0:04

Double

0:04

Elvis Hey

0:07

everybody we're taking a short break here in the middle of our

0:09

serialized season on Wutang Clan. We've

0:12

been releasing these episodes fast and furious

0:14

like two of them a week so maybe you need a little

0:16

time to get caught up.

0:17

Nevertheless I thought it was a good time

0:19

to finally spring our episode

0:22

on Ringo Starr out of the archive

0:24

and back into the disgraced land feed. Why

0:27

Ringo? I'll tell you why Ringo. First

0:30

let me tell you who Ringo. Ringo

0:33

the king of feel. One of the greatest drummers

0:35

of all time and a member of one of the

0:37

greatest groups of all time nearly

0:39

got swept up in some pretty crazy stuff

0:41

involving Mexican Federales as you'll hear

0:43

in this episode. But also in 2015

0:47

Ringo's

0:47

personal copy of the

0:50

Beatles. Remember the Beatles. That was Ringo's band of

0:52

the Beatles White Album on vinyl.

0:54

The first copy ever made

0:57

of the White Album in 1968 numbered 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 right

0:59

there on the cover.

1:04

That copy of the White Album on

1:07

vinyl sold for $790,000 at auction.

1:11

Why Ringo was selling his copy of

1:13

the White Album? I have no idea. It's not like he needed the

1:15

money but I digress. My point is that the

1:17

sale of Ringo's album set a world

1:20

record for the most money ever paid for a

1:22

single album

1:23

or so everyone thought because

1:25

right around that same time Wutang

1:28

Clan sold a single album for even

1:30

more money. How much more? Well you

1:32

can hear all about that in the second half of season 13

1:35

of Disgraceland which continues next

1:37

week. But for now let's

1:39

get into this archive episode on none

1:41

other than Richard Starkey Richie

1:43

to his mother the one and only Ringo

1:46

star Rocka Rolla.

1:48

Disgraceland is a production of double Elvis.

2:01

The stories about Ringo Starr are

2:03

insane. A hostile

2:05

audience nearly ruined his debut as

2:07

the Beatles drummer because they wanted

2:09

him out of the band. French-Canadian

2:12

separatists in Montreal threatened his life.

2:15

He was followed and detained by Mexican

2:17

Federales hellbent on locking him up

2:19

for good. He nearly killed himself

2:22

and his wife when he drove his Mercedes into not

2:24

one but two lamp posts in a rainstorm.

2:27

And despite a decades-long running gag

2:30

that he wasn't creatively on par with

2:32

his fellow faves from the Beatles, Ringo

2:34

Starr made some of the most profound

2:36

innovations in rock drumming, creating

2:39

some of the greatest drum tracks on some of the

2:41

greatest songs of all time. Unlike

2:44

that music I played for you at the top of the show,

2:47

that wasn't from a great song.

2:49

That was a preset loop from my melodron

2:52

called Phantom Buddha MK1. I

2:56

played you that loop because I can't afford

2:58

the rights to Breaking Up is Hard to

3:00

Do by Neil Sadaka. And

3:02

why would I play you that specific slice

3:05

of down dooby doo down down cheese

3:07

could I afford it? Because

3:09

that was the number one song in

3:11

America on August 19th, 1962. And

3:15

that was the day that Ringo Starr played

3:18

his first gig with the Beatles at

3:20

the legendary Cavern Club, a gig

3:22

that nearly ended in a ride. Number

3:25

six, hostile audience,

3:28

French Canadian separatists, Mexican

3:30

Federalists and Ringo Starr. I'm

3:33

Jake Brennan and this is

3:36

The Street Planning.

3:55

Thank you. You

4:04

can tell they were federales because they looked

4:06

exactly like they did in the movies. The

4:09

military costumes were elaborate, downright

4:11

theatrical even. Jackets stiffly

4:13

buttoned up to the neck, crown hats with little visors

4:16

nestled perfectly atop their heads. But

4:19

this wasn't a Sergio Leone or Sam Peckinpah

4:21

movie. James Coburn and Ernest

4:23

Borgnine weren't going to come to your rescue with

4:26

shotguns drawn. This

4:28

was real life. This was Guadalajara,

4:31

this was the dawn of the 1980s.

4:34

February 1980 to be exact.

4:37

Ringo Starr was trying to go incognito.

4:40

You know like a man with no name but it wasn't

4:42

working. Everyone knew Ringo's

4:44

name. And that is to say they knew

4:46

the stage name that had long since eclipsed

4:48

the name his mother gave him. It had also

4:51

just become the first beetle to ever step

4:53

foot in Mexico. Thus

4:55

the federales and the cafe doorway.

