Name: Ringo Starr Says There Will Be Another Beatles | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-11-03T22:00:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ringo Starr Says There Will Be Another Beatles | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-11-03. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ringo Starr Says There Will Be Another Beatles | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-11-03. Transcript available.

Anton, haven't seen you since we were kids.
Yeah, great to see you. What have you been up to, Ringo?
Oh, not too much. In a few bands, you know, I was with the Beatles.
Yeah, they were pretty popular, right?
Yeah, they were. Married Barbara Bach.
Oh, that's great.
What have you been up to?
Um, well, I've been in prison.
Ah, well, I'll see you next time you didn't give us a call.
Alright, thanks.
Anton, why didn't you tell him you were the drummer on the show?
Well, I was a bit ashamed.
Damn, excuse me.
Our first guest was a member of the Beatles from 1962 until they disbanded in
1970.
And this morning he announced that he is forming a brand new band for a
national tour beginning in Dallas next month.
Ladies and gentlemen, here's Ringo Starr.
Yes, sir.
Yes, there he is.
Well, that's the pity it didn't work.
How you doing?
I'm doing fine and my cholesterol is great.
Well, good for you.
Congratulations.
It's great to have you here.
Great to meet you.
And this is, I think, one of the rare times when if I call you a living legend,
it actually applies and means something.
It's true.
Yeah.
Let's talk a little bit about the band and so forth that you announced this
morning.
Why did you decide to do this?
How long ago did you start thinking about it?
I've been thinking about it for like 10 years.
I'm a real slow guy.
And David Fischoff, Pepsi went to David Fischoff because Pepsi are promoting
this and David Fischoff is the promoter, producer actually.
And he came over to London and he said, do you want to go on tour?
I said, let me think.
And then I said, yes.
Yeah.
And then I decided how would I like to go, you know, and I didn't want to go
with me just in the front and, you know, with the band behind me up all the
time.
I wanted to have fun.
So I just called a few friends up and they were all enthusiastic.
And here we are.
Joe Walsh, Nils Loughburn, Dr. John, Billy Preston, Reevon Held, Rick Danko, Clarence
Clemons.
And usually when somebody does something like this, it follows a recording, an
album or something.
Is there going to be an album?
Is there an album now that's being finished or?
No, there's no album right now.
Right now.
Yeah.
But the album would be, if we record it live, that will be the album.
And how many cities is this going to be?
30 cities, 43 days.
Oh, man.
So this is, it's not a real neck breaker, but it's tough though, isn't it?
When was the last time you did anything like that?
1966.
Yeah.
Before they were born.
And what were the conditions like then in 1966?
I mean, if that's truly your last memory of touring with the band.
Well, no, that's when we toured.
I've played live since then, but that was the actual time.
Touring, you know.
Yeah.
I've done one-nighters, that's all.
What was the best part of all of that?
What's the thing that occasionally you get up in the morning and you think to
yourself,
"Jesus, that was great fun," or, "Man, I kind of miss that."
Or do you have any thoughts like that?
I think the best thoughts were actually playing and the reaction of the crowd.
I mean, they didn't really, no one came to hear really.
They just came to get excited and that was good.
Yeah.
And was that a problem from, you know, keeping together as a group?
There was a problem playing in the end because we couldn't hear each other.
Because now they have monitors, you know, on the stage where we just had those
little amps.
Yeah.
And I had a little kit so they could see me.
Yeah.
And I could only nod my head because my hands were busy.
So now they have, you know, those huge speakers out there so we can hear each
other.
What happened to us, we were just like playing it strictly straight all the
time so we could all stay together.
Yeah.
And so, and we were turned into bad musicians, really.
You know, because, you know, if I was playing, it would be bang, bang.
But if I went to go on the toms, it would go, bang, bang, bang, bang.
Hey, give us a break.
I don't know anything about that.
What does that mean?
Well, these are tom-toms, you see.
I know that.
Do what I did.
Back.
Now do your fills like I would.
You wouldn't hear it.
Oh, I did.
It would be lost.
You know, it's like in the other three.
What happened?
So in the end I could just hit the snare drum and that was all.
At the end of a show or sometimes you would do two shows, one in the afternoon,
one in the evening, would you guys get together and you'd say, geez, that went
pretty good or it didn't go as light?
No.
No, no.
We wrote the show on the way to the first gig and that was it.
Win or lose.
Yeah.
So there really was not much you could do to adjust it from one.
No.
You must have been at one of them.
I was in Indianapolis.
Everybody was in Indianapolis.
And there was a story after the shows there, and you probably heard this in
every city you attended, that you stayed up all night and drove around town
with a police officer.
