Local Spins’ John Sinkevics resurrects compelling interviews with two Beatles drummers: Ringo Starr and the guy he replaced in 1962, Pete Best. Part of the ‘Rock Legends Revisited’ series.
Call Him The Energizer Bunny of Rock: Ringo Starr on stage at DeVos Performance Hall in 2023 at age 83.(Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Interviewing a Beatle – no matter how short that conversation might be – ranks as a career highlight for any longtime rock ’n’ roll fan or music writer.
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I’ve gotten to interview two of them … and one of them twice.
In 2003, when I chatted briefly by phone with legendary, then-63-year-old drummer Ringo Starr, there was an awful lot of ground to cover in a whirlwind seven minutes or so as he and His All-Starr Band prepared to play Grand Rapids’ Van Andel Arena:
• Starr insisted it “would take too long” to list The Beatles’ songs he cherishes the most as a drummer: “There’s a lot I’m really proud of, not only on the Beatles tracks, but even on (the 2003 solo album) ‘Ringo Rama.’ There’s some incredible drumming that’s me at my best. … The easy part is that I know I can play and I know they (guest musicians such as Eric Clapton and David Gilmour) can play and we just get down to work and learn the songs. And the more we know them, the more fun we can have when we play them live.”
Ringo: ‘Playing has never been grueling. I love to play.’ (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
• We talked about guitarist George Harrison who passed away a year-and-a-half before and Starr’s live performances of the song “Never Without You”: “I think about George and that’s not a bad thing. It gets me through the song.”
• On making any career mistakes: “I don’t think I ever made any mistakes. Business is business. I’m a musician. I have people who handle the business.”
• On flashing his signature peace sign: “For the last 35 years, peace and love. I’m still trying. Something happened in the middle of the ’60s and I’m still with it.”
• On his drum-playing son, Zak Starkey, who’s spent years playing with The Who: “He’s his own man. He’ll come to me if he wants to talk something over, but he deals with it himself. I’m his dad and I’ll help him any way I can.”
Fast forward 20 years, and an 83-year-old, boundlessly energetic Starr was back on the road with a new lineup of all-stars, set to play Grand Rapids’ DeVos Performance Hall. I got a chance to question the drummer and his bandmates as part of a conference call interview with other reporters – and Starr was his usual, upbeat self:
“Playing has never been grueling. I love to play. I love to play with these guys. I love it; it’s not tiring,” Starr insisted. “If I’m on the road, I wanna play. I don’t wanna sit in a hotel and relax for three days. I want to get out there and play. It’s just how I am. With this band, it’s great because everybody takes the weight. … Because we are this crowd, you know, we could play every night. This band (Edgar Winter, Colin Hay, Steve Lukather, Gregg Bissonette, Warren Ham and Hamish Stuart) is good for me. I love to play and I love to play with great musicians, and I love to play great songs and I get all of that from these guys.”
(A couple years later, Ringo even embraced one of Michigan’s rising stars, Billy Strings, who made a guest appearance on the drummer’s 2025 country-leaning album, “Look Up.”)
Not surprisingly, Ringo just wrapped up yet another tour … at age 86.
MISSING OUT ON ROCK ‘N’ ROLL GLORY … AND STILL STANDING
Of course, Starr and The Beatles’ overwhelming success and influence eluded the drummer who spent two years playing with the Fab Four before he was dismissed by manager Brian Epstein in August 1962 at the request of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
Consequently, my 2005 interview with Pete Best (who was set to play The Intersection in Grand Rapids with The Pete Best Band before the show was canceled) touched on some sensitive subject matter. I suggested at one point that he was the “poster child for missing out on rock ’n’ roll glory” and he was gracious in response:
• “Initially, when it first happened, there was anger and there was resentment and financial embarrassment. It does get you down a little bit, but … if you got knocked down, you’re going to get back up and start fighting again. No use looking at what happened yesterday. It’s about what happens today and tomorrow and over a period of time.”
Pete Best (Courtesy Photo)
“Regardless of what happened 40 years ago, I’m a lucky guy, married for 40 years and with two children. I’ve got a great band, health and happiness. A lot of people tend to be mesmerized by the fact (you were part of The Beatles) and say, ‘You don’t know it, but you’re a legend.’ At the end of the day, I put my pants on and I’m still Pete Best.”
• On Liverpool’s music scene in the early ’60s and his mother’s Casbah Coffee Club: “It was something before the world discovered Liverpool. Liverpool had always been a hotbed and it still is for young musicians. Liverpool was always jumping. … Outside of London, no one knew about it. Then all of a sudden, with the breakthrough, the eyes of the world and the recording industry were turned on Liverpool. … All of these bands played in my mother’s club. She was the unsung hero to be quite honest. She had this great idea and great foresight and every band in Liverpool played at the Casbah because it was such an important venue. … After the dismissal, she was the type of woman who said, ‘Well, OK, you’re from a family that has a strong backbone … and if you get knocked down, you get back up again.’”
By the way, at 84, Best still lives in Liverpool and still helps manage the Casbah Coffee Club, which offers guided tours and serves as a popular tourist attraction. Yes, at the end of the day, he’s still Pete Best.
As much fun as I’m having reliving these classic conversations with some of rock’s heralded icons, I’ll have to hold off on jumping into more memories (including Robert Plant, Ray Charles, Eric Burdon) until next week and weeks beyond. Stay tuned.
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