4:59

Ringo worked on his breakfast of champions,

5:01

champagne. It was better than lukewarm

5:04

coffee. Plus it got the blood flowing

5:06

for what was sure to be a multiple wine bottle

5:08

kind of day. At this point

5:10

most of his days were, the ones he remembered

5:13

at least. His friend Keith

5:15

Allison, formerly of Paul Revere and the Raiders,

5:18

sat next to him. The two were on

5:20

a layover in Guadalajara on

5:22

their way to Durango to shoot a prehistoric slapstick

5:25

comedy called Caveman. They

5:27

carried a few suitcases with them, including

5:30

a road case. They held a four track tape

5:32

recorder and a guitar and case inspiration

5:34

stark. The federales

5:36

sized up the cases that sat next to Ringo

5:39

and Keith and thought about all the illegal drugs

5:41

that must be inside.

5:43

Maybe a brick of marijuana, just like

5:45

the one Japanese cops found on Ringo's forward

5:47

band made Paul McCartney at the Narita International

5:50

Airport one month earlier.

5:52

Paul did 10 days in a hardcore

5:54

Japanese prison for that offense. Now

5:58

in Guadalajara, Mexican authorities.

5:59

were hoping they could follow suit. Another

6:02

beetle busted.

6:03

That would be boy potato.

6:06

Federaleza could be the serious bump in Tango

6:08

May.

6:09

Ringo knew it wasn't a movie, but

6:11

still. He couldn't help but hear music

6:14

play in his head as he returned the Federalez

6:16

dead-eyed stare. He

6:18

heard an ocarina trumpets whistling, a

6:20

soprano recorder that sounded like a dying

6:22

coyote.

6:24

A soundtrack to Ringo's own personal

6:26

Mexican standoff.

6:29

The Cederalez finally walked up to Ringo

6:31

and Keith and asked to see their passports.

6:34

Ringo began to panic. He

6:36

couldn't be that stupid, bro. Not

6:39

after what happened to Paul. He hadn't smuggled

6:41

any drugs in his luggage, or so he thought.

6:43

He was sure, pretty sure. And

6:46

then again, there were entire years from the last decade

6:48

that he couldn't even remember. His brain

6:50

was... Yeah. Fuck, Ringo

6:52

thought. Yeah.

6:54

Actually...

6:57

Ringo's act was either too natural

6:59

or not natural enough. The

7:01

Federales weren't satisfied with the sticky

7:04

passport. They took the duo to

7:06

a cramped private room, and they

7:08

dug through the pockets of Keith's jacket. They

7:10

looked inside Ringo's boot like it was a cavernous

7:13

vessel for contraband. The

7:15

Cederales told Ringo and Keith to take

7:17

out their wallets. Then they tapped

7:19

the bills on top of a slab of black marble

7:22

on a table. The marble was so

7:24

black that any white residue that fell from

7:26

the bills would be noticed immediately. The

7:28

Cederales just needed a speck of

7:31

fall on that marble, a flake, some

7:33

dust. Ringo told them

7:35

that their efforts were in vain, and they weren't going

7:37

to find anything. Privately,

7:40

to himself,

7:41

he hoped in God they wouldn't.

