A snapshot in the crowd

 October 6, 1986 

Ringo Day in Boston

 September 30, 2026 

Boston declared September 30 to be "Ringo Starr Day."  Whoo hoo!  I think this needs to be an internatinal holiday, don't you think?  

Ringo makes it to the Netherlands

 October 5, 1976 - Amsterdam 

The visitors

 October 4, 1966 

Letter for Ringo

 

Starkey and Gripweed

Early October 1966 -  Ringo and Maureen take a trip to Germany to visit John on the set of How I Won the War. 

Ringo Starr Engaged (1976)

 Ringo Starr Engaged

By Nigel Dempster

Oakland Tribune

October 3, 1976

    My uneasy bodings about Ringo Starr suffering the same fate as Samson, as I revealed recently, the ex-Beatle took matters to extremes and shaved his head, eyebrows, and all, have been justified.

     He has become engaged to Nancy Andrews, 25, the California model named in his divorce 14 months ago. They split up last September after a year together, and he was then to be found with the delectable Lindsay DePaul, but they were back together in July and moved into a flat overlooking Monte Carlo, where Ringo has taken up tax exile. "It's convenient for my children to visit," he told me. 

His sons Zach and Jason and daughter Lee live with their mother, Maureen, Ringo's childhood sweetart near.Ascot in their former home, Tittenhurst Park, bought from John Lennon, is up for sale. Only time will tell how serious the engagement is. Ringo is now sporting a beard, and his beard looks like an August wheat field after harvest

Ringo Starr 36 Years Old and a Pop Star (1976)

 

Ringo Starr — 36 Years Old and a Pop Star

The drumming ex-Beatle held a press conference in Copenhagen
 By  Arve Strømsether

The Nationen 

October 9, 1976

    Ringo Starr, ex-Beatle, ex-film star, ex-record-company director, but still a singer, was in Copenhagen last week to promote his new LP, Ringo's Rotogravure. After the Beatles broke up in 1970, Ringo has been the one of the four Beatles who has had the hardest time retaining his popularity. As is well known, he has no great singing voice and little talent as a composer, and just being a drummer isn't exactly something people would normally want to hear about.

    He has certainly made a number of successful records, but these have been more characterized by his skillful musician friends than by himself. It was therefore a somewhat exciting prospect to attend the press conference in Copenhagen. Can an old Beatle still attract attention?

    Well, it must be made clear right away that there is nothing in the world like Ringo's small talk. I sat for almost an hour listening to the famous star drummer, who was witty, sarcastic, irritated and cheerful in turn, answering all kinds of questions, whether they concerned the Beatles' past or Ringo's future.

    The first questions were not particularly original, but nevertheless very topical:

Will there be a reunion of pop's most popular and influential group?

"No, why? It would be a catastrophe. When we were together, it was fun, and I sincerely think we added something to music. But today we are all different and occupied with our own things. We are still good friends and meet regularly, but there will be no permanent cooperation. We have played, and will continue to play on each other's records, but that's all."

    Ringo becomes irritated that every time he holds a press conference, he spends 20 minutes explaining something that could be said in three or four words. He sincerely wants the Beatles kept far away and is more interested in his own career.

"With my new LP, I hope I can now make people aware that I can still produce music."

With some help from others, a cheeky journalist interjects.

"Yes, I am first and foremost a drummer, and that is not music, but rhythm. I can play a little piano and three chords on the guitar, and I am dependent on other instrumental help. I like to play drums, sing and write songs. Arranging and production can be left to others."

    How was the new LP made?

    "Very scattered. The songs were mostly ready in the spring, but they were recorded during the spring and summer. This was because the musicians I wanted to use weren't available."

    You don't have any particular problems getting top musicians?

"No. I am very nice [laughs], and I think people understand that. There is a certain prestige in being allowed to play with him. But there is also another reason: Years ago, all the groups were bound together by a sense of togetherness."

    Do you think it will be difficult to get some of them to work with you?

    "I hope not. It depends on whether people have time when I need them. Most of them have their own groups."

Speaking of concerts. During the Beatles' time, there were many concerts, but despite this, there was never a record released of a Beatles concert. In recent years bootleg records have flourished, and some of these contain very good concert recordings. What does Ringo think about something like that?

