In Ringo Starr’s near-decade with The Beatles, he only performed one recorded drum solo. It seems hard to believe, but the drummer did not like performing solos. He preferred to back the group and add to the songs without putting the spotlight on himself. When finally it came time to perform a solo, he took some convincing.
Ringo Starr did not like doing drum solos
Starr outright refused to do drum solos, which led some to think of him as a weak drummer. His bandmates disagreed.
“I think Ringo was always paranoid that he wasn’t a great drummer because he never used to solo,” Paul McCartney said, per The Beatles Anthology. “He hated those guys who went on and on, incessantly banging while the band goes off and has a cup of tea or something. Until Abbey Road, there was never a drum solo in The Beatles’ act, and consequently other drummers would say that although they liked his style, Ringo wasn’t technically a very good drummer. It was a bit condescending, and I think we let it go too far.”
Starr said he just didn’t like solos and avoided them for most of his time with the band. On the Abbey Road song “The End,” they were finally able to persuade him to do one.
“Solos have never interested me,” he said. “That drum solo is still the only one I’ve done. There’s the guitar section where the three of them take in the solos, and then they thought, ‘We’ll have a drum solo as well.’ I was opposed to it: ‘I don’t want to do no bloody solo!’”
In the end, producer George Martin had to coax and beg him into doing it.
“George Martin convinced me,” he said, “As I was playing it, he counted it because we needed a time. It was the most ridiculous thing. I was going, ‘Dum, dum — one, two, three, four…’ and I had to come off at that strange place because it was thirteen bars long. Anyway, I did it, and it’s out of the way. I’m eased now that we’ve got one down.”
Ringo Starr continued his rule of avoiding drum solos with his All Starr Band
In the decades after The Beatles broke up, Starr has continued to avoid drum solos. He admitted that when playing with his All Starr band, he was even more reserved than he was with The Beatles.
“I feel I’m even holding back even more than I did in the Beatles, because if you’re singing, you don’t need me to be doing drum solos!” he told Yahoo. “And that’s how I’ve always played. I’ve never done a drum solo … Mainly, I want to be in the band, and I just want to play behind those guys, and give them a lift or bring them down and rock on straight.”
This damaged his reputation, but he was a solid drummer
While Starr faced criticism for avoiding drum solos, his aversion to them didn’t mean he was a bad drummer. Starr kept time like a metronome; the band always trusted that he would keep the beat even without listening to him.
His complex and swinging beats added complexity and a distinct feel to each of the band’s songs. He may not have been a flashy drummer, but he is a recognizable and timeless one.
