To this day, The Beatles remain one of the most influential bands in the world. The British band continued to dominate the world with their music since 1960. Although the band was disbanded just a decade later, their music is streamed to this day.
Ringo Starr became the first member to leave the band officially followed by George Harrison, and John Lennon, which ultimately broke the band.
The band went through many fights and misunderstandings during their split up. They were having legal disputes in the band and their friendship was drifting apart. Moreover, the feud between Lennon and McCartney was on the front page of every news.
“The Beatles is over, but John, Paul, George and Ringo — I still love those guys!” Lennon and McCartney eventually reconciled in the 70s, but what about their friendship with other members?
The only remaining Beatles are now Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, but due to what happened in the past, are they still as good friends as they used to be?
Are Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney friends?
Although The Beatles have been disbanded already, the friendship between Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney hasn’t been extinguished yet.
During an interview with DailyMail, Ringo talked about the relationship between him and Paul; We are good friends,” he said. “We don’t live in each other’s pockets, but if we’re in the same country, we get together. He’s singing and playing on my latest album and I played on several of his. We’re just pals.”
Ringo Starr has always been open about his relationship with his former bandmate. On the cover of AARP’s December 2023/January 2024 issue, he told the audience that his former bandmates were his brothers to him. He also expressed his friendship with Paul McCartney.
“Yeah, they know me. Paul loves me as much as I love him. He’s the brother I never had,” said Ringo Starr. We can already tell that Paul’s and Ringo’s relationship was very close, but to clarify more to the audience, he even praised Paul on his work and credited him for his work at The Beatles.
In a video interview, Ringo recalled the moments he had with his bandmates and said, “Paul loved to work more than all of us,” he shared in the clip. “John and I would be, like, hanging out in the garden and the phone would ring and we knew it was him.”
“‘Hey lads, should we go into the studio?” ‘Alright, yeah,’” he resumed, making an impression of the interaction. “I’ve always thanked him for being that guy because otherwise we’d have put, like, three albums out and vanished.”
This is not the first time that Ringo has praised the works of Paul. In an interview with Smooth Radio, he talked about how incredible musician Paul was “He’s an incredible musician. He’s incredible at singing too and as a writer, but for me, as a bass player, he is the finest and the most melodic,” he said.
He continued, “It’s always fun when we’re playing together. I’ve played on several of his records, mainly in the 90s. People keep saying, ‘Oh, it’s been so long.’ It’s not been that long. We’re the only two who’ve experienced all this who are still here.”
Ringo even shared about how Lennona and Harrison helped him to put him in the spotlight and encouraged him to do the vocals, “John wrote several songs for me over the years (Yellow Submarine” and “With a Little Help from My Friends,) and George too,” he said.
“I used to be a rock drummer, and then they ruined my whole career,” he gagged. “‘With a Little Help’ and ‘Yellow Submarine’ are the reasons I’m onstage every night.”
Was there a feud between Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr?
Among the Beatles, Ringo was the only one who knew how to read the situation. He tried his best to make peace among the members of the Beatles.
Starr was the first to leave the band since he had enough of his bandmates after the “White Album” recording in 1968 August. “I felt I wasn’t playing great,” Ringo said in the Anthology documentary, “and I also felt that the other three were really happy and I was an outsider. There was no magic and the relationships were terrible.”
On the cover of AARP Ringo shared about what it was like to be in the band sometimes, “We all went mad at different times. You can’t imagine what it was like, being in the Beatles. It got bigger and crazier,” he said.
Well, did Ringo have any feud with Paul McCartney as well? If we take a peek at the moment, during the middle work for ‘Back off Boogaloo’ it seemed like Ringo was unhappy with McCartney.
If we read the situation that the Beatles were going through at that moment, they were very much struggling with everything. They had gone through several lawsuits with each other, and the best friends were suddenly being looked at as the worst enemies.
Ringo Starr was the one who knew how to be calm, and that might be the very reason why Lennon and Harrison convinced Ringo to talk with McCartney about the members suing him.
He might’ve landed the news gently to Paul McCartney, but he wasn’t hearing any of that. Paul then kicked Ringo out of his house.
Ringo stated in the court that Paul was at his bottom that day, “He just shouted and pointed at me. He was out of control, prodding his finger toward my face. He told me to get my coat and get out. I got brought down because I couldn’t believe it was happening to me”.
Ringo didn’t lash back at Paul instead, he wrote the song ‘Back Off Boogaloo’, where he called Paul McCartney a “meathead” on the song. Compared to how Lennon lashed out to McCartney, this was a soft version of Ringo.
Although there were some ups and downs in the relationship of Ringo and Paul during their Beatles career, they eventually became good friends again.
What’s the friendship status between Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney now?
Still today, the relationship between Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney is growing stronger. Paul was even featured on Ringo’s 2017 album “Give More Love.” McCartney was also featured in the new track: “Feeling the Sunlight on Star’s new EP, ‘Rewind Forward’.
The pair even came together to release the final song of the Beatles, “Now and Then” which was recorded after enhancing Lennon’s vocals in the 70s, and taking out Harrison’s guitar when the band tried to complete the song back in the 90s.
Since the disbandment of the group, Ringo and Paul have performed together. Ringo shared with the Irish News about his love for performing together with Paul, “I love that, getting up with him. We did it at the O2 in England [in 2018]. And then he called me and he said, ‘I’m doing Dodger Stadium, if you want to do a few numbers’” he said.
He continued, “So he picked three numbers, and I got up and went down there. And it’s magic for the audience as well as us. I love playing with him. The audience is like, ‘Oh, there’s two of them! Wow, It lifts everything, in a joyous way. So, yeah, I had a great time”
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2021, Starr confirmed that he’s just as close with McCartney today as he was during the beginning of their friendship. He shared that they regularly FaceTime each other and spend time together frequently.