    "That's something I have nothing to do with."

    Allan Williams and “King-size” Taylor claim they have recordings from Hamburg with good quality?

    "Yes, I heard something about that. They called me and asked whether 200 million dollars would be a suitable price. I haven't heard the tape, but as far as I remember, the recordings weren't good enough for anything to come of it."

    What does EMI have in its possession? Can you or the others control it?

    "What EMI has in its possession, I or the others cannot control. It may be possible that they will release something."

    Do you like the reissues of the old Beatles records?

    "Not so much. I think it is exploitation of the public, all the time finding things that are on other records. The only one that was a little fun was the reissue of all the singles. I don't think I or the others can do anything about it.

    "John and I disagreed about the choice of material on Rock 'n' Roll Music. No one wanted to listen to our suggestions. John offered to make another cover because the one that was used was too bad. But they weren't interested in that either."

    Since Ringo hasn't made much music since the breakup of the Beatles, the Nationen reporter asks about his musical activities.

    "Music is most of my life. I have acted in some films, and although that is fun, I am known as a drummer. I am going to make ten films next year, but whether I can say anything more about that, I don't know."

You have directed a couple of films. Would you like to do it again?

    "No, I don't. It is too demanding and requires too much work in too many different areas. I am not suited to organizational work."

You have also been a furniture designer?

    "That was eight years ago. I made a whole lot of nice furniture in glass and steel, but it was too expensive."

Couldn't you have made your own records?

     "Yes, I suppose I could have, but since the distribution agreement was with Polydor, it didn't make much practical sense."

What do you think of your new LP, Ringo's Rotogravure?

    "It is the best one I have made. There are good songs, good music, and it is a nice product, and I hope other people think so too."

Is this the only way the Beatles will come to play together?

    "It is."

In England, pop artists are treated harshly by the tax authorities. Several of the country's major artists have had to leave the country to avoid the tax pressure. This applies to Ringo Starr as well. Was his move really worth it?

    "I would gladly have stayed, but I simply couldn't afford to pay 53 percent of my income in taxes. Would any of you do it?"

Now you are living in Monte Carlo and seem to be enjoying it?

    "Yes. The only thing that bothers me is that I can't get to England and see my children for a year."

A politically interested journalist asks why Ringo, who has such great influence, couldn't enter politics and try to change the situation.

    "I am a musician, not a politician. I would rather play than talk nonsense, and then I leave. That doesn't mean I don't care about the country. What is worse for Mother England is that both doctors and teachers are fleeing from there. It is no wonder the pound is falling."

The questions rain down on Ringo, jumping from one subject to another. The aforementioned subject concerns The Beatles Tapes, which George Harrison made a legal attempt to stop. Why?

    "It was a rather [topical/current] record, where the interviews were made for the press conference, or one-man show, as you might call it. "[The exact wording here is difficult to read in the scan.]

At another point Ringo is asked about the Rolls-Royce matter:

“For my part, I don't deal with that anymore. Otherwise, I thought about using Rolls-Royce parts as heaters, but the factory didn't think much of that idea.”

One of the last questions concerns Ringo's imitation of Kojak.

Was that an attempt to attract some declining attention?

 "It was an experience every man ought to allow himself at least once in his life. I did it to shock Nancy [Ringo's then companion/fiancée]. Besides, I did it because I wanted a change. My hair has benefited from it too."

But the reporters have now asked enough. Only one question remains, and it will be given to the person who has not yet asked anything.

A modest woman's voice calls out:

“What about when you are 64, Ringo? Will you still be a musician?”

 “If you'll still feed me, 64,” says Ringo with a crooked smile, and leaves the room with a trail of autograph-hungry journalists following him.

UK Tour of 1965

 

I never noticed...

 

As much as I have watched Yellow Submarine and looked at photos from the Beatles cameo at the end of the film, I never noticed that Ringo is wearing the pinstriped stage suit from the 1966 tour.  

