Ringo Starr Woke Up Many Mornings and Wondered Why Birds Were Coughing

Ringo Starr has been sober since 1988 and has focused on living an almost astonishingly healthy lifestyle. Before this, though, he drank heavily and used drugs. This meant that many mornings were a slog for him. He liked to keep his room in complete darkness and often woke up wondering why the birds outside were making so much noise.

The Beatles drummer said he was angry for years after the band broke up

In 1970, The Beatles broke up. For George Harrison and John Lennon, the split was something of a relief. Tensions had been rising between the bandmates, and the breakup meant they could focus on their solo careers. Starr and Paul McCartney, however, felt the loss more acutely. 

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

Both Starr and McCartney used alcohol as a coping mechanism, and Starr said chunks of time are missing from his memories.

“I was drunk,” he said. “I didn’t notice … some of those years are absolutely gone.”

Before he got sober, Ringo Starr often woke up feeling hungover

Before 1988, Starr woke up many mornings feeling awful. While living in a vacation home with a number of musicians to work on Harry Nilsson’s album, Starr often found himself at odds with the sun.

“I was up next, usually around ten, followed by John [Lennon] an hour later,” Lennon’s girlfriend May Pang wrote in her book Loving John. “Ringo and Harry would be next. They always came down in their bathrobes and always wore dark sunglasses, and say, ‘Daylight hurts.'”

Starr told Rolling Stone he woke up many mornings wondering, “Why are the birds coughing so loudly?” 

In 1988, Starr and his wife, Barbara Bach, decided to get sober together.

“It gets really lonely, you know?” he said. “It’s just really cold and lonely. It’s a miserable disease, in the end. There’s a crowd of you, and it’s lonely. Because that’s all you’re doing is getting f***ed, you know? But I haven’t been that lonely since.”

Since getting sober, Ringo Starr has dedicated himself to a healthy lifestyle

After rehab, Starr dedicated himself to his health. He was a vegetarian but also began to incorporate exercise into his life.

“I didn’t work out for many years,” he told Rolling Stone in 2020. “I worked out in nightclubs! [Laughs] But that’s not me now. I started working out. Next door, I have a gym. And I’m in the gym at least three and sometimes six days a week. And, you know, we walk. When I started walking, I was living in Monte Carlo. I’d walk around the port, I’d come back and go into a local restaurant, bum a cigarette, and have a double espresso. I haven’t smoked in a long time, but I still enjoy a double espresso. And I’m a vegetarian. I have broccoli with everything and blueberries every morning. I just do stuff that I feel is good for me.”

How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.