Does the Name Richard Starkey Ring a Bell? What About Ringo Starr?

'Ringo: A Fab Life' is more than just a Beatles biography; it's a detailed account of Ringo Starr's life outside of his famous role as The Beatles' drummer. Veronica Carter and Bret Burkhart spoke to the author, acclaimed music journalist, Tom Doyle.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us now in the Coca News liveline is Tom Doyle,
acclaimed music journalist and author of the biography Ringo of
Fab Life. Welcome to San Diego's Morning News.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey Brett, Hey Veronica, how are we doing?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
We wanted to hear just real quickly before we dive
into all of our questions. A clip of your interview
on the book's podcasts.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
One of the things that's kind of astonishing about Ringo's
life is that it could ended when he was younger.
I mean twice he was at death's door as a
child and as a teenager.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Wow, dive into that a little bit more. Tell us
about those two instances in which we couldn't have had
a Ringo Star pod potentially.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, this is one of the astonishing things about Ringo's
life is that basically at the age of six, just
beforety Ton seven, in the early summer of forty seven,
he was struck down by peritonitis, which was caused by
an infection for as appendix and basically, yes, I mean
he spent ten weeks on a coma and his mother

(00:59):
was told two or three times they might not last
the night. And then at fourteen, a similar situation he
caught flu, which developed into TB and he spent another
year in hospital. So yeah, that's what's incredible about Ringo's
story is that even before he gets to the Beatles,
he could have been struck down and none of this
might have happened. Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
So Richard Starkey was his real name.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
What are some other things, because you know, you interviewed him,
you talked to the man. What are some other surprising
things that you found out?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, I think what's interesting about Ringo is he's kind
of seen as being like the least spiritual of the
Beatles because if people know the story, Beatles went to
India nineteen sixty eight, but Ringo and his wife Maure
normally lasted ten days, and it was always about the joke.
It was kind of like, oh, he brought over a
suitcase full of baked beans because he didn't like Carrie

(01:56):
and all this sort of stuff. But actually, you know,
it was more than he couldn't handle the food, his
wife couldn't handle the insects out there. But he was
given a mantra Abada Maharishi, which he says he uses
every day now. He still meditates and stuff. Wow, So
the idea that Ringo was like the least shallow, what
the most shallow of the Beatles or something like that

(02:18):
is a myth that I like to bust in this also,
the idea that Ringo was somehow like a poor drummer,
a bad drummer in the Beatles would have been better
off with another drummer. It's just rubbish in this book,
because I mean, I go through you know why. He's
a special drummer because he listens to lyrics and he's
very imaginative. So, I mean, those are only two of

(02:38):
the things that people might find surprising about Ringo in
this book.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
We're speaking with Tom Doyle to claim music journalist, author
of the biography Ringo a fab life and I love
doing this deep dive. He is eighty five years old.
Did you get a chance to talk to him for
your book, your biography?

Speaker 2 (02:54):
I've talked to Ringo a couple of times. Actually, yeah,
I met him face to face in twenty ten, and
then I had a zoom him in twenty twenty four.
But what's really funny about the Beatles? Actually, I mean
I was born in nineteen sixty seven, so I'm fully
aware of the fact that these guys were tired of
being interviewed before I was even born. So it's funny, like,

(03:15):
you know, Paul mccarby, he sins that all these interviews
are half an hour. You might get a few of them,
you know, over a few days, but they're always half
an hour. Ringo's interviews only last or twenty minutes. So
basically this book starts with me preparing for two days
for a twenty minute zoom with Ringo. And what's hilarious
is that Ringo doesn't sort of waffle on. It's a

(03:35):
bit like his drumming. He cuts to the chase. You know.
You might get the odd flowery or poetic moment or whatever,
but mostly he tells the truth, and he tells you
it quickly. So yeah, I love Ringo. Man. He's always
great company, really funny guy, super sharp, you know, and
obviously I mean a Beatles nut and have been since
it was you know, four or something like that. So

(03:58):
to hang out with Paul and Ringo at any point
is always a complete still you know.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
And we're almost out of time, but quickly, wasn't he
the Beatle that first went solo?

Speaker 2 (04:07):
You know?

Speaker 4 (04:08):
Even though you think of him not being as musical
as Paul or John. He's the one that first had
the solo correct.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
That's right, So he'd I mean, he made a couple
of albums. He made Sentimental Journey, which is a standards album,
and then he made Boku Blues, which is a country album.
But what's surprising really is that people might have expected
that it would have been John or Paul or George
hubould have had the sort of pop chart success, but
particularly in America, it was Ringo. You know, it don't
come easy and photographed. These these were all like top

(04:38):
ten hits and actually either eclips or really rivaled, you know,
Paul and John's singles and stuff like that. So yeah,
the idea that he was, you know, the least successful
Beatle is a bit of a myth and one that
I'm very happy to bust in this book.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Tom, thank you so much for joining us on San
Diego's Morning News. We look forward to reading the biography.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Great thanks guys,