7:45

Ringo wasn't simply anxious. He

7:47

was also annoyed by all the unwanted attention

7:50

he was currently receiving. He had

7:52

spent a good chunk of the past decade trying

7:54

to distance himself from the Beatles, try

7:56

to leave the past in the past, and finally

7:58

move on. And now, the

8:01

only reason his shit had been seized and searched was

8:03

because of that past. When

8:05

the Beatles broke up in 1970 at

8:07

the height of an unprecedented career that

8:09

seemed to have no ceiling, Ringo

8:12

let the other guys in the band cool off. They

8:14

could be angry. Ringo wasn't the getting

8:17

angry type. He'd just hang around

8:19

until they were ready to get back together. As

8:22

it became increasingly obvious that a reunion

8:24

was never going to happen, what

8:26

with Paul and John waging a public war

8:28

in song, Ringo finally just

8:31

got on with it. Feeling like it equaled

8:33

to Paul, John, and George had been hard enough

8:35

from the start. Ringo may have been the

8:37

oldest Beatle in age, but he was the last

8:40

to join. The other three had already developed

8:42

a brotherly bond, and they'd spent the better part of

8:44

two years perfecting it. Ringo

8:46

felt like a heel, like he wasn't out on the joke,

8:48

even though he was as witty as any of them. He

8:51

was even known as the Funny Beatle. Music

8:54

producer George Martin was underwhelmed

8:56

by Ringo's playing and replaced him with another

8:58

drummer on his very first recording

9:00

session with the band. The version of

9:02

Love Me Do, released as a US single and

9:04

on the Beatles debut album Please Pleas

9:07

Me, featured not Ringo on drums, but

9:09

session man Andy White. Ringo

9:11

is relegated to tambourine. Only

9:13

the UK single release featured the earlier

9:16

take with Ringo on drums. In

9:18

later years, George Martin explained

9:20

that he'd already booked White to play before Ringo had

9:22

joined the band. But that testimony

9:24

contradicts studio logs that clearly show

9:27

the Abi-Roe production team was unsatisfied

9:29

with Ringo's contribution. Ringo

9:32

never really shook the stigma of being just

9:34

the drummer in the Beatles. Did

9:36

it bug him that he couldn't write a song that could go toe-to-toe

9:39

with his bandmates? Sure. Was

9:41

he frustrated that he couldn't play any other instruments besides

9:43

the drums? Of course. But

9:46

that didn't mean he was creatively challenged. This

9:48

is a joke that's often attributed to John Lennon,

9:51

though it was actually made by a comedian after

9:53

John's death. It goes, Ringo

9:55

wasn't the best drummer in the world. He wasn't even

9:57

the best drummer in the Beatles. Consider,

10:00

however, that when Ringo briefly quit the

10:02

band during the making of the White album, it

10:04

took all three of the other Beatles to cobble

10:07

together a decent drum track for back in the

10:09

USSR. I'm serious. Next

10:11

time you listen to the White album's opening track, listen

10:13

to the drums. That is the sound of Paul,

10:16

John, and George all trying very hard

10:18

to do the thing that Ringo did very simply. Don't

10:21

come easy, lads. The

10:23

truth was that Ringo was an innovator. Never

10:26

before had the way the drums were played been

10:28

such a central component to the construction

10:30

of a song. In the history of popular

10:32

music, there's B-R and A-R.

10:35

Before Ringo and after Ringo. And

10:38

no one played the same after Ringo

10:40

hit the scene. But in 1980,

10:42

that wasn't Ringo's legacy. Ringo

10:45

remained the fool, the funny beetle, the non-creative

10:47

one, the one who wasn't rated very highly,

10:50

just a lucky kid from Liverpool's tough end

10:52

who happened to catch the break of a lifetime. And

10:54

he was pretty goddamn sick of hearing about it.

10:58

Sitting in a private room at the Guadalajara airport

11:01

with Federale tearing through his luggage,

11:03

Ringo was forced to hear about it, talk

11:05

about it, and think about it all over again.

11:08

He just wanted to be someone else, but who

11:11

exactly could he be if not a beetle? How

11:13

would Ringo Starr define himself in the 1980s and beyond?

11:17

Could he even summon the energy to try? Just

11:21

a few years before, Ringo Starr

11:23

physically altered his appearance in hopes that

11:25

it would change who he was. He walked

11:28

into a barber shop and said, take it

11:30

all off. They shaved his head, his

11:32

beard, his mustache. The only hair

11:34

he had left on his head was his eyebrows.

11:37

But as this barber were showing photographs, one

11:39

could plainly see that he had even severely

11:42

seen the woolly caterpillars above Ringo's

11:44

eyes. He had never looked less beetle-esque

11:47

in all of his life. At

11:49

the time, Ringo said that

11:51

he did it because where he was living, Monte Carlo,

11:54

was too hot and he needed to cool off.

11:57

Later, in an interview with People magazine,

11:59

he gave a very different reason. It

12:02

was a time when you either cut your wrists or

12:04

your hair.

12:05

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12:07

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12:26

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12:29

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12:31

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12:38

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12:40

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12:43

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12:45

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12:52

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was widely known throughout Liverpool

14:57

that Ringo Starr was the best. Other drummers wished they could

14:59

play like him. Most bands thought seriously about

15:02

replacing their drummers with Ringo, because

15:05

no one played like Ringo. Ringo's

15:08

technique was homegrown. Unlike

15:10

other drummers who held the right stick overhand style

15:12

and the left stick

15:13

underhand style, Ringo opted for an odd matchstick

15:16

style approach, which meant he held

15:18

both of his drumsticks overhand. And despite

15:21

being left-handed, he played his drum kit as if he were

15:23

right-handed, which meant that he led with his

15:25

left hand while moving across the drums from left to right.

15:29

And he looked cool as shit doing it. No

15:33

one looked cool with Ringo. In the

15:35

early 1960s, he outcooled his bandleader, Rory

15:37

Storm of Rory Storm of the Hurricanes, when he shook

15:40

his head in ecstasy from behind a kit. He

15:42

had a beard at a time when young musicians were clean-shaven

15:45

and presentable, and he was a man of his

15:47

word. He drove his F-er Zodiac, the

15:50

coolest motherfucker in the world, and

15:52

any room.

15:53

But tonight, August 19th, 1968, Ringo's

15:58

the man.

16:00

At 22 years old, on stage,

16:03

the soon to be legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool

16:05

was perhaps the most important night of his

16:07

professional life up until that time. Ringo

16:10

did not feel calm.

16:12

He felt woefully inadequate. Making him ponder.

16:14

Cavern was packed.

16:14

Rock

16:17

is the plot quickly gave way to rabbit

16:19

shouts and heckles. Ringo had never

16:21

experienced such a volatile vibe in all of

16:23

his years streaming with other bands. The

16:26

voices in the audience weren't chanting for

16:28

another song. They were chanting for

16:30

another drummer. Ringo didn't know

16:32

if he'd make it out of the dang cellar alive. As

16:35

each second passed, it felt more and more like

16:37

his first gig as the Beatles drummer would wind

16:39

up his last.

