Ringo Starr Said Paul McCartney’s Music Made Him Disappointed and ‘Sad’: ‘He’s Wasted His Time’

In the aftermath of The Beatles’ breakup, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were not happy with Paul McCartney. They complained publicly about his desire to get his way, but they also were embroiled in a legal battle with him. McCartney did not like Allen Klein, who the other band members had hired as their manager, and sued the group so Klein didn’t have complete control over their music. On top of speaking negatively about McCartney’s personality, his former bandmates slammed his solo music. Starr said it made him sad.

The drummer was angry for years after The Beatles broke up

When The Beatles broke up, some members, like Harrison and Lennon, felt a sense of relief. Starr, however, was left with feelings of resentment that would linger for the next two decades.

“I was mad,” he said, per the New York Daily News. “For 20 years. I had breaks in between of not being.”

While he wasn’t as harsh on McCartney as his other bandmates, Starr didn’t pull punches when talking about him. Per the book Paul McCartney: A Life by Peter Ames Carlin, he said that McCartney “acted like a spoiled child … he goes on and on to see if he can get his way.”

Ringo Starr was not a big fan of the Paul McCartney album ‘Ram’

Starr insulted McCartney’s personality but was even harder on the bassist’s solo music. In a conversation about his former bandmates, Starr said that some of Lennon’s solo songs were “just incredible” and Harrison’s All Things Must Pass was “sensational. There are so many great tracks on it, good tracks and so much work” (via The Beatles Diary Volume Two). He was nowhere near as kind when discussing McCartney’s album Ram.

“I feel sad with Paul’s albums because I believe he’s a great artist, incredibly creative, incredibly clever but he disappoints me on his albums,” Starr said, adding, “I don’t think there’s one tune on the last one Ram … I just feel he’s wasted his time, it’s just the way I feel … he seems to be going strange.”

Ram, an album by McCartney and his wife Linda, was a critical disappointment as well. As years have gone by, however, opinions of the album have shifted, and critics have praised it. Some wonder if the harsh reviews McCartney received from his former bandmates had more to do with their broken relationships than the album’s quality. 

Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney get along better these days

Starr and McCartney’s relationship has significantly improved since the early 1970s. They’ve collaborated multiple times over the years, and McCartney campaigned to get Starr into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He said that while he and Starr still fight sometimes, they recognize that they’re family to each other.

“It’s family,” McCartney told Rolling Stone. “Sometimes we get pissed off at each other. I’ll want something from him and he won’t give it to me, and I’ll get pissed off. But then it passes. Brothers fight sometimes. There’s this revisionist history that it was all John and Paul. But it was four corners of a square; it wouldn’t have worked without one of the sides. Ringo was the right angle.”