Got a train to catch

 

Dracula Schmacula (1974)

Dracula Schmacula 

By Tom Dupreee

Zoo World

June 6, 1974

    With searchlights, hearses, a hot air balloon, a Dracula makeup contest, a street dance, and assorted other promotional avenues, the new film Son of Dracula suddenly slid into town in its world premiere engagement, escorted by its two principal actors, Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr. It wasn't the biggest party in Atlanta since Gone with the Wind, but they tried. They tried.

     Nilsson, who has the title role, and Ringo, who plays an ancient Merlin the magician, hosted a press conference the afternoon of the initial showing to plump for the world's first rock and roll Dracula movie before attending the midnight preem at a North Atlanta shopping center.

     Although the two were ready for an arsenal of flip answers  ("Why did you decide to open the film in Atlanta?" Ringo: "Because nobody else would take it."), it was clear that Ringo had developed a serious interest in the technical side of filmmaking, perhaps as a result of his before the camera experience in the Magic Christian, 200 Motels, and the Richard Lester Beatles movies. 

    Ringo produced Son of Dracula after making a major script rewrite on the film, an experience which he doesn't particularly want to repeat, but which has made him anxious to direct a major project. His first attempt at film direction is a movie with Mark Bolan, which has not yet opened in the United States. "Film is a director's medium," says Ringo. "I have no desire whatsoever to produce any more. I want to stick with acting and direction, which is the extent of my interest, really."

     The movie, which Nilsson describes as a "science fiction horror musical about a boy and his bat," is the first of what may prove a new film form: the rock and roll monster movie. Since rock and roll and horror were many years staples of the drive-in movie crowd, this genre has strong commercial possibilities. Rock and roll movies, in their now hipper presentations (Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Woodstock) are still vying with horror films in outdoor theaters across the country. Why not combine the elements? Already, we have Paul Williams' Phantom of the Fillmore ready for release, and if it or Son of Dracula makes anything like a respectable amount of money, the floodgates will open. 

    "It's not the best film ever made, but I've seen worse," says Ringo of the movie, and most who saw it would agree with him. Ringo says the original script, which was presented to him, was "too flower power. The audience would have been asleep in 10 minutes." He decided to add some friction to the plot, and takes full responsibility for what's on the screen. And though Son of Dracula is not bad for a first try, its problem largely rests with that script. 

    The movie centers around Count Down, the son of Dracula, who was born a vampire and must glom necks for sustenance, but he is also into just about every kind of music there is, and occasionally he takes a break from the action to rush downstairs and perform with his band, which includes Keith Moon on drums. When Count Down comes of age, he will be crowned Overlord of the Netherworld, an occasion for which the assorted creeps of the Nether have been waiting for years. Doctor Van Helsing, Drac's enemy in the Bram Stoker novel, now his ally, noting Count Down's uneasiness over the coming affair proposes an operation which would take away his vampirism and implant within him the capacity for love, but would also wreck his claim to the Netherworld throne, and probably hack off its residence in the bargain. 

    Count Down agrees, though some monkey wrenches are thrown occasionally by a jealous rival for the throne, one Baron Frankenstein. I'll not spoil the ending. 

    The film features outstanding set designs and photography, and professional direction by Freddie Francis, a member of the Hammer Films Horror Corps, the guys who have spewed out those 40 or 50 beautiful British remakes of American classics with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, is often lovely to look at, but the movie's stilted script sires uninspired and unbelievable performances. The dialogue is too earnest to be funny in most places. There are amusing moments, most of them coming when the idea of a rock and roll vampire is explored. Yet it's too showbiz and tongue-in-cheek to appeal to anyone unfamiliar with the career of its two stars.

    If Son of Dracula didn't feature Ringo and Nilsson, in fact, it would have had about as much general- audience appeal as a dubbed Mexican monster movie on television. American horror fans are used to seeing corny Hammer plots pulled off with sophistication and personality and made believable. Among other weaknesses, with Ringo's first line, one irrevocably refuses to believe he is Merlin, but that's just the monster movie element.

     It is a field day for Nilsson fans, including as he does nine songs. Added as an afterthought, according to Nilsson, the original script didn't have music, and only one new song, "Daybreak", written for the film, and accompanying them with film scenes of Nilsson lip-syncing to the album tracks, most of them coming from Nilsson Schmilsson and Son of Schmilsson. Since Nilsson does not perform in public, those who doted on the songs in their album incarnations will find it interesting to see Harry wailing away with his band with no interference from the movie plot. 

