Fab times for Ringo Starr
Already a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle, the musician will now be inducted as an individual
The first few years after the Beatles split, Ringo Starr had bragging rights on his mates.
He was all over the radio with It Don’t Come Easy, Back Off Boogaloo,
Photograph and other singles at a time that John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison went through some uneven stretches.
“I had all these hits and everybody was surprised,” Starr recalled. “I don’t know why they were, but they were.”
Everyone’s favourite genial drummer still has his pride. Already a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle, Starr will be inducted this weekend as an individual, joining John, Paul and George with that distinction. He keeps busy at age 74, touring regularly and promoting a just-released new disc,
Postcards From Paradise.
Besides Starr, new inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday will be Green Day, Bill Withers, Lou Reed, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joan Jett, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the ‘5’ Royales.
Starr wasn’t expecting the honour and, in fact, it has raised questions about whether there is a special Beatle entrance. McCartney told Rolling
Stone magazine recently that, when reminded Starr wasn’t in the hall on his own, he vowed to see what he could do. “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,” he said.
Rather than being nominated and voted upon by the full panel of musicians, journalists and others who choose most members, Starr was selected under a “musical excellence” category. That category has been used four times, none before 2011.
Joel Peresman, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said these honorees are chosen by committee. Although lobbying calls are taken, induction is a group decision. He said that any calls that come in during the process — including, presumably, McCartney’s — “are purely coincidental.”
“I only knew about it when Paul McCartney called me and said, ‘they want to honour you at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’ll be doing the speech for you. Will you accept?’” Starr said. “I said sure, how great is that?”
MUSIC IMPORTANT
Only an occasional singer and lyricist with the Beatles, Starr has maintained an active recording career, particularly since getting sober in the late 1980s. Since 1992, he’s put out as many discs of original material as McCartney, his fellow Beatle survivor, even more if you didn’t count McCartney’s classical excursions.
His Ringo 2012 disc sold fewer than 20,000 copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan. Numbers like that are why many artists of his generation stop making new music. Starr may joke onstage about how few people buy his new music, but he said making it is important to him.
“That’s where I come from — you made records, you put them