HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RINGO!
The former Beatle on peace, love, sobriety, turning 79 and drumming for the world’s most famous band.
Ringo Starr sees messages of peace and love everywhere, even in his food. While flipping through a copy of his new book of photos, Another Day in the Life (Sept. 24, Genesis Publications), he finds a shot he took of two carrots, which he had posed to mimic the familiar two-fingered V sign for nonviolence and goodwill. “They’re very peaceful carrots,” he says with a smile.
For Ringo, “peace and love,” his personal mantra, have become his public mission. Starting 11 years ago July 7, his birthday, the former Beatle began holding Peace & Love birthday celebrations, for which he appears somewhere around the world and asks everyone to pause at noon to say, or think, the P and L words. This year, he’ll do so in front of the classic building that houses the Beatles’ North American label, Capitol Records, in Los Angeles, just a few miles from his home in Beverly Hills.
In between those two locations, in a villa in the Sunset Marquis Hotel, Ringo spoke exclusively with Parade about a special double anniversary he is toasting this year.
This summer marks 30 years since he began his All Starr Band tours, during which he performs with other poprock icons. This year’s outing
includes members of Santana, Toto and Men at Work in shows that will run throughout August. This year, as well, the ex-Beatle is celebrating three decades of sobriety. Looking healthy, and remarkably svelte, and dressed in all black, save for an image of— what else?—a big white star on his T-shirt, Ringo is very much the jaunty and frank figure fans have long loved.
How did you first get the idea for your Peace & Love birthday celebration?
I was being interviewed in New York when the All Starrs were on tour, and someone said, “What would you like for your birthday?” Out of the blue I said, “Everybody, everywhere, at noon, say ‘Peace and love.’’’ So we started it soon after in Chicago at the Hard Rock there. They made these little cakes for everyone. There were like 100 people. The interesting thing about the little cakes was that they were on eBay that night for $300. “Yeah, we love you, Ringo, but let me sell the cake!”
Why is the peace and love message so important to you?
I loved the mid-’60s, when all this peace and love started. [The Beatles] went right along with it. The press used to give me a hard time: “Oh, he’s doing that peace and love thing again.” But I’m only peace-and-loving. And they still like to sh-t on me! It’s connected to the Maharishi [the Indian spiritual leader the Beatles famously visited in 1968]. If you think to do good, then the planet will support you. It’s like a pebble in the ocean;
it’s rippling out. And it will get to shore. But you can’t be impatient [laughs].
You just turned 79, which means you’re one year from a very big birthday.
I’ll be 80! I can’t hide my birthday. It’s not like I can say, “Oh, I was born in 1956.” Everybody knows exactly when I was born and exactly how old I am. I’m not ashamed of it anymore. When I was a teenager, I thought that everybody at 60 should be shot because they’re useless. And when I got to 40, my mother said, “I don’t suppose you feel like that anymore, son.” I was well pissed off with being 40! But after that, you just go with it. Actually, it’s a miracle I’m still around. I put a lot of medication in my body and I could have left at any time.
You started the All Starr Band the same year that you got sober. Is there a connection?
There is an absolute connection. [When] I got sober, I had all this time and more energy.
How bad did it get before you got sober?
I just couldn’t really move without alcohol. And without drugs. I was not a purist in any way! So in the end, I said to Barbara [Bach, his actress wife of 38 years], “You’ve got to get us into one of those [rehab] places.” I didn’t know where they were. I went to Arizona, where I found myself with 88 mad people in this place.
But it clearly worked!
Well, it’s working today. That’s all I have. But it makes life so much easier.
I have to say, you look great!
Well, “I’m the greatest!” [He quotes the title of his 1973 hit, written for him by John Lennon.]
How do you stay in shape?
I get up in the morning and I meditate. I go to the gym and I have a trainer, and I work out myself too, when I’m on the road. I’m a vegetarian. When we’re on tour, to get out of the hotel, I usually go to the local organic shop just to see what they’ve got. But I’m only a vegetarian, not a vegan. I eat goat cheese. A vegan is very hard, and they eat a lot of sugar. I’m careful about sugar.
Was your move to vegetarianism an ethical decision?
It’s always ethical. I can’t understand the breeding and killing and eating of all of those animals. In America, there’s got to be a billion chickens being grown. But we know, as a fact, that you can grow more food on an acre of land than you can with some creature walking on it.
Tell us about your love of photography.
There are only seven photographs of me taken from birth to 18 or 19. We never had a camera as a family. So when I got a camera, I just loved it. And I got better cameras as the Beatles went forward—a lot of them.
Director Peter Jackson’s new film will be made from unused footage from the Let
It Be film sessions from 1969. He has said that his movie will present a more positive image of the end of the band than the original 1970 documentary. What’s the true story?
I was never happy with the [film] because it picked one second of life—when John and Paul were in a row—and the whole documentary was built around that. There was also a lot of joy, a lot of laughter and a lot of interaction. Whatever our attitudes were at the time, we gave our all. And that was beautiful.
Many saw 1968’s White Album [officially titled The Beatles] as a chronicle of the band coming apart. Was that accurate?
We were not falling apart at all until we split. We played together right up until that. I love the White Album. I mean, Pepper [Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band] was great, but there was a lot of sitting around. We were like studio guys. This time, we were back to being a band. People say, “What’s your favorite song
on there?” I love “Yer Blues.” We’re in a 6-foot room—amps, drums, vocal mics. No separation. It was like, “Yeah!”
What’s your favorite Beatles song of all time?
There are too many. I like to say “Rain.”
What’s your favorite Beatles song that was sung by you?
I think “With a Little Help From My Friends.” It’s given me a whole career. I’m thankful many a time for that.
The Beatles had a gay manager, Brian Epstein, at a time when being gay was illegal. What was the band’s attitude about gay people back then?
I had known a lot of gay men. It didn’t matter to us. We were lads of the time. Or maybe, OK then, lads ahead of our time.
In 1973, you had a No. 1 solo hit with a cover of the love song “You’re Sixteen.” At the time, you were 33. No one thought anything of that back then. Now they might.
I don’t give a damn. I’m doing the song. I’m not harming anybody. We’re having fun. When I got to 50, I felt like a lecher. Now I’m in my 70s and I don’t give a damn. Every night, I ask, “Are there any young girls in the
audience? This is just for you—and also for all those other girls who are young at heart.” [Laughs]
You introduced country music to the Beatles by singing the Buck Owens hit “Act Naturally” in 1965.
I’ve always loved country music. We come from Liverpool, a port, so we actually were exposed to a lot of music. We were getting input, American record–wise, from the lads in the Navy. My friend Brian—we worked in the factory together— we both loved country music. It was in the first band I was in, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. We decided, you know what, we can get drunk every night and play country music [laughs]. That’s the best thought of two 18-year-olds!
You still tour often, and you don’t have to. Why do you stick with it?
People keep saying, “Why are you still playing?” That’s what I do! I’m not an electrician. As a lad, I used to think of other musicians, Boy, he’s
still playing at 40! But they do it because some nights you get uplifted and it’s like getting high, in a clean way. Everyone in the audience knows that I love them and I know they love me.
Which brings us back to the peace and love theme. What is your greatest hope for that event?
I have a fantasy that on the 7th of July, some year from now, the whole world will say, at noon, “Peace and love,” and maybe we’ll have a change.