16:41

The first to take place in the horticultural

16:43

society dance the night before, but who could we

16:49

fuck about a current show?

16:51

This is the first gig that mattered. This

16:54

was the Cavern Club, the claustrophobic

16:57

underground venue that was to early rock

16:59

and roll what CDGVs would be to park.

17:02

It was where early Beatles fans lost their collective

17:04

shit while witnessing some of the most cathartic

17:06

live music ever performed. And

17:09

there was one thing the majority of those Beatles fans

17:11

agreed on that night. Pete Best.

17:13

Forever. Ringo. Never.

17:16

They shouted it over and over again. Pete

17:19

Best. Forever. Ringo. Never.

17:23

Pete Best. Forever.

17:25

Ringo. Never. Best,

17:28

of course, was the Beatles' original drummer

17:30

up until a few days before.

17:32

His sacking came as a shock to fans.

17:34

He had been there from the beginning through the band's

17:37

formative touring years. But in the eyes

17:39

of John, Paul, and George, Pete

17:41

never really fit into the goon show vibe of the

17:43

band. As Paul McCartney once said,

17:45

we were the wacky trio and Pete was perhaps

17:48

a little more

17:49

sensible.

17:50

So the band did the sensible thing.

17:52

They fired Pete.

17:55

Technically they had their manager Brian Epstein

17:57

fire Pete Best. Pete felt

17:59

like he'd been sick.

17:59

out in the back.

18:01

He was so distraught that he actually contemplated

18:04

tying a rock around his neck and jumping in the Mercy

18:06

River. Other Liverpool drummers

18:08

were equally shocked. To them, replacing

18:11

Pete even for one gig was tantamount to

18:13

a scab crossing a Union picket line.

18:16

When Johnny Hutchinson, drummer for a rival band

18:18

called the Big Three,

18:19

was asked to keep Pete Seat warm for Ringo,

18:21

who was tying up loose ends with Rory Storm.

18:24

Hutchinson immediately declined. I wouldn't

18:26

join the Beatles for a gold clock, he said.

18:29

Pete Best is a very good friend of mine. I

18:31

wouldn't do the dirty on him. The

18:33

Beatles' own road manager, Neil Aspinall,

18:36

was doing the dirty with Pete Best's mom, who

18:38

was the father of Pete's newborn half-brother.

18:41

Even he was on Pete's side. At

18:44

first, Neil refused to set up Ringo's

18:46

drums at shows. The coup happening

18:48

in the drum scene of Liverpool's greatest band

18:50

was not without some serious disturbances

18:52

in both the band's camp and its fanatical

18:55

fan base. Right now,

18:57

in the depths of the Cavern Club, it seemed

19:00

a disturbance of savage proportions was

19:02

about to break out. The chants

19:04

and screams from the audience were getting louder.

19:07

Ringo tried to take them out, tried to keep on

19:09

playing, swinging the beat like a motherfucker

19:12

and shaking his head in the way that typical deaf fans worked

19:14

up into a frenzy. But he couldn't concentrate.

19:17

All he could hear was the incessant Ringo,

19:19

never over and over and over.

19:22

It made him feel less than unwanted,

19:24

like he was trying to insert himself into a family

19:27

that didn't want him there. Brian Epstein

19:29

was paying him 25 pounds a week, unheard

19:32

of money for a drummer in Liverpool, but

19:34

it wasn't worth this. The

19:37

crowd moved like a pregnant wave

19:39

at sea. Ringo could sense something

19:42

horrible was about to happen. All those

19:44

angry people were about to crash on the stage,

19:47

swallowing up Paul, John and George first

19:49

and then last and most definitely least,

19:52

Ringo. They'd destroy us. He

19:55

was up on the drum throne all by himself. No

19:57

protection. He never felt so vulnerable.

19:59

in his life.

20:04

Long before he was Ringo Starr, he

20:06

was Richard Starkey, but he had

20:08

always been vulnerable. His father

20:11

walked out when little Richie was just three

20:13

years old. When he was six, his

20:15

appendix burst and he was rushed into surgery

20:18

to have it removed. Nowadays

20:20

this procedure is fairly straightforward,

20:22

but in 1947 it was extremely risky. The

20:26

doctors told Richie's mother three times

20:28

throughout the night that he wouldn't make it. When

20:31

he did pull through, the kids at school

20:33

gave him his first nickname, Lazarus.

20:36

Richie put that nickname to the test when at the age

20:38

of 13 he was hospitalized for a second

20:41

time. This time was worse. This

20:43

time he'd have to fight harder if he wanted to see

20:45

another day. This time it was

20:48

tuberculosis, TB. Next

20:51

to London, Liverpool had weathered the most casualties

20:53

and architectural destruction of any British city

20:56

during the war. Four thousand

20:58

dead from Hitler's bombs. The place

21:00

was reduced to smoldering rubble. The

21:02

air was choked with Dickensian soot,

21:05

a breeding ground for TB. Especially

21:07

in the Dingle, Liverpool's rough working

21:09

class neighborhood where Ringo lived with his mother.

