Celebrity

Ringo Starr is the oldest Beatle and Paul McCartney said he seemed like the old one. He shared why he felt Starr was so much older than him.

Published on May 7, 2023

By the time Ringo Starr joined The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison had already been working together for several years. The other three met as students and had formed the band together. When Starr joined the group, he became its oldest member. While he and Lennon were only several months apart, Starr seemed much older to McCartney. He explained why the drummer felt so much more mature to him.

Paul McCartney said Ringo Starr has always seemed much older than him

Before McCartney met Lennon, he found him intimidating at least in part due to their two year age gap. He felt this even more acutely with Starr. 

McCartney had, in some ways, grown up with Lennon. He met him as a young teenager and they muddled their way through music together. They played in the Quarry Men and formed The Beatles. Lennon might have been older, but McCartney had matured with him. When he met Starr, the drummer already felt strikingly grown up.

“I still think of Ringo as a very old person because he is two years older,” McCartney said, per The Beatles Anthology. “He was the grown-up in the group: when he came to us he had a beard, he had a car and he had a suit. What more proof do you need of grown-upmanship?).”

Paul McCartney’s view of Ringo Starr showed the drummer’s maturity

McCartney saw Starr as significantly older because of his age, but also because of his maturity level. He was a calm, anchoring force among the other members of the band. While he still found himself caught up in band arguments, he was often seen as a peacemaker; for this reason, they occasionally looked to Starr to diffuse interpersonal conflict.

Starr also has consistently hit major life events ahead of the other Beatles. While Lennon was the first to get married and have a child, Starr had three children by the time the band broke up. He became the first Beatle to become a grandfather and great-grandfather. Starr appeared to be more prepared to settle down than the rest of the band. 

He had the opposite problem with George Harrison

McCartney saw Starr as significantly older than him, and he considered Harrison to be much younger. He was the youngest Beatle, but he was only a year behind McCartney. Still, McCartney couldn’t help but view him as a younger brother.

“George was a bus stop away,” he said. “I would get on the bus for school and he would get on the stop after. So, being close to each other in age, we talked — although I tended to talk down to him, because he was a year younger. (I know now that that was a failing I had all the way through the Beatle years). If you’ve known a guy when he’s thirteen and you’re fourteen, it’s hard to think of him as grown-up. I still think of George as a young kid.”

McCartney’s treatment of Harrison caused conflict between them in the band, but he struggled to shift his perception because of how young they both were when they met.

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