Sir Ringo Starr has credited “workaholic” Sir Paul McCartney for The Beatles’ success.
The 83-year-old drummer credited his former bandmate for continuing to push the group – which also included the late John Lennon and George Harrison – forward as he doesn’t think they’d have made as many records as they did if it weren’t for the ‘Pipes of Peace’ singer constantly encouraging them, even amid tensions in their later years.
Speaking to Dan Rather for AXS, Ringo said: “No no, we didn’t get along. We were four guys, we had rows. It never got in the way of the music no matter how bad the row was. Once the count in, we all gave our best. And that was a little later, too, which I think it was a natural thing, you know.
“Suddenly, we’ve got lives and I’ve got children and you know, the effort that we put in cause we worked really hard was starting to pale a little and we always thank Paul to this day.
“Because of Paul, who was the workaholic of our band, we made a lot more records than John and I would’ve made,” the “Photograph” performer said. “We liked to sit around a little more and then Paul would call ‘Alright lads’, and we’d go in.”
The musician admitted he and his bandmates kept one another “straight” and he was always grateful they could rely on each other for support.
He said: “I think it’s all part of where we came from. I always give credit that there was four of us all from the same city and we would look at each other, you know one of us would be freaking out or being a big shot and three other people would go ‘Excuse me’ and that kept us straight.
“You know it’s interesting because the time we met Elvis, I really thought ‘How sad that he’s on his own’. He had all those people around but he was on his own. I had three great mates.”