Ringo Starr says The Beatles "didn't get along" and would have less albums without "workaholic" Paul McCartney
16 May 2024, 09:00 | Updated: 16 May 2024, 16:04
The Beatles drummer has given a new interview where he discussed the band's working relationship and credited McCartney for the amount of music they created.
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Ringo Starr believes The Beatles would have made far fewer records if it wasn't for Paul McCartney.
The famous Fab Four drummer has opened up about the dynamics of the band in a new interview, where he discussed how they relied on McCartney in later years to motivate them.
Speaking to Dan Rather for AXS TV, the Yellow Submarine singer explained: "We didn't get along. We were four guys. We had rows. It never got in the way of the music, no matter how bad the rows got, once the count [came] in, we all gave our best".
Ringo Talks About How The Beatles Didn't Get Along
The drummer also went onto explain that the band - completed by the late John Lennon and George Harrison - found it hard to motivate themselves as they got older and their families grew.
"And that was a little later too, which I think is a natural thing," he continued. "Suddenly, we’ve got lives and I've got children and you know, the effort that we put in 'cause we worked really hard was starting to pale a little and, you know, we always thank Paul to this day.
"Because of Paul, who was the workaholic of our band, we made a lot more records than John and I would’ve made. We liked to sit around a little more and then Paul would call ‘Alright lads’ and we’d go in."
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Meanwhile, The Beatles' Let It Be film has been released on Disney+, marking the first time the video has been officially available since the early 1980s.
First premiered on 10th May 1970, Let It Be covered the same 1969 sessions that formed the basis of Peter Jackson's recent series Get Back.
The documentary depicted the Fab Four rehearsing for an aborted live show and inadvertently captured much of the bad feeling and tension that contributed towards the acrimonious split of the band.
Watch the official trailer for the remastered film below:
Let It Be | Official Trailer | Disney+
Let It Be contains plenty of material that wasn't featured in the Get Back series, while also including the electrifying footage of the band's final live appearance on the roof of their Apple offices, joined by Billy Preston.
The original film was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who says of the restored version: "One month before [Let It Be's] release, The Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see Let It Be with sadness in their hearts, thinking, ‘I’ll never see The Beatles together again. I will never have that joy again'.
"It very much darkened the perception of the film. But, in fact, how often do you get to see artists of this stature working together to make what they hear in their heads into songs?
"Then you get to the roof and you see their excitement, camaraderie and sheer joy in playing together again as a group and know, as we do now, that it was the final time, and we view it with full understanding of who they were and still are and a little poignancy. I was knocked out by what Peter was able to do with Get Back, using all the footage I’d shot 50 years previously.”
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The Beatles are also set for the biopic treatment with a landmark project, which will delve into the full-life story of all four members of the band in four separate films.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sam Mendes and Neal Street Productions have today (20th February) announced the groundbreaking creative endeavour to tell the story of the Fab Four with four distinct theatrical releases.
The project marks the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles – Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison – have granted their full life story and music rights for a scripted film.
“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies,” said Sam Mendes.
“We intend this to be a uniquely thrilling, and epic cinematic experience: four films, told from four different perspectives which tell a single story about the most celebrated band of all time,” said Pippa Harris. "To have The Beatles’ and Apple Corps’ blessing to do this is an immense privilege. From our first meeting with Tom Rothman and Elizabeth Gabler, it was clear that they shared both our passion and ambition for this project, and we can’t think of a more perfect home than Sony Pictures.”
