On his official website, Ringo Starr shows a double “Victory” sign. Small PR gag for his current sound project “EP3”. Otherwise, the 82-year-old seems to go about the world with a lot of optimism and without the old gentleman-bashing of some of his colleagues. He will soon appear prominently in a documentary film about the special magic of drummers.
He recently spoke in detail about Kurt Cobain for the US rock platform “AlternativeNation”. It is true that the Beatles and Nirvana are several musical generations apart in terms of style and appearance. But both bands have more than earned their place in history, according to the drum legend.
When the Beatles broke through in the early 1960s, they were initially just another rock ‘n’ roll band. There were hundreds of them in native Merseyside alone. But then they underwent a “magical shift in their creativity” that made them the greatest band of all time by the end of the decade. Not only “Revolver” or “Let It Be” were each masterpieces that had a significant impact on expanded pop culture.
Ringo Starr’s universal take on rock history draws on a 2019 interview with America’s ROLLING STONE with Dave Grohl. Both stars questioned each other at the time. He now says to Kurt Cobain:
“Absolutely gorgeous and the man himself had so much feeling. I loved that. I’m an emotional guy. No one can doubt Nirvana, ever. And who could have guessed that he would end up where he landed. I don’t think anyone who listened to music with any courage could doubt him, because he was brave.”
Ringo reflected on the death of his old friend John Lennon, who in turn was one of Cobain’s greatest heroes. He recalled the important existential questions that his unexpected death brought with it.
“I know the end story (by Cobain, editor’s note.) not in detail. And it’s not just about him either. We lose a lot of good people in our business early on. You think, ‘How hard must it have been? I’m like, ‘Why don’t you call me?’ You never know. This is the famous 27-year syndrome. Many have left at 27 as if that were the number – what, had they accomplished everything by then? Or maybe God planned it that way, I don’t know.”
Starr also drew parallels to the earlier Beatles cosmos: “When John died, I was in the Bahamas. My stepkids from LA called me and said, ‘Something happened to John’. And then came the confirmation call: ‘John is dead’.
And I didn’t know what to do. And I just thought some bastard shot him. But I just said, ‘We have to get a plane.’ We got a plane to New York and you don’t know what to do. We went to the apartment. ‘Is there anything we can do?’ And Yoko just said, “Just play with Sean. Keep Sean busy.’ And we did. That’s what you’re thinking, ‘What are you doing now?’”
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