Ringo Starr believes The Beatles would have reunited to make more music had John Lennon and George Harrison not died.
“I do think we possibly would have got together sometime from, you know, John leaving us to now, if we were all still around, you know,” the drummer told Page Six in a recent exclusive interview. “And George, you know, I miss George.”
Lennon died in 1980 at age 40, when he was shot by a crazed fan outside his apartment in New York City. Harrison died of cancer in 2001, when he was 58.
Starr shared that the thing he misses most about being a Beatle is “the friendship, the togetherness, the support of each other. I’m an only child. I had three brothers. And you know, brothers up rows and you know little get-togethers, and then little get-aparts. And for me, it was great. And musically it was dynamite, which it still is out there. You know, the chance to play that. Right. And you know, it’s all happened in eight years.”
Starr is still in close contact with the last surviving Beatle, Paul McCartney.
They speak, “a couple of times a month…If he’s in England, we go to visit England, mainly to visit family, (if) we know, we’ll have dinner or we’ll go around and hang, so yeah, a couple of times a month.”
The “Photograph” singer added that he’s on McCartney’s last record and McCartneys been on a lot of his. He’d come over with his bass and play over the years — “we’re still pals,” he said.
Not that The Beatles are really ever out of the public imagination, but this year there has been even more interest with the news that Sam Mendes is working on four biographical films based on each member, with Harris Dickinson playing Lennon, Paul Mescal playing Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn playing Harrison and Barry Keoghan playing Starr. All four films will be released simultaneously in 2028.
“I think it’s amazing, actually,” Starr enthused. “The difficulty was he’s putting this story with that story. And Paul and I have to both let go of that. It’s not a documentary… It’s a story of four stories. You know, one on each of us, but, you know, of course we will get in together sometimes. So, we just said, ‘Okay, it’s a movie.’”
Earlier this year, Starr released “Long Long Road,”his 22nd solo album and his second co-written and produced by T Bone Burnett, featuring collaborations with Sheryl Crow and St. Vincent.
In an earlier statement, Starr shared that the title came about because “I’ve been thinking about the road I’ve taken, starting in Liverpool, being in several bands, then with The Beatles – all those stops on your walk of life, it’s so far out.”
Starr is also touring with His All Starr Band and will play Forest Hills Stadium on Oct. 1, his first time back there since The Beatles played two historic sold-out shows in 1964, marking the group’s first-ever stadium shows.
He’s philosophical when asked why he keeps touring at 86.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just fit enough to do it. Sometimes mentally I say, ‘Oh, that’s enough.’ And then a week later I say, ‘No, it’s not.’”
And when asked how he manages to look two decades younger than he is, Starr is succinct.
“That’s all the blueberries and broccoli,” he exclaimed.
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