Starr spotting
1 Born Richard Starkey in Dingle, Liverpool, he took the stage name Ringo Starr from the number of rings he wore and because it had a country and western music sound.
2 He almost died as a child – twice. Aged six, he was left in a coma after getting an infection. It took him 12 months to recover – and he missed so much school that he still could not read or write at the age of eight.
3 Ringo also caught tuberculosis when he was 13 and spent two years in a clinic.
4 He was the last Beatle to join the group, replacing Pete Best. He was also the oldest.
5 When The Beatles split in 1970, he joined the Hollywood Vampires drinking club that included best pal Harry Nilsson and Monkee Micky Dolenz. After becoming hooked on booze, he has been sober since
1988, now eating a strict vegetarian diet and meditating daily.
6 Ringo has never had a pizza or curry due to severe allergies. He said: “I’m highly allergic to onions, spices and garlic.”
7 But that did not stop him appearing in a Pizza Hut advert in 1995. As a germaphobe,
8 Ringo did not shake hands even before Covid-19 – he bumps elbows.
9 He is left-handed and his playing style is due to him using a right-handed drum set.
10 He wrote the song Octopus’s Garden after a holiday in Sardinia when he learned the creatures lie on the ocean floor and build a “garden” of shiny objects.
11 Ringo was the narrator of Thomas The Tank Engine, left, from 1984 to 1986.
12 The star has been married to second wife Barbara Bach since 1981. She played a Bond girl in The Spy Who Loved Me.
13 Ringo has three children including fellow drummer Zak Starkey, who has performed with The Who since 1996 and also appeared with Oasis.
14 He was the first of the Beatles to try cannabis – when the band met singer Bob Dylan in 1964, he offered them a joint, and the first one to light up was Ringo.
15 He also claims to have been the first person to take a selfie when he snapped himself in a mirror in the 1960s.