One wild and crazy guy from The Beatles was Richards Starkey.  But more people know him as, Ringo Starr.  Ringo was born on July 7, 1940.  Ringo had always wanted to get out of Liverpool, he never really liked it at all.  

    Ringo had to attend St. Silas school because of his illness - - peritonitis - - but he only attended for five years.

    When the band was already forming in 1957 with Pete Best on drums, Ringo was in his own band  Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.  Ringo had even sat in for Pete a few times when he wasn't able to make it to a gig.  Back then, The Beatles called themselves, The Silver Beetles.

      When The Beatles didn't have him yet as their drummer, they thought Ringo was the "greatest drummer in Liverpool," this helped a ton too because when their EMI producer asked them to replace Pete Best, they knew exactly who to choose.  When Brian Epstein offered Ringo the job, he couldn't take it right away because of his commitment to the band he was already in.  So they got Johnny Hutchinson to sit in for Ringo before he was able to join.

    In 1962, The Beatles were complete.  And when they recorded their first single, "Love Me Do," Ringo was picked out from the drums and got stuck playing the tambourine in the background while Andy White played the drums. 

    When The Beatles went on their World Tour in 1964, it was really starting on a bad note. Two days before their appearance in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, Ringo had to be replaced for a little bit on the tour by Jimmy Nicol because he had Collapsed during a photo shoot in London.  When they had gotten him to a hospital, they discovered he had been diagnosed with, and suffering from tonsillitis.  George had threatened to cancel the tour if someone other than Ringo played the drums.

    When The Beatles were in Hollywood, they loved it so much.  They stayed in a private home in Bel-Air after their performance at Hollywood Bowl.  Jayne Mansfield, Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee stopped by for a visit a few days later.  Ringo, who at the time had gone all cowboy, was complete with toy guns.  He never let them out of his sight and was constantly practicing a fast draw.

               

When Paul, George, and Ringo had gone to Burt Lancaster's house to see A Shot in the Dark,  Pete Seller's new movie, Ringo wore his cowboy hat and guns.  Ringo made like a gunslinger and would pull his pistols out at any given moment.  When the boys left Burt's house, Ringo had been given a set of real pistols and a leather holster by Lancaster. Ringo was in heaven.

     In December 1964, Ringo finally got his tonsils removed after the American tour concert.  Ringo ended up using a camera for an ashtray.

    On February 11, 1965, Ringo married Maureen Cox who was 18 at the time.  They had a baby boy together who's name was Zack- he was the oldest.  Then they had their second boy, Jason.

    When The Beatles broke up, Ringo had come out with a No. 1 hit, "It Don't Come Easy," and led a life of partying, which led to money, marriage and a lot of health problems.  He still always got by though.

    Ringo started to pursue his acting career, not going far with it though.  Two movies that the was in were Magic Christian  and Candy.

    Fans always went wild over Ringo.  Was it when he would sing "Yellow Submarine" or "Octopus' Garden,"  or that he was just cute, cuddly and down to earth?  No clue.  But I do know that Ringo had amazing talent and sense of humor.  Although, even though he had amazing talent in my  eyes, doesn't mean he got far when The Beatles broke up.  When Ringo went solo, he had all the help he needed from his three old band mates, so I guess you could say the song, "I Get by with a Little Help from My Friends" is true after all.

    Ringo already had two solo albums waiting for him when they broke up, but he still helped with the drumming for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band  and for George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.  

    "It Don't Come Easy," "Photographer," and "You're Sixteen," are three of the songs that are on the string of Ringo's hit singles.  He was also involved with Concert for Bangladesh with George Harrison, which was considered one of the first charity rock concerts.

    Even though it seemed as nothing could go wrong, in the mid-70's, things got wild.  Ringo and Maureen weren't doing the best, Ringo started to go into the party atmosphere and his marriage ended in 1975.  That same year he started a record company that turned out to be nothing.  He moved to Monte-Carlo where he discovered he liked the jet-setting lifestyle better than music or business.  

    In 1980, Ringo fell in love with Barbara Bach while filming Caveman .  They then got married in 1981.

    In mid-November of 1980, Ringo visited John who gave him three songs to use on an unfinished album.  The two had made plans to work together with it but on December 8 of that year, John was shot and killed.

    For the rest of the 80's, Ringo sunk deeper and deeper into alcoholism  but sobered himself in 1989.  Also in 1989, Ringo had formed the "All Star Band" and embarked on his first-ever U.S. solo tour.  

    In 1995, Ringo, Paul and George got together and recorded new music for two forgotten John Lennon home demos and released the very popular, Beatles Anthology.

    Ringo and Barbara still call Monte-Carlo home to them, but still have houses in Los Angeles, and Colorado.  He is still his crazy Ringo self with his sense of humor in hand.  With or without music, he still loves making music.  Ringo had said, "Drumming is my madness, music is my passion."

 

 

 

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