21:12

In the Dingle is where he returned after two

21:14

years at the Heswall Children's Hospital

21:17

after rehabilitating himself back to good

21:19

health. Well, good enough health.

21:22

He was still more fragile than the other kids. More

21:25

vulnerable. He found that out first hand

21:27

on the mean streets of Dingle. He

21:30

survived meant first. He had to have the luck. Stripe

21:32

jacket and trousers. String tie. Hair

21:35

creased back like a duck's arse. The

21:38

name Teddy Boy may have sounded sweet but

21:40

the Dingle gangs that wore the in-vogue look

21:42

like a badge were tough as hell. Being

21:45

fragile and all, which he looked for protection

21:47

in the gangs. He was roughed up a few

21:49

times. But he never caught a knife. And

21:51

he never knifed anyone else. But he

21:54

saw other boys

21:54

get stuck. He saw blood

21:57

spill out by the docks. One kid got

21:59

the shit out of the house.

21:59

him with a hammer. Another lost

22:02

his eye. Richie couldn't handle

22:04

it. He couldn't imagine this being his life

22:06

day in and day out. Suck in the goddamn

22:09

dinkle breathing the filthy air, watching

22:11

his back at all times for fear of a jump from

22:13

a rival gang. He needed something

22:16

to get him out for good. And he was

22:18

pretty sure he had that something too. He

22:20

had found it during those two long years inside

22:23

the Children's Hospital. During

22:25

the music classes at the hospital provided

22:27

Richie discovered the drums. The

22:30

kid was rudimentary, but he loved the sound

22:32

of me sound he made. From

22:35

that point on, all he wanted

22:37

to do. He never returned to school.

22:39

He just wanted to make a racket. Playing

22:43

the drums and playing the drums better than anyone

22:45

else in town would lead him to another

22:47

gang, a rock band, which

22:49

is what rock bands are at their core

22:52

gangs. For this role, he

22:54

had to wear the right outfit just like he had as a teddy

22:56

boy skulking around Liverpool. But

22:58

he also chose a fashion accent was

23:01

unique to him rings that covered

23:03

his fingers.

23:04

And those rings led directly to his next

23:06

nickname, a nickname that he

23:08

would fully embrace for the rest of his life.

23:11

Even when people used it against him.

23:14

He best

23:15

forever. Ringo. Never.

23:19

Jesus Christ, the people that

23:21

the cavern goes to right. Ringo.

23:24

Feel it. There was nowhere to run down

23:26

here. No, we're not.

23:28

The cavern was a goddamn fire hazard.

23:31

Ringo began to regret his decision to leave or restore

23:33

in the hurricane. And then

23:35

for a reason that was never made clear to him, a

23:38

deceptive voice rang out from the certain

23:40

majority of the ring.

23:43

He was Ringo

23:46

forever. Pete best. We

23:48

go try to find comfort in the sudden positive

23:51

reinforcement. He came white, looking

23:53

filled. The

23:55

time is not entirely current.

23:58

George

24:01

on the other hand, he wasn't so lucky.

24:04

An irate fan headbutted right under his

24:06

eye when he came off the stage. The

24:08

group was hustled up the stairs and out of the club under

24:10

the protection of a burly doorman. And

24:13

though the fans would eventually embrace Ringo

24:15

as the chief and fourth member of the group,

24:17

being accepted didn't need to be safe.

24:20

If there was one thing Ringo knew, it

24:23

was that one could never have too much protection.

24:26

Because what happens tomorrow... Well,

24:29

one never knows. We'll

24:35

be right back after this.

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26:56

Ringo Starr was drunk. He'd

26:59

been knocking back booze by the bottle full

27:01

well before dinner at Pinocchio's, his favorite

27:03

restaurant in the place he now called home.

27:06

Monte Carlo didn't just have great restaurants.

27:09

It offered shelter for a wealthy musician

27:11

looking to avoid paying 83% of his earnings to

27:14

the UK government.

27:16

Ringo's Monte Carlo shelter was

27:18

swank, a condo on the 33rd

27:21

floor overlooking the Mediterranean. But

27:23

most nights, the view went unadmired.

27:27

Ringo was such a regular fixture at the Lowe's

27:29

Casino that it felt more like his home

27:31

than his actual home did. The

27:33

staff were so used to seeing his face

27:35

and taking his money that they let him deal blackjack

27:38

to gamblers who were so filthy rich

27:40

they didn't even know what a fucking beetle was. On

27:43

this night, however, Ringo wasn't playing

27:46

with a full deck, though he was

27:48

full of wine. Wine helped

27:50

him care less that he was spending way too

27:53

much money on gambling and nightclubbing. The

27:55

beetles had only just legally dissolved the

27:58

year prior,

27:58

in 1974.