    All the songs are set pieces having nothing to do with the action, except for "Without You," which is played under the operation scene, and "Day Break," which, with its lyrical connection to the vampire theme. Harry has, of course, been photographed as a vampire before on the album cover of  Son of Schmilsson. Although Ringo has played on the album (as Richie Snare) he has never seen the cover art until two weeks after he offered Harry the lead in Son of Dracula.

     As is obvious from the cover and Ringo's work with SOD, both say they love monster movies and wanted to make one of their own. "We felt that it was time," said Harry. Both are careful to emphasize that musical element of the show because, as Ringo said, "There hasn't been a good Dracula movie made since Bela Lugosi." When asked if he thought Son of Dracula could compare with Lugosi's performance, he quickly said "No."

     Nilsson and Ringo talked about other projects besides their movie. Both have Richard Perry-produced albums in the works, not counting Harry's new release, The Son of Dracula soundtrack, which includes all nine tunes and dialogue from the film. Ringo's to be cut in May. Did he have the cooperation from the rest of the Beatles, which marked his Ringo album? "The only one who's cooperated up to now is John, who says he's written a song for me," said Ringo, "But then the last one was largely coincidental. I was recording for the first time in America, and some of them wound up helping, and they're still my mates, aren't they?"

     For the 50,000,000th time, Ringo answered a reporter's inquiry into whether or not the Beatles were planning to get back together rather officially. "I would like to say here and now, no". When asked about the lawsuits that surround the dissolving Beatles, Ringo made a distinction between "the thing between the four of us and the thing against Alan Klein," and said that the priorities dictated resolutions of the thing which separates the four Beatles. "That's the most important thing, and everybody knows it."

     Although Son of Dracula is credited as an Apple film, it is being independently distributed in America by Cinematian Industries, the people who brought you Fritz the Cat and the Cheerleaders. The soundtrack is manufactured by RCA, Nilsson's record company on the Rapple label.

     RCA took over after the press conference and turned Harry and Ringo over to a city that has been fairly throttled by publicists. The stars drove from their downtown hotel in a Son of Dracula hears to the premiere's theater, where hundreds of people waited on Nilsson Boulevard and Stare Drive to greet them. In front of a cardboard facade built to resemble the battlements of a castle, a huge hot air balloon was surveying the parking lot scene. A street dance punctuated by the glare of searchlights. A local radio station had promoted a contest. The outstanding 10 makeup jobs worn to the premiere would win Harry Nielsen watches. Each entrant won a watch. 

    Harry and Ringo bounded from the car to the bandstand and waved a few waves. They did a short advertisement for the movie. "All of you can't get inside the theater tonight, but come back next week and bring your friends." And then located themselves in the back of the house, where they had as much fun watching Son of Dracula as everybody else did
 

Ringo Considering a Spring or Summer Tour (1976)

 Ringo Considering a Spring or Summer Tour

By John Rockwell

New York Times

September 26, 1976

    Ringo Starr was always the least controversial of the Beatles, refreshingly unblessed with the creativity of John Lennon or Paul McCartney, or the brooding mysticism of George Harrison; he moved amiably through life, everybody's friend. 

    When the Beatles broke up, some people feared for his career. His drumming was suspect, his singing was primitive, his songwriting non-existent. But things eventually went well for Starkey (Richard Starkey is the name he started out with). He was warmly received in a couple of films, and his records were greeted affectionately by critics and the public. Enjoyable, totally unselfconscious collections of pop tunes at a time when the other three Beatles were flailing about in search of varying kinds of greatness.

     The one thing Ringo didn't do was tour. Now, with a new record contract and his first disc on Atlantic due toward the end of the month, he is allowing himself to consider the prospects of live performances as well.  "It was all the craziness the Beatles went through, holed up in boxes all the time," Ringo explained about his reluctance to tour until now.

     "The playing was the only fun part. I really liked playing with musicians in the studio. Then I started going to concerts and seeing how easy it is now. I was living in the past. Now they'll carry you on stage and off again. Also, I don't think I was ready to take on the responsibility of a band. Now I don't want to just go out on stage for two hours and say 'Here I am.' I want things going on around me."

