As the last two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr continue to carry on the iconic
band's legacy.
So whenever McCartney and Starr reunite on stage today, a little bit of Beatles magic
is revived.
Here's a look at their relationship.
Paul McCartney's mother died when she was 47 and he was 14, of complications relating
to breast cancer.
Ringo Starr also grew up primarily in a single-parent household, after his father abandoned the
family when Starr was four.
Starr also suffered from illnesses including tuberculosis and peritonitis, which led to
him to spend three years of his childhood in the hospital.
The bond between the four members of the Beatles was ultimately strengthened by the respective
tragedies they faced.
McCartney said during a 2015 interview for Rolling Stone,
"[W]e all came from hardship.
[...] But Ringo had it worst.
His father was gone; he was so sick they told his mum he wasn't going to live.
[...] He had to invent himself.
We all had to come up with a shield, but Ringo came up with the strongest shield."
In the Beatles' 1967 hit, "With A Little Help From My Friends," the song begins with the
lyrics:
"What would you think if I sang out of tune?
/ Would you stand up and walk out on me?
/ Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song / And I'll try not to sing out of key."
It's apt that the Beatle singing those lines was Ringo Starr, who rarely took the mic.
McCartney told Rolling Stone in 2015,
"We wrote the line 'What would you do if I sang out of tune?' for [Starr].
When you think about it, how many people in rock 'n' roll can sing?
But Ringo can deliver a song."
McCartney has also said on The Howard Stern Show that Starr was more game to tackle lead
vocals than a drum solo:
"Sometimes there'd be a dispute about, I don't know, the instrumentation or how a drum should
go.
We'd say, 'Okay Ringo, now you gotta do a drum solo,' and he'd say, 'No, I'm not going
to,' and he'd refuse and that was it."
But when Starr agreed to play a solo, as McCartney told Rolling Stone, it was worth it.
McCartney told the outlet:
"We had to beg [Ringo] to do it.
The point where 'Carry That Weight' goes into 'The End' [on Abbey Road], I told him it's
a dramatic change in energy and tempo — we need just a few seconds.
And he finally agreed to do it.
And Ringo was great."
Photography is one of Ringo Starr's hidden talents.
The first time the Beatles toured in Japan, Starr bought a Pentax camera that sparked
a passion for photography he carries to this day.
"And then I went camera mad."
Starr said in a 2018 statement,
"I love taking photos of random things, and seeing how they all fit together.
Whether it is at home or on the road, certain things catch my eye — and when I see something
that interests me, that's the emotion of it, and I want to capture it."
When Paul McCartney embarked on the creation of his own passion project, the 1967 made-for-TV
musical Magical Mystery Tour, Starr was credited as the movie's director of photography under
his birth name, Richard Starkey.
In recent years, Starr has released successful books of his photography, including 2003's
Postcards from the Boys, 2013's Photograph, and 2018's Another Day in the Life.
Another Day in the Life featured photographs of McCartney among members of Starr's All-Starr
Band.
In the Beatles' later years, the band's members took turns quitting — if only briefly.
With George Harrison emerging as a songwriter on par with the iconic duo of John Lennon
and Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr felt left out and decided to quit.
While recalling the event in the The Beatles Anthology, Starr had this recollection:
"I went to see John ... [and] I said, 'I'm leaving the group because I'm not playing
well and [...] you three are really close.'
And John said, 'I thought it was you three!'
So then I went over to Paul's and knocked on his door.
I said the same thing [...] Paul said, 'I thought it was you three!'"
According to The Beatles Bible, Starr left during an argumentative recording session
for McCartney's "Back in the U.S.S.R."
According to Far Out, Starr's departure was fueled in part by endless notes from McCartney
regarding a tom-tom part.
McCartney was left playing the drums in Starr's place.
After a family vacation to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, Starr returned to the
Beatles' recording studio refreshed.
Recalling the event in The Beatles Anthology, Starr had this to say:
"I got a telegram saying, 'You're the best rock 'n' roll drummer in the world.
Come on home, we love you.
And so I came back.
We all needed that little shake-up."
In March 1970, Ringo Starr said during an interview on BBC Radio 2 that the Beatles
would reunite once they'd finished their respective solo projects.
The band's record company, Apple, was set to release the 12th — and ultimately final
— Beatles album, Let It Be, the following month, thus postponing the release of Paul
McCartney's solo debut album McCartney by two months.
John Lennon and George Harrison wrote a letter breaking the news to McCartney, citing the
competing release dates of Let It Be as well as Starr's solo debut album.
Starr decided to hand-deliver the letter to McCartney's doorstep, and McCartney was furious.
McCartney later recalled in The Beatles Anthology,
"It was the only time I ever told anyone to get out!
It was fairly hostile.
[...] It hadn't actually come to blows, but it was near enough."
Starr recalled the interaction during the 1971 court hearings regarding the Beatles'
dissolution.
Starr's court statement read:
"I went to see Paul.
To my dismay, he went completely out of control, shouting at me, prodding his fingers towards
my face, saying: 'I'll finish you now' and 'You'll pay.'"
However, Paul had this small victory: McCartney was released on April 17, while Let It Be
was pushed to the following month.
But the dispute reportedly soured relations between him and Starr for years.
Ringo Starr's first wife, Maureen Cox, died in December 1994, due to complications from
a treatment for leukemia.
