a microphone, it’s Paul walking up to a microphone, or John walks up, it’s John singing the song,” McCartney shared. “So you know, it’s kind of quite nice if it’s not Paul if it’s this guy out of another group. We freed ourselves and made a very free record because of that. That was the one that we were pretending to be.”
While John Lennon and Ringo Starr went along with the idea of Sgt. Pepper’s, George Harrison wasn’t entranced by this idea and showed little enthusiasm during the recording process. While he did like the music, the fictional band aspect didn’t interest him.
“It became an assembly process – just little parts and then overdubbing – and so for me, it became a bit tiring and a bit boring,” Harrison said in Anthology. “I felt we were just in the studio to make the next record, and Paul was going on about this idea of some fictitious band. That side of it didn’t really interest me.”
