Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are often viewed as two of the more affable Beatles. Starr became known as the funny Beatle, and McCartney made a point to build relationships with fans. Out of the public eye, though, some had different experiences with the two Beatles. A friend of the band said he knew many people who complained about Starr and McCartney.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reportedly were difficult to work for
Writer Hunter Davies spent a great deal of time with The Beatles in the 1960s and wrote the only authorized biography of the band. He got to know each of the members well and saw how they interacted with those around them.
“There were so many facets to each of them,” Davies wrote in The Beatles: The Authorized Biography. “Paul and Ringo, as far as the general public were concerned, were the ‘nicest,’ yet I often met people who worked with them closely who moaned about them.”
Davies explained that McCartney and Starr could grow nasty over money.
“Unlike John and George, they could turn nasty in private, suddenly deciding they were being taken advantage of, by some assistant or tradesman, especially over money matters,” he explained. “When it came to money, John and George hardly seemed to care.”
George Harrison reportedly had a temper as well
Lennon’s vicious streak behind closed doors was something even he admitted to. Harrison also reportedly had a fiery temper. May Pang, John Lennon’s girlfriend, witnessed an explosive argument between the two men in the early 1970s.
“Then George’s anger really burst forth,” Pang wrote in the book Loving John. “‘Where were you when I needed you!’ he snapped. It was the first of a series of explosions, each of them followed by moments of tense silence.”
Pang claimed Harrison was upset that Lennon hadn’t been more supportive of him.
“Suddenly, he reached over, yanked John’s glasses from his face, and dashed them to the floor,” Pang wrote. “His face was a mask of fury and contempt; I had never seen an angrier man. George’s anger even paralyzed John.”
Are Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr friends?
Years after The Beatles broke up, McCartney and Starr are still friends. They are the only living members of the band and see each other as family. Starr said he loves being able to perform with his former bandmate.
“I love that, getting up with him,” Starr told the Irish News. “We did it at the O2 in England [in 2018]. And then he called me and he said, ‘I’m doing Dodger Stadium, if you want to do a few numbers.’ Sure. So he picked three numbers, and I got up and went down there. And it’s magic for the audience as well as us. I love playing with him. The audience is like, ‘Oh, there’s two of them! Wow.’ It lifts everything, in a joyous way.”
