- When you were... - Young?
- In that band called The Beatles,
was there-- 'cause it happened so fast,
and I think it was such--
I mean, everybody can remember watching you.
I watched you on "Ed Sullivan,"
and I just was like, "Oh, my God," and everybody was.
Was there a moment that you all of a sudden were just like,
"Oh, wow, everything has changed now"?
"My life has changed"?
- Well, I think with us, it went on.
I mean, it went--in Liverpool, we were a club band,
and suddenly we did a theater, and that was like a step.
And then we had a 45 record, "Love Me Do,"
and that was like, "Oh, we've got a record."
I mean, it was, like, unbelievable.
And only the BBC in England-- and they would play it.
We would know when they'd play it.
It would be, like, 9:14 they'd play the record,
and we'd pull over the car--
'cause we were always in the same car--
and listen to it on the radio.
It was like--so it was a lot of stepping-stones.
But New York--America-- was one of the top.
It was just incredible. - Yeah.
- And who knew when Ed Sullivan booked us?
We didn't know him, he didn't know us,
but he saw the crowd-- in Europe we had the crowd,
but not in America.
And when we got to America,
thanks to Murray the K and people like that,
we had a number one and we were big shots.
- Yeah, you were big shots, and you were--
but it was so crazy.
That must've been hard to see women
just screaming hysterically--
- Oh, they did that a lot of my life.
[both laugh]
[laughter and applause]
Before I was in The Beatles, that was happening.
- I'm talking about fans now. - I know.
- Not your girlfriends. - No.
[laughter]
So was that hard though-- to play?
'Cause you feel like, "Are they listening?
Can they hear me?"
- Well, it was part of the life we had.
And we couldn't hear us.
So, you know, it seemed to be, you came to see The Beatles,
and then Paul counted, and then you just screamed
till we bowed and left.
[laughter]
But it was great. The atmosphere was great.
But what made us, round about '66, question this
was that we were becoming really mediocre players--musicians,
because we had to just-- I just had to just keep time.
You know, I'd go, "Oom-bah, oom."
If I went to do a fill, "Mm-mm-bah..."
it was like in silence, you know?
So I would be watching Paul's foot
or John's ass or, you know-- "Where are we up to?"
[laughter]
I always knew when he went, "Whoo-whoo"--
"Oh, we're up to that part."
But, you know, that's how it ended up.
And we became-- we made a conscious decision.
We were becoming loose musicians,
and so we decided, "We need to go in a studio
and see what we've really got."
And that's what started that.
And we got some great stuff.
- How did looking at John's ass keep time for drums?
[laughter] What did his ass do?
- Is that more important that Paul's foot?
- Well, I could see keeping time with--
- No, because, you know, he'd waggle it.
You know what I mean? It'd be body movement.
- Yes, I get it.
- And he always stood like this, you know,
so you could always tell...
[laughter] You know.
- So you are--congratulations, and way past due--
getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- I am. [cheers and applause]
- You excited? - Oh, yeah.
I'm really excited. - Yeah.
It's gonna be great. - Can't you tell?
- Yeah, I-- [both laugh]
- No, it's-- you know, it's good.
- Yeah. And Paul will be there, and--
- Well, I'm only doing it because of Paul.
- Mm-hmm.
- I mean, I wasn't trying
to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
but he was at dinner with a few people--
I believe Dave Grohl or Robbie Robertson--
someone like that.
And Brian was being inducted-- the manager.
And so making the conversation said, "And Ringo's not there"--
I was there as the Beatle, but not there solo.
And they all talked about it,
and suddenly, I got a call from Paul.
[as Paul] "Hey, Ringo."
[laughter]
He doesn't even do that Liverpool accent anymore.
Anyway, he called and said, "They want to induct you
"into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Will you accept, and I'll give you away?"
And so I said, "Sure. How great is that?"
- Yeah.
- So we're doing it so Paul can have a day out.
- I see. I see.
Well, good for you for doing that.