     Ringo's first idea was sort of a rambling revue, full of all sorts of different kinds of performers. Then he discovered that to make such a cavalcade pay, he would have to tour steadily for four months or more. Now he's retrenching.

     "We've really got to work and cut it down to size," he said. "I just want to go out for a month, and do a couple of days or three times a week. We're thinking now about spring or summer."

 And the Beatles? "The four of us aren't talking," Ringo answered. "Others are talking, but we're not. Maybe in a couple of years, and maybe we'll get into the studio. The question is which way we'd play, like then or like now. If we went out with new stuff, I think it would be better."

Rotogravure in Italy

 September 23, 1976

I guess I didn't realize that Ringo and Paul were in Italy at the same time in 1976.  

Yeah Yeah Yeah Beatles Will Get Back Together Says Paul (1991)

 

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Beatles Will Get Back Together Says Paul

No Writer Listed

San Antonio Express - News

September 22, 1991 

    It's been a long and winding road, but the three surviving Beatles will finally get together again. Take Paul McCartney's word for it. 

    

    After 21 years of hopeful rumors, McCartney says he is on the verge of teaming up once again with George Harrison and Ringo Starr to make Beatleful music together.

     "We all had a massive falling out over money after John died," He says, "but recently we have secretly and quietly become mates again. George, Ringo and I have met for tea and dinner several times, and I am not ruling out the remaining Beatles getting together again."

     George Harrison, however, has been singing a different tune. "As far as I am concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead.," He snipped. 

    All the same, Paul has the reunion scenario mapped out in his head. "We will most likely be brought together initially by our documentary project," He predicts. "It's an idea I've had to get all our private footage of the Beatles together and turn it into the Beatles story. We all have a lot of footage that is historical and hysterical!

     "It may be possible now for George and I to write together and perhaps rework some Beatles songs or compose new ones. We might sit down with just a guitar and a bongo drum, and if anything comes out of that, it might be the start of something fab."

Turning up for Twiggy

 September 16, 2026 

Solo Press Conference

September 21, 1976

Ringo loves polka dots

September 20, 2011 
 

Raiding the mini fridge

 September 20, 1976 - Paris 

A Couple of Starrs (1981)

 A Couple of Starrs

By Fred Robbins

Thursdays Woman

September 17, 1981

    Soon after the Beatles' cyclonic arrival in the United States in 1964, Ringo Starr made it clear, indeed, that he wasn't enchanted by American women. "They have too much to say here," he declared. "They boss a man around. I'll have no woman bossing me around."

     He was 24 then. He's 41 now, and he's both mellower and wiser. Now he knows that American women, like women everywhere, defy stereotyping. Ringo also knows that a guy can't stop lightning. That's the title song he wrote for his latest album, and it refers directly to the love that struck with such dazzling force when movie actress Barbara Bach, who grew up in Queens, New York, came into his life.

     On April 27, 1980, Ringo and beautiful Barbara stopped finding it fate, that is. That was the day he recalls when he told her he loved her for the first time. On April 27, 1981, they became Mr. and Mrs. Richard Starkey. They pledged their vows in London at the Marlebone Registry Office in the presence of family and friends, including ex-Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison. As hundreds of fans screamed outside, their wedding party at an exclusive London club was enlivened by a spontaneous jam session, bringing the three surviving Beatles together musically for the first time in a decade. Their impromptu reunion found them playing many of their great hits of the past, including, of course, "All You Need Is Love."

     Love, says Ringo, is the last thing he expected to find when he agreed to having Barbara Bach be signed as his leading lady in the comedy movie Caveman. Nor was he particularly anxious to marry again after his divorce from Maureen Cox, his hometown sweetheart in Liverpool, and the mother of his three children, the eldest of whom is 15. "I was married for 10 years before," he said, "and I had a good marriage for eight years, and then it fell apart. And you don't really know why, because it doesn't come apart in one day. You don't wake up in the morning and say 'that's it.' It takes a couple of years for it to finally drag itself out."

