Ringo Starr thought he killed wife Barbara Bach after boozy bender in the 80s
As The Beatles line up ready to stride across that zebra crossing in Abbey Road for their iconic album cover, Ringo and Paul lark about, John and George look detached, and all four know the fairytale is about to end.
Eight months later, in a Daily Mirror scoop on April 10, 1970, Paul delivered the news millions of fans had dreaded when he made it clear that the Fab Four were finiHis solo career never took off and he turned to booze and cocaine to beat boredom and depression.
shed
And Ringo, who turned 80 yesterday, was the one who suffered the most from the break-up.
By the mid-1980s he was downing a bottle of Mumm champagne for breakfast and getting through 16 bottles of wine a day.
He said: “I’ve got photographs of me playing all over the world, but I’ve absolutely no memory of it.
“I played Washington with the Beach Boys, or so they tell me. There’s only a photo to prove it.
“It got progressively worse, and the blackouts got worse, and I didn’t know where I’d been, what I’d done.”
Ringo had been the first to leave the band, walking out when they were recording The White Album in 1968.
Producer Ron Richards recalled: “He used to sit there for hours waiting for the others to turn up.
“One night he couldn’t stand it any longer, got fed up and left.”
Ringo went to Sardinia, where he borrowed a yacht from his friend, actor Peter Sellers. The pair starred together in black comedy, The Magic Christian, which was released in 1969
Ringo’s walkout was hushed up and lasted just a month. He returned to the studio after receiving a telegram telling him: “You’re the best rock ’n’ roll drummer in the world. Come on home. We love you.”
When he returned to Abbey Road, his bandmates, John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney, had decorated the entire studio, including Ringo’s drum kit, with flowers.
But the peace and harmony were short-lived. George Harrison was next to briefly quit the band the following January, and in the September John, too, told the others he wanted out.
So when devastated fans condemn-ed Paul for breaking up the group, he told a newspaper: “Ringo left first, then George, then John. I was the last to leave. It wasn’t me.”
Ringo might have been the first
to entertain the idea of leaving the band, but he had the most difficult ride after the demise of The Beatles.
His first solo album, Sentimental Journey, was well received, but his next offerings flopped, with most failing to make the UK charts, and his life spiralled out of control.
He said: “I was sliding down. I wasn’t taking enough interest. It wasn’t that every day was a bad day, but I just wasn’t doing anything.
“And as the years went on I did less and less, and if I did do anything, it was with very little thought. I was drunk. I didn’t notice. Some years are absolutely gone.”
He said: “I’ve got photographs of me playing all over the world, but I’ve absolutely no memory of it.
“I played Washington with the Beach Boys, or so they tell me. There’s only a photo to prove it.
“It got progressively worse, and the blackouts got worse, and I didn’t know where I’d been, what I’d done.”
Ringo had been the first to leave the band, walking out when they were recording The White Album in 1968.
Producer Ron Richards recalled: “He used to sit there for hours waiting for the others to turn up.
“One night he couldn’t stand it any longer, got fed up and left.”
Ringo went to Sardinia, where he borrowed a yacht from his friend, actor Peter Sellers. The pair starred together in black comedy, The Magic Christian, which was released in 1969
Ringo’s walkout was hushed up and lasted just a month. He returned to the studio after receiving a telegram telling him: “You’re the best rock ’n’ roll drummer in the world. Come on home. We love you.”
When he returned to Abbey Road, his bandmates, John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney, had decorated the entire studio, including Ringo’s drum kit, with flowers.
But the peace and harmony were short-lived. George Harrison was next to briefly quit the band the following January, and in the September John, too, told the others he wanted out.
So when devastated fans condemn-ed Paul for breaking up the group, he told a newspaper: “Ringo left first, then George, then John. I was the last to leave. It wasn’t me.”
Ringo might have been the first
to entertain the idea of leaving the band, but he had the most difficult ride after the demise of The Beatles.
to entertain the idea of leaving the band, but he had the most difficult ride after the demise of The Beatles.
His first solo album, Sentimental Journey, was well received, but his next offerings flopped, with most failing to make the UK charts, and his life spiralled out of control.
He said: “I was sliding down. I wasn’t taking enough interest. It wasn’t that every day was a bad day, but I just wasn’t doing anything.
“And as the years went on I did less and less, and if I did do anything, it was with very little thought. I was drunk. I didn’t notice. Some years are absolutely gone.”
