Ringo Starr Credits Paul McCartney With Pushing The Beatles Beyond Two LPs

Ringo Starr recalls The Beatles being quite content with their creative output after just two studio albums in the early-1960s, but Paul McCartney pushed the band to do more.

Ringo credits Sir Paul with driving the band in its early career to keep writing and recording. The young Beatles didn't enjoy the pressure of the recording studio early in their career, but somehow it always brought out the best in them.

"When the four of us played, it was just the best space on the planet to be in," Ringo said in a recent radio interview. "Besides being famous, I was in all of those spaces, with the joy of playing with John [Lennon], George [Harrison] and Paul. I have great memories of that and the emotion of all of that."

He continued: "...[I]f Paul hadn't been in the band, we'd probably have made two albums because we were lazy buggers. But Paul's a workaholic. John and I would be sitting in the garden taking in the color green from a tree, and the phone would ring, and [Paul] would go, 'Hey, lads, you want to come in? Let's go in the studio.'"

McCartney himself is well aware that he interrupted many a quiet day to drag his reluctant bandmates to recording sessions, Ringo noted.

"We made three times more music than we ever would without him, because he's the workaholic and he loves to get going. ... Once we got there, we love it, of course, but [at first we'd say], 'Oh, no, not again!'"

The highly-anticipated Beatles documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, from director Peter Jackson, arrives November 25 via Disney+.