In 1995, Paul McCartney wrote the song "Little Willow," a tribute to Cox which appeared on
the musician's 1997 album Flaming Pie.
The album's liner notes read:
"'Little Willow' was written after Paul learned of the death of a dear friend.
He created the song not only as an immediate personal response to the sadness but, hopefully,
as a salve for his late friend's children."
The liner notes also included a quote from McCartney:
"I wanted to somehow convey how much I thought of her.
For her and her kids.
It certainly is heartfelt, and I hope it will help a bit."
McCartney called the song "Little Willow" to make it more universal.
Paul told an interviewer,
"The sort of fragility of life is in that song.
But it wasn't called 'Maureen', it was called 'Little Willow'.
I always prefer to conjure up some story or tale or some bit of imagination around something,
because then I can get my emotions out but it's not quite as raw."
The song was later included on a tribute album to Princess Diana, who died in August 1997.
As the Beatle behind the drum kit and the band's least prominent songwriter, Ringo Starr
doesn't always get as much credit as his bandmates.
In 2011, Starr and Paul McCartney shot a promotional video for a charity in which McCartney said
he was the "only Beatle left" before Starr pops up, asking,
"What about me?"
Despite the tongue-in-cheek banter, McCartney has recognized Starr's essential role in the
Beatles, telling Rolling Stone,
"It's family.
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."
McCartney also went on to add:
"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."
Starr, in turn, has recognized McCartney's importance in the band beyond songwriting,
singing, and instrument-playing, telling Rolling Stone,
"We would not have made as many records if it hadn't have been for Paul.
John [Lennon] and I lived very close, and we could get lazy.
And Paul would call: 'Hey, lads.
Time we went back in the studio.'
So we've got to thank him that you've got 12 records."
During a 2020 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Stern asked Paul McCartney who he thought
was the greatest drummer in rock 'n' roll history.
Paul replied,
"I'd go Ringo top — he's something else."
The Beatles played their first show with Ringo Starr on drums in 1962 at the Cavern Club
in Liverpool, England.
While recalling the band's Cavern Club days in a 2015 Rolling Stone interview, McCartney
had this to say about Ringo:
"The first few minutes that Ringo is playing, I look to the left at George and to the right
to John, and we didn't say a word, but I remember thinking [...] this is amazing."
McCartney went on to add:
"You could turn your back on Ringo and never have to worry.
He both gave you security and you knew he was going to nail it."
Paul McCartney may be one of the best-known songwriters of all time, but Ringo Starr has
highlighted a less obvious area of McCartney's musical expertise: the bass guitar.
Starr told Rolling Stone in 2015:
"When Stu Sutcliffe left the band, we needed a bass player.
And John certainly wasn't going to play bass, and neither was George.
So Paul did it.
And he played incredible bass.
People think, 'Oh, that's easy,' but the bass player and the drummer have to be friends,
you know?"
Starr touched on McCartney's skills as a bassist in another Rolling Stone interview two years
later, telling the outlet.
"[Paul's] an incredible musician.
He's incredible at singing too and as a writer, but for me, as a bass player, he is the finest
and the most melodic.
It's always fun when we're playing together."
The Beatles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
John Lennon was posthumously inducted as a solo artist by Paul McCartney in 1994.
McCartney was inducted himself five years later, in 1999, and George Harrison was inducted
posthumously in 2004.
One night, McCartney was having dinner with former The Band guitarist Robbie Robertson
when the latter pointed out that Ringo Starr had not been inducted into the Hall of Fame
as an individual artist.
According to Rolling Stone, even Beatles manager Brian Epstein was in the Hall of Fame by then.
McCartney set out to right the wrong, telling Rolling Stone,
"I said, 'Let me see what I can do.'
And I talked to Bruce Springsteen and I talked to Dave Grohl, and they both thought he should
be in.
And I said I'd do the induction.
That took care of it."
"I mean, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you gotta put Ringo in."
In 2015, McCartney inducted Starr as an individual artist and a recipient of an Award for Musical
Excellence.
During a 2020 interview for The Howard Stern Show, Paul admitted,
"If I get a chance now to play with Ringo, it's magical.
Half the time, the minute I finished a line of vocals, I kind of wanted to just turn around
and look at him and just drink it all in and go, 'This is Ringo, man.
This is my brother.
I love this guy.'"
Starr joined McCartney onstage for multiple tour dates in 2018 and 2019, from London to
Los Angeles.
Star told The Irish News in 2021,
"I love that, getting up with [Paul].
And it's magic for the audience as well as us [...] It lifts everything, in a joyous
way.
So, yeah, I had a great time."
As the last surviving members of the Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have collaborated
on a number of projects and Beatles tributes, including recordings and live performances.
In 2019, the pair collaborated on a recording of the song "Grow Old With Me," which John
Lennon wrote in 1980 before he was fatally shot.
McCartney also contributed his vocals and bass playing to two tracks on Starr's 2017
album Give More Love and his 2020 track "Here's To The Nights."
According to People, the pair have been collaborating as solo artists for around 25 years, starting
with McCartney's 1997 song "Beautiful Night."
McCartney told GQ in 2020:
"To sit down with Ringo is always a great thing.
It's always worthwhile.
It's always fun […] And he and I these days get quite emotional about it, because we should.
We ought to.
It's a bloody emotional thing, the years, if nothing else."
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