Yesterday, Ringo’s troubles were never very far away...
Best wishes from ousted 1st drummer
thought. I was drunk. I didn’t notice. Some years are absolutely gone.”
In the notorious Hollywood Vampires drinking club, he boozed with Alice Cooper and Marc Bolan.
In 1976, Ringo completely shaved his head and eyebrows after a heavy session in Monaco. He later said he had been “feeling vaguely insane and drinking some new drink. It was a time when you either cut your wrists or your hair, and I’m a coward”.
It happened the year after he and wife Maureen, the mother of his three children, had divorced.
The split, after 10 years of marriage, was inevitable after George Harrison’s wife Pattie arrived home to find her husband in bed with Maureen. In 1981, Ringo married Barbara Bach, now 72, an actress and model, best known as Bond girl Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me.
He was by then drinking ludicrous amounts and dragged Barbara down with him, so much so that her two children were grateful when they were sent off to boarding school.
Daughter Francesca Gregorini said: “It was their drugs heyday. Their troubles made me a better academic. I was always hidden away in a room reading because Mum and Dad were out of it.”
Ringo reached rock bottom when, after one drunken night, he thought he had killed his wife.
He remembered: “I came to one Friday afternoon and was told by the staff that I’d trashed the house so badly they thought there had been burglars, and I’d trashed Barbara so badly they thought she was dead.”
The couple checked into a rehab centre in Arizona, and Ringo has not touched a drop since 1988.
On top of his addictions, his life
FORGOTTEN With Beach Boys in 1984 after The Beatles was plagued by misfortune. In
1979, he was rushed to hospital in Monte Carlo with intestinal problems. He almost died and surgeons removed 5ft of intestines.
Soon after that, his LA house burned down, destroying most of his Beatles memorabilia.
Two years later, Ringo crashed his Mercedes on the Kingston bypass in Surrey and was thrown clear of the car. With an injured leg he ran back to pull Barbara from the wreckage, then went back again to get his cigarettes.
Ringo was at first wife Maureen’s side when she died of leukaemia, aged 48, in 1994. A year later their daughter Lee was diagnosed with a
THE Beatles drummer axed to make way for Ringo Starr has wished his replacement a happy 80th birthday.
Pete Best, who was fired by manager Brian Epstein in 1962, said: “Thought about it and thought why not. Happy Birthday Ringo. It’s a special one. Have a good day.”
Fans praised Best. One hailed the 78-year-old as a “class act” and another said his comments proved “time obviously does heal wounds”.
Best was invited to join The Beatles as their original drummer in August 1960 on the eve of their first season of club dates in Hamburg, Germany, but later fell foul of Epstein.
John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono was also among those paying tribute to Sir Ringo.
She said: “Happy, Happy Birthday Ringo. Lots of peace and love, yoko.”
Pete was replaced brain tumour. It was removed but it returned in 2001, when Lee needed more treatment.
Ringo and Paul are the only surviving Beatles. Ringo is still releasing records and playing with his All Starr band. In 2018, he was given a knighthood for services to music.
But Sir Ringo still thinks of himself as just a normal lad from Liverpool.
He said: “Being in the Beatles was a short, incredible period of my life.
“I had 22 years leading up to it and it was all over eight years later. A lot has happened after it. I still love to play. I told my mum way back then, ‘I will be a drummer’. And I still am.”