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The Beatles’ story is almost ingrained knowledge for music fans at this point. The band that came up covering songs soon penned sweet little pop songs of their own. Yet, by the late 1960s, they had changed their sound and reinvented guitar-based music for the masses. The Fab Four had a little chemical help along the way, but Ringo Starr set the record straight about what happened when the bad got high with Bob Dylan in a New York hotel room.

Ringo Starr (left) in 1973; Bob Dylan at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. Ringo once set the record straight about The Beatles getting high with Dylan.
(l-r) Ringo Starr; Bob Dylan | Michael Putland/Getty Images; Gai Terrell/Redferns

The Beatles stormed the United States in 1964 and met Bob Dylan after one show

The Beatles’ first appearance in front of an American audience came on The Ed Sullivan Show in early 1964. Ringo once said The Beatles were lucky to land the gig, but all they needed was that one performance to conquer the U.S. 

The Fab Four found themselves amid a North American in August and September 1964. Bob Dylan wanted to meet them after a show in New York. And so he did.

The singer-songwriter found himself in The Beatles’ hotel room. Legend has it Dylan produced the pot that got The Fab Four high for the time that night, but Ringo once set the record straight about what really happened.

Ringo Starr reveals what really happened when The Beatles got high with Dylan

Ringo and Paul McCartney agree that The Beatles met Bob Dylan in New York in 1964. And they both agree the band got high with him. 

The myth holds that Dylan strolled in and sparked up in front of the Fab Four. Ringo once revealed the truth to Conan O’Brien (via YouTube):

“He didn’t actually give us it; he was in the room. Bob was in the room in the hotel when it was arranged that someone else would bring some stuff. We got high, and we laughed our a**** off … I went first. The drummers always go first. It was just how it was. We didn’t draw lots. It was like, ‘OK, let’s go.’ We had a suite, we had a living room, and in the bedroom is where it was happening. It was against the law then. Not like now.”

Ringo Starr describes getting high with Bob Dylan

Paul’s story of the meeting varies in that Dylan quickly disappeared into another room to get high. Ringo said another individual brought the pot to the room and then Dylan sequestered himself. But the two surviving Beatles agree that the band got high that night, and Ringo was the first one to try it.

The meeting in New York was a changing point for both artists

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The meeting between Dylan and The Beatles impacted both artists. Dylan started his electric period soon after, and the Fab Four were on the path to revamping their approach.

Ringo, Paul, John Lennon, and George Harrison smoked so much pot that filming Help was a nightmare for the pros on set in 1965. By 1966, The Beatles had stopped touring, dropped transformational albums Revolver (which John called the acid album) and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band within nine months of each other in 1966 and 1967, and completely changed the musical landscape.

Ringo Starr set the record straight about The Beatles getting high with Bob Dylan, who was in the room but not the supplier. In any event, the Fab Four eventually charted a new course and changed music history.

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