Yeah.
Was that true or was that just?
That's one of the true stories.
Yeah.
And why Indianapolis?
Why a policeman?
Why?
There was a friendly policeman who thought, oh, let me drive the police car.
And I said, yeah.
And we were driving around and the funniest bit that no one else knows is that
we were chased by another cop car.
Is that right?
And we had to drive up an alley and turn the lights out and hide.
And I'm hiding with this cop in an alley.
So we didn't get caught.
See, that would have been bad if you'd gotten gunned down in an Indianapolis
alley and some kind of police shootout.
You don't think of that.
Or the other thing, you could have made citizen's arrests all night.
I could have arrested the cop who let me drive his car.
Thanks, guys.
Bear with me here for a second.
This is one of those questions that will be impossible for you to answer.
But it seems to me...
Why would you ask it?
Well, because I think it's important that the record shows this.
What?
I don't know what that means either.
It just seems to me that musicians and bands will come and they will go.
Some will be really successful, some not as successful.
Some will have small impact, no impact, whatever.
But the phenomenon of you guys will never happen again.
Is that fair to you?
I don't believe that.
Why not?
Well, they said that before we happened.
It will never be as big as Frank Sinatra.
It will never be like Elvis.
It will never be like us.
I mean, I really think someone will come up soon.
Someone will come up that will capture...
And I want to see it.
Yeah.
But the...
Oh, don't be silly.
No way.
I mean, strictly speaking in a musical sense, maybe.
But in a way that will affect an entire generation in several different aspects
of their lives.
No.
Perhaps not.
No way.
No way.
What did I say?
No way.
So I told you this couldn't be possible to answer.
Well, that's real interesting, David.
Anything else?
No, that must have dawned.
But that must have dawned on you, don't you think?
No, it hasn't dawned on me.
I have great hope that someone will come through and I want to see it.
Yeah.
What was...
What did you think...
What were your impressions of Ed Sullivan?
Did you know anything about him before you came over?
No, it was a complete fluke we did Ed Sullivan.
Complete fluke?
Yeah, we were coming in from Sweden and he was coming in from America.
And he'd never heard of us and we'd never heard of him.
And there was 12,000 fans on Heathrow Airport.
And he came in and he says, "Buck me those boys."
So he was just there and saw the crowd.
He just saw the crowd and he said, "Something's happening."
And it just happened that when we arrived, we had a number one.
So it just went off from there.
I mean, you know, we were a bit worried coming in at the beginning
because, you know, we'd had two records that failed.
And then we had a number one and then we did the show
and it just went on from there.
Wah, wah, wah.
You ended up, the initial, it was like three shows you did for him?
Two. One here and one in Miami.
And people used to love to lend us their boats in Miami.
That was great.
Really?
Yeah. Oh, sure, I'll drive like the cop. Yeah!
And when you did, after you did the first show
or after you met Ed Sullivan the first time,
did you make fun of him? Did you go to your dressing rooms and talk about him?
No, we didn't make fun of Ed. We were too busy having fun.
But his introduction was, you know, we're in America
and we're expecting here they are, the greatest, it's the best band in England
and they're coming on now.
And Ed said, here they are, the Beatles.
Yeah.
Thanks a lot, man.
The Beatles, as I recall.
Well, you'll recall better than I.
This is a weird...
Very strange.
Well, it's this cholesterol testing that's got everybody...
I think you're very brave.
Once you tell them you'll be getting letters, get it down.
Tell me about the television show.
This is Shining Time Station.
Well, I'm sure you've all seen it.
Well, four of you have seen it.
It's a children's show.
It's on PBS and it's, I'm Mr. Conductor, Mr. Magic.
It all happens in a train station and we sort of talk with the children, not at
them.
And it's, you know, do this, why?
Because I'm the dad.
You know.
We say, you know, you wouldn't mind.
And it started in England five years ago.
I just narrated the stories and called Thomas the Tank Engine there.
And it became real popular.
Yeah.
And then we brought it here and made it bigger because it's America.
Sure.
And you've been nominated for an Emmy, I understand.
And I've been nominated for an Emmy.
Well, that would be nice.
That would be good.
Thank you.
It's just my year.
Yeah, well, good.
I hope you get that.
I do, too.
There's no way.
You don't want to go over there and play the drums for like a...
I don't think he does.
Ringo.
I'm sorry.
Thanks, Dave.
Thanks, Dave.
Thanks, Dave.
I'll play him, but it's not really fun.
All right.
All right.
Oh, no.
Okay.
Okay, wait, is he high up?
Oh.
Heh heh.
*music*