27:59

which meant that after five

28:02

long years of Alan Kline's even longer

28:04

red tape, Ringo finally got the

28:06

financial windfall he'd been waiting for.

28:08

He prioritized spending

28:10

his money over making records. It

28:13

was like all the things they said about him were true.

28:16

Ringo's star wasn't brilliant like the other

28:18

lads. The New York Times

28:20

put it bluntly in the 1975 article. Ringo was the beat, quote,

28:25

generally judged the least exceptional in

28:27

terms of talent, unquote. It

28:29

was a self-fulfilling prophecy. And

28:32

so was this night at Lowe's. The

28:34

room spun almost as fast as the roulette

28:36

tables. Slop machines rang out, cards

28:39

shuffled. Champagne glasses clinked.

28:42

Ringo began to argue with

28:43

an employee. Why was he arguing? He

28:45

couldn't be sure. He could barely see straight.

28:48

Within minutes he was tossed outside onto

28:50

the lonely sidewalk. It would be

28:52

a while before they invited him back.

28:55

The 1970s

28:57

were rough.

28:58

The decade began auspiciously enough and

29:00

in 1971 Ringo released

29:02

one of the greatest solo Beatles singles of all time,

29:05

It Don't Come Easy.

29:06

It hit number one on the Canadian charts and

29:08

number four on the UK and US charts.

29:11

Even better, it outsold all three

29:13

of his X-band made singles released at the same

29:16

time. Maybe it was Beginners

29:18

Luck. Ringo had a few more hits

29:20

with Back Off Boogaloo and Photograph.

29:23

But each subsequent album he released sold

29:25

less in charted lower. Some

29:27

of his records in the mid to late 1970s

29:30

didn't even make the charts in the UK.

29:32

And then

29:33

there was the divorce. And I'm not talking

29:36

about the split from the fab four. Ringo's

29:39

first marriage to Maureen Cox was

29:41

flaming out hard. Ringo

29:44

and Maureen, or Mo as she was known,

29:47

first began dating way back during the cavern

29:49

court days. And they were young when they

29:51

tied the knot. He was 24 and she was 18. And

29:55

as the whirlwind of fame began the existential

29:57

crisis of the Beatles breakup, compounded

30:00

by Ringo's descent into alcohol, the

30:02

marriage bomb. To deal

30:04

with the ensuing heartache, all we

30:07

have to spare, Ringo pulled to John

30:09

Lennon and flew out to Los Angeles to get

30:11

high with a little help from his friends. That

30:14

night after night of copious drinks with

30:16

Beatle John, The Who's Keith Meade,

30:19

Alice Cooper and Harry Nilsson, the LA

30:21

singer-songwriter beloved by the Beatles who

30:23

had struck up a brotherly friendship with Ringo. When

30:26

the group switched things up and partied in London,

30:29

Ringo's good friend Mark Bolman of T-Rex

30:31

would join them. In LA,

30:33

the lubricated crew

30:34

of so-called Hollywood vampires

30:36

haunted the sunset strip. They

30:38

caroused, they cavorted, they emptied every bottle

30:40

they could find, they could hardly remember any

30:42

of it.

30:43

In fact, Ringo had to be reminded

30:45

of the crazy shit he did, like the

30:48

fact that he and Harry made a seriously

30:50

awful rock and roll vampire flip that no one

30:52

saw called Son of Dracula, or

30:55

that he recorded a single called No-No

30:57

Song where he actually sings about

30:59

not drugging or drinking anymore. A

31:01

great song by the way. Or that he and Keith

31:04

Moon managed to get the turtles, Flo and Eddie

31:06

fired from their DJ gig at LA's

31:08

KROQ after they showed up and Ringo

31:11

slurred the word fuck fifteen times

31:13

in ninety seconds live on air. And

31:16

the dumbest shit was the shit you could easily

31:18

forget. What Ringo could never forget,

31:20

however, was the worst stuff. The

31:22

most depressing stuff. Like

31:24

when Mark Boland died at twenty-nine in

31:26

nineteen seventy-seven. Or when

31:29

Keith Moon died at thirty-two in nineteen

31:31

seventy-eight. Both Mark

31:33

and Keith died with their legacies intact.

31:36

They were both still members of the bands that made them famous,

31:38

and they were both regarded as geniuses. Ringo

31:42

shudder to think, what

31:43

would the world say about him if he stopped breathing

31:45

tomorrow?

31:48

From where he typically sat, high above

31:51

the rest of the Beatles on his drum riser, Ringo

31:53

Star couldn't help but feel exposed.

31:56

Maybe it was the Cavern Club PTSD, but

31:59

tonight it's a Montreal. He

32:01

felt even more exposed than usual. He was

32:03

a sitting duck. He knew there

32:05

were trained sharpshooters in the audience, ready,

32:08

at a moment's notice, to put a deranged fanatic

32:10

in the crosshairs. He knew that

32:12

the guy sitting on the side of the stage next to

32:15

his drum riser was actually a Montreal detective

32:17

and played close.