     For several years after his divorce, Ringo opted for a live-in relationship with actress-photographer Nancy Andrews, who was still with him when Caveman went into production in Porta Va'arta, Mexico. And just before his recent marriage, she filed a still-unsettled $7.5 million palimony suit against him.

     When Barbara Bach was first suggested as his co-star, Ringo says, "I had never seen her on the screen, not even in the James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me. I kept asking, 'What does she look like?' And everyone said, 'Oh, she's a beautiful girl.' They finally showed me some photographs, and they were right."

     But Ringo was no stranger to Barbara Bach. As a teenager, the now 34-year-old beauty would have considered herself lucky just to meet or touch Ringo Starr. But the thought of someday knowing and loving him was too much to imagine. "I was one of the early Beatles fan," she told me. "When they first arrived in America. I was living on Long Island, close enough to go to Kennedy Airport, where they landed. I was right there with my Beatle wig on, in the midst of that mob, with my little sister Marjorie, screaming and yelling."

     Offered the role in Caveman, Barbara jumped at it because it was a comedy, and because at long last she'd meet Ringo. "From the beginning, I was happy to discover that Richie (her name for Ringo) is one of the warmest, kindest, most loving human beings I'd ever met. Even though I didn't fall in love with him immediately," she says. Like Ringo, the former cover girl had also experienced a 10-year marriage that ended in divorce.  Modeling and acted in Italy, starring in dreadful movies like The Humanoid and The Island of the Fish Men. Barbara married a handsome Italian businessman and became the mother of two, Francesca, 12, and Johnny, 8. 

    Love slipped up quietly on Barbara and Ringo. "I was looking for Prince Charming," the hazel-eyed Barbara admits, "but quite honestly, I never thought I would find him. I never thought I'd get married again. Secretly, though, I was waiting and hoping for Prince Charming, and he came along, but I didn't recognize it at first.

     "I'm usually attracted to people who can laugh," Barbara continues, "So I was naturally attracted to Richie. We both agree that the best thing in life is laughter and having a good time. Also, I like sensitive people, and despite his great gifts as a performer and what many people may think, Richie is basically shy, compassionate, and understanding of others. Each new thing that I learned about him made me love him more."

     Both Ringo and Barbara wear star-shaped gold pins encasing a sliver of windshield glass; the pins, which he designed, signify an event that changed their lives. After the completion of their movie, the two went together to England, where they miraculously survived a devastating automobile crash. One rainy day, when they were on an outing in Ringo's Mercedes 350 SL. A skidding truck came hurling toward them. Trying to avoid a collision, Ringo spun the wheel sharply, and the car, going into a skid, toppled three lamp posts. He was thrown clear as the car rolled over twice, finally coming to a stop on the grassy island between highways, completely demolished, with its roof caved in, trapping Barbara inside. Incredibly, they escaped injury and suffered only severe shock. 

    "The accident happened on the 21st of April last year," Ringo relates.  "It brought us even closer together than we'd been because we realized that any day we could be separated; since that day, we have not been separated. Six days after it happened, it was like I was struck by lightning. I said 'I love you,' and we began making plans to marry."

     Of the crash, Barbara says, "It went by so quickly that we only realized how tragic it could have been once we lived through it and saw the condition of the car; we admitted to one another. Then we survived this, so we are meant to survive a lot of other things too. The little windshield pins that we wear are a constant reminder that everything that's happened between us was faded."

     Both say they do not expect marriage to change anything in their relationship. "Getting married is really just saying to the world we are together, and we plan to stay together forever," said Barbara. "And by having the same name, we believe that perhaps it will make it a bit easier on the children."

     Says Ringo, "Getting married will not alter our lives in any way. While I have no guarantee, I'm planning to spend the rest of my life with Barbara. This is forever for me."

     Speaking of Barbara, Ringo waxes lyrical. "Of course, her obvious qualities attracted me first, but that's just the surface. She's a very gentle woman, very giving, very loving, and she likes to play like I do. There's a whole woman there. Inside the lady is just as much beauty as outside. That's the difference. There are a lot of good-looking women, but very few beautiful women. And the beauty, I think, comes from within the soul. I'm a romantic, and I love being in love with Barbara."

