Ringo Starr turns 85 today

We all know that the 60s rock stars are not young, but Ringo Starr seems to have reached the 85-year mark first. He is even older than Bob Dylan, who taught The Beatles both good and bad a hundred years ago (but that's another topic). We also remembered Dylan because, although he occasionally gives concerts now, he hides behind the piano in the far corner of the stage - and Ringo, who performed just the other day, is, as always, in plain sight. And when Ringo goes on stage, he looks much younger, about which he again said the other day that he feels 24 years old.

Of The Beatles, he was not only the oldest, but also the most "humorous" and charming, which is evident from the films with their participation.

And, by the way, in the movies, Ringo took revenge for everything else. After all, one of the favorite topics of "old-time" fans of rock music is how good a drummer Ringo Starr was in The Beatles? Here they usually begin to compare him with John Bonham, who tops the ratings of "the best drummers of all time and nations", about whom the Led Zeppelin musicians themselves said that he was their main one.

Then they begin to recall the famous story when, during a recording in the studio, Paul McCartney called Starr a "primitive drummer", and Ringo, offended, left, and Paul sat down at the drum kit. (By the way, there are several songs recorded by The Beatles, for example, Dear Prudence, where McCartney plays the drums).

But this is all shooting at false targets. The Beatles were strong, among other things, because they were friends. Of course - until a certain point, when the group could no longer be saved. And, as has already been said, in this four friends, Starr was the simplest and most cheerful guy. It is not for nothing that Lennon and McCartney gave Ringo to perform the song Yellow Submarine, where the yellow submarine is a symbol of friendship. As, by the way, they gave the similar song With a Little Help From My Friends, where Starr plays the role of Billy Shears, the leader of the lonely hearts orchestra Sergeant Pepper.

He married for the first time, as befits a guy from a simple working family, to a girl from his circle named Maureen, who gave birth to three children in five years. But time changes people - and Ringo left her for the actress Barbara Bach, never fulfilling his promise to give Maureen a chain of hairdressers. This does not mean that Maureen was an unhappy "monogamous woman" - in her youth, George Harrison's wife caught her husband in bed with her, and later Maureen married the founder of the Hard Rock Cafe chain.

Things didn't go well for Ringo with Barbara Bach at first - to the point that they both began to drink heavily, which Starr, whose fortune is estimated at $300 million, could afford even without releasing new successful albums. (And the big labels refused him this at the time.) Now, however, everything is fine - and Ringo, now 85, looks as usual, that is, cheerful and happy with life.

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