32:19

But that didn't make him feel any safer.

32:21

Because the authorities weren't on the

32:23

lookout for your run-of-the-mill hysterical Beatles

32:25

man, not the kind who screamed,

32:28

cried, pulled their hair out, even dislocated

32:30

their shoulders shocking for a good view. Which

32:33

is what actually happened a month earlier at

32:35

the North American tour opener in San Francisco.

32:39

No. They were looking for the people who had sworn to murder

32:41

Ringo Starr on this very evening.

32:46

It was September 1964

32:48

and the Beatles were playing two shows in one

32:50

night at the Forum. According to that

32:52

day's edition of Montreal newspaper,

32:55

French-Canadian separatists with an anti-Semitic

32:58

agenda had threatened to shoot Ringo

33:00

at the show because he was Jewish. The

33:02

thing was, Ringo wasn't

33:05

Jewish. The fact that he wasn't

33:07

who the anti-Semitic lunatic thought he was

33:09

didn't offer Ringo a whole lot of comfort. To

33:11

be honest, neither did the plainclothes cop

33:13

sitting next to him. What was he going to do? Catch

33:16

the bullet? After

33:18

his drums had been set up, Ringo rearranged

33:20

all of the cymbals so instead of laying flat as they

33:23

usually did, they were turned up to face

33:25

the audience.

33:26

Could copper alloy stop the speeding

33:28

bullet? Ringo had no clue, but

33:31

it was worth a shot. The first

33:33

show of the night was difficult enough. Ringo

33:36

couldn't take his mind off the death threat or his

33:38

eyes off the strange people in the audience. The

33:41

second show wasn't a hard day's night, it was

33:43

torture. In his cavern debut

33:45

as Pete Best's replacement, any

33:47

drum fill could be his last. But

33:50

Ringo lasted until the end of the show. As

33:52

soon as the final chord of the final song,

33:54

Long Tall Sally rang out, Ringo

33:56

descended from his drum riser deep into the bowels

33:59

of the Montreal Forum.

33:59

where he felt a little safer. He

34:02

wouldn't feel entirely secure until they got the

34:05

hell out of Montreal, which they did immediately.

34:08

The bad Knicks planned to stay the night and

34:10

instead ran for their lives. When

34:13

the Beatles stepped onto a plane later that evening,

34:16

they had only been in Montreal for 10 hours

34:19

and they would never return. Their

34:21

departure was witnessed by 300 Canadian

34:24

Beatles fans and dozens of policemen. Ringo

34:27

looked out the window at the crowd as the plane began

34:29

to taxi down the runway. He wondered

34:32

if his would-be assassin was among the throngs

34:34

staring back at him. He escaped

34:36

death that day, but he never escaped

34:39

the feeling that, whether it was a fanatic with

34:41

a gun or a fan with a crush on a

34:43

different beetle, there would always be someone

34:45

waiting in the wings

34:48

to knock him down.

34:56

The Beatles

35:11

Hundreds of fans were waiting when Ringo

35:13

Starr stepped out of the private room at the Guadalajara

35:16

Airport. Word got around

35:18

that a beetle was about to be handcuffed to Mexico,

35:21

just like Paul had been in Japan. But

35:24

the Federales found nothing, and

35:26

they were wrong about Ringo. He

35:28

and his friend Keith Allison were free to go.

35:32

The fans, however, wouldn't let Ringo

35:34

leave. They all wanted to touch him.

35:37

They asked in Spanish for an autographo. In 1980,

35:40

Ringo had been out of the Beatles for longer than he'd been in

35:43

the Beatles. It was still all anyone

35:45

wanted to talk about. No

35:47

one wanted to talk about Ringo's latest solo record

35:49

or movie. It was always,

35:51

when was the band getting back together? Was

35:54

Ringo really hiding drugs somewhere in his luggage?

35:57

Ringo had Paul McCartney's recent bust

35:59

in Japan.

35:59

to save for that last bit.

36:02

Ringo put on his sunglasses and

36:04

kept his head down and pushed his way through the crowd

36:06

so that he could catch his connecting flight to Durango.

36:09

When he arrived, he sent Paul a three-word telegram.

36:12

Thanks a lot.

36:14

More negative attention followed.

36:17

Ringo's girlfriend turned fiancé of six

36:19

years. Nancy Andrews sued him when he

36:21

left her for his Caveman co-star, Playboy

36:23

model, and former Bond girl Barbara Bach.

36:27

Nancy lost the lawsuit, but the

36:29

case introduced the legal term, Palomone,

36:31

into the lexicon as well as the right in

36:33

California for unmarried partners to

36:35

sue for the division of property following

36:38

a split. In December

36:40

of 1980, John Lennon was shot,

36:43

and aside from mourning the loss of his dear friend,

36:46

Ringo mourned the fact that the Beatles could never

36:48

come together again.