     Since their marriage, Ringo and Barbara live just like they did before in a house in the Hollywood Hills with her children, and they vacation at the villa he has in Monte Carlo; Barbara adds that she remains friendly with her ex-husband, who is frequently around. "He comes to L.A., stays at the house with us, and visits the kids," she says. 

    While he's been more active in movies than any of the other Beatles, Ringo doesn't want anyone to get the mistaken notion that he is forsaking music. "I am a musician," he says empathetically. "Though there may be long periods between albums, there will always be a new one, but what's the hurry? I've got another 40 years. The music scene is in a state of transition now," he observes. "As the Beatles, we were lucky," Ringo says. "We were able to stay together as a group longer than most. Everything seems to be going at a faster pace now, and the turnover today is frightening. You can have a group up there as number one, the biggest thing in the world, and two months later, nobody wants to know them. Somebody new has come up."

     Then Ringo talks of his musician son and smiles as he relates. "He's 15 now and already in a band, a heavy metal band. I've got records of his, and they'll wipe you out. But he's not into Beatles music at all, no way. And he has a great line.   He says,  'You know those records you made, Dad? Some of the tracks weren't bad.'"

     Even for Ringo, the Beatles are yesterday, and he realistically says "You can't live in the past." Speaking of the Beatles, inevitably brings up the subject of the tragic death of John Lennon. "Barbara and I were on holiday in the Bahamas when her daughter called and told us what had happened," he says. "The shock, of course, was just a mind blower. John was more than a good friend to me. I looked at him as a brother, like I do the other two, Paul and George, being that I was an only child. So his death just blew me away. When something like that happens, you react in one of two ways: you either go hide somewhere with your grief, or you go and visit. Our decision was to get on a plane to New York just so we could say to Yoko Ono, 'We're here if there's anything we can do,' and there really wasn't. I said to Yoko, 'I know how you feel.' She looked at me very honestly and said, 'No, you don't,' and she was right. I was close to John, but nowhere near as close as she was, they were like one soul within two people."

     Barbara admits she was unprepared for the mob scene she and Ringo encountered outside the Dakota in New York after paying their condolences to Yoko Ono. Her face clouds as she recalls it. "When we walked out of the Dakota, I was really frightened. Such a crush of people! They kept yelling, 'We love you, Ringo,' and they were all grabbing at him. And I am obviously not used to that, as Richie is. So I was yelling back, 'You're hurting him. If you love him, have some respect for the man. He's making a condolence call.'

      "Since it was not a concert or public appearance, I did think it was very disrespectful of the crowd not to leave him alone, not to let us even get to the car. All the running, pushing, shoving, and screaming was terrifying. It was sheer madness. In a crowd like that, one person can tick something off, and that is what we're always afraid of."

     And that is why Ringo never ventures out now without being accompanied by two bodyguards. "Suddenly, you're made to realize that it can be dangerous out there,"  he says. "Once it starts, it's like a forest fire. A lot of people get ideas, so until it cools off, you've got to protect yourself against that. But you must not allow yourself to become bitter. You cannot blame the whole human race for one man, you know, you can't blame New York where it happened. There were some really nice people in that town, in every town."

     Ringo readily admits he's still not fully reconciled to John Lennon's death. "I was upset and pretty low for a long time," he said. "It does get easier because we all have to carry on living, but then again, it gets brought up all the time, so it still knocks me down. Then you start remembering the good times, which is what you should do. It also helps that I strongly believe in reincarnation. It's pointless if you think there's no life after life. Why would you try to do or create anything if you thought that's the end of it? Everyone comes back as another human being. I believe I'm going to come back, and I believe that John will too."

     Ringo hopes that no one believed the widely reported story that he, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison had reunited to do a memorial album to John Lennon. "It was just a rumor," he insists. "We have no intentions. We are still close, all three of us, but we have our separate lives, even though we help each other. Paul produced three tracks on my recent album. He also wrote two tracks for me, and on one of the tracks he plays drums and I play guitar. Also on Paul's new album, I'm on two tracks playing drums by myself on one, and on another with Steve Gatt, a very good New York drummer. Meanwhile, George made a new album on his own. We're all doing our albums, you know. We're all carrying on, and we will always be friends, though we will never again be the Beatles."