Biography
Born Richard Starkey on July 7, 1940, in Liverpool, England. Known for his easy-going personality, Ringo Starr first rose to fame in the early 1960s as the drummer for the legendary rock group the Beatles. During his career he was a musician, a singer, a songwriter and an actor.
He grew up poor in Liverpool, the son of Elsie and Richard Starkey. At the age of three Ringo’s parents divorced. The majority of Ringo’s childhood was spent in hospital after getting appendicitis (which sent him into a coma) and pleurisy. It was during his time in hospital that his step-father, Harry Graves, introduced him to his first drum kit. Starr eventually dropped out of school at the age of fifteen.
When he was seventeen, Ringo joined the Raving Texans as the band’s drummer. This was when he first took up his stage name due to the numerous rings he wore and he thought it sounded “cowboyish”. After a while the band changed its name to Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Ringo first met the Beatles when both the Hurricanes and the Beatles were hired to work in Hamburg, playing in clubs. The two bands got on well and Ringo would occasionally stand-in for Pete Best (the Beatles drummer at the time) when he wasn’t available. When the Beatles got a recording contract with E.M.I. John, Paul and George were asked to replace Pete Best. They agreed to invite Ringo to the band and he accepted.
Though Ringo is most famous for his performance in the Beatles, he also performed for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band and the Plastic Ono band and has a relatively successful solo career.
Ringo’s Studio Albums
Sentimental Journey(1970)
Beaucoups of Blues(1970)
“Ringo”(1973)
Goodnight Vienna(1974)
Ringo’s Rotogravure(1976)
Ringo the 4th(1977)
Bad Boy (1978)
Stop and Smell the Roses(1981)
Old Wave (1983)
Time takes Time(1992)
Vertical Man (1998)
Ringo Rama(2003)
Choose Love(2005)
Liverpool 8(2008)
Y not (2010)
He is also one of the stars of the upcoming graphic novel (and film) The Fifth Beatle, about his original manager, Brian Epstein.