36:50

Even though he had previously distanced himself

36:52

from his past in the biggest band of all time,

36:55

it was crushing to know that he and the other

36:57

Favs couldn't eventually drift back to each

36:59

other when the time was right.

37:03

Then, in May of 1981, Ringo

37:05

crashed his white Mercedes 350 SL on a rainy

37:09

road outside London with Barbara, now

37:11

his wife, in the passenger seat. The

37:13

car went off the road, hit one lamppost,

37:16

and then another rolled over and wound

37:18

up on the other side of the highway. Ringo

37:21

was thrown from the car when it hit either the

37:23

first or second lamppost. Luckily,

37:26

neither he nor Barbara sustained any major

37:28

injuries.

37:29

But his solo career was the next to hit

37:31

the skids. He was dropped from RCA.

37:34

He couldn't convince labels in the UK or

37:37

the US to release his music. He

37:39

was a Beatle, and he couldn't get a label

37:41

to sign him. His ninth solo

37:44

album, 1982's Old Wave, only

37:46

saw a release in Canada and Germany, and

37:49

it was the biggest flop of his career. Ringo

37:52

had gotten what he wanted. He'd been left

37:55

alone, and no one asked him about the Beatles

37:57

anymore. And no one asked about anything,

37:59

really.

38:00

By his own account,

38:01

Ringo could be found at the bottom of a bottle. He

38:04

drank eight days a week.

38:06

Having been left alone meant being left to his

38:08

own devices and, even worse, vices.

38:11

Barbara drank with him and the drinking went to verbal

38:14

and physical fights, many of them in public,

38:16

that often involved her old bottles and slapped

38:19

faces. He hit rock

38:21

bottom in October of 1988. Ringo's

38:24

star woke up after another binge. He

38:27

had no idea how long he'd been under. His

38:29

house was torn apart, bombed out.

38:32

It looked like Liverpool circa 1945. I

38:35

came to

38:36

one Friday afternoon, Ringo later said.

38:39

It was told by the staff that I had trashed

38:41

the house so badly that they thought there had

38:43

been burglars and I trashed Barbara so

38:45

badly. They thought

38:46

she was dead. This

38:50

wasn't Ringo's star. Deep

38:52

down, he knew it.

38:54

He wasn't abusive. He did care

38:56

about his wife, his life, his place, and

38:58

the legacy of the Beatles. Ringo

39:01

and Barbara made the decision to get clean. Together,

39:04

they flew out to the Arizona desert, specifically

39:07

the Sierra Tucson Rehab Center, and

39:09

dried up for good. Wine,

39:12

tequila, Kanye, no, no, no, no.

39:16

He didn't drink it no more. For real this

39:18

time. Ringo and Barbara's

39:20

relationship became stronger than ever. They

39:22

moved forward. They didn't look back. That's

39:26

to say, they didn't look back on the bad things.

39:28

A sober Ringo discovers that there were some things

39:31

worth looking back on. First,

39:33

he formed a revolving supergroup of musicians

39:35

and dubbed them his All Star Band. The

39:38

group's first iteration, in 1989, included

39:41

rock and roll royalty like Joe Walsh, Nas

39:44

Lofgren, Dr. John, Billy Preston, and Rick

39:46

Danko and Yvonne Helm from the band. The

39:48

All Star Band mined the past for musical

39:51

treasure, performing many of its members' older

39:53

hits for new audiences.

39:55

Ringo then embraced the legacy of his

39:57

old band, The Beatles, beginning with

39:59

the Mount

39:59

of Anthology miniseries and book undertaking

40:02

in the 1990s, and continuing

40:04

with the seemingly perennial stream of reissues

40:07

and reappraisals of the band's back catalogue

40:09

that continues today.

40:11

In turn, the fans embraced

40:13

Ringo and offered their own reappraisal of

40:15

his part in music history.

40:17

Ringo's stock skyrocketed. The

40:19

appreciation for his unorthodox playing

40:22

hit an all-time high. Fans

40:24

were suddenly rushing to his defense rather

40:27

than making him the butt of the joke. They

40:29

protected him. They praised Ringo's

40:31

heavy drone beat in Tomorrow Never Knows, his

40:34

rhythmic accents in Koop Together, the

40:36

way he played his part in Ticket to Ride, dragging

40:39

the beat by thundering on the tom.

40:41

No one played like Ringo.

40:44

Fellow drummer and admitted Beatle maniac

40:47

Dave Grohl put it best,

40:48

Ringo is the king of feel.

40:51

But Ringo Starr spent much

40:53

of his life after the Beatles not feeling

40:56

like the king of anything.

40:58

And that is a disgrace.

41:02

I'm Jake Frennan and this

41:05

is...

41:14

Disgrace

41:20

Land was created by yours truly

41:22

and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.

41:25

Credits for this episode can be found on the show

41:27

notes page at DisgraceLandPod.com.

41:30

Subscribe, follow, like, rate and review the

41:32

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42:01

He's a bad, bad

42:03

man!