Ringo Starr ‘wanted a Beatles reunion’ and recalls ‘closest’ the four got to getting back together

Though The Beatles would never reunite following their break-up in 1970, the group did get close to being back on tour.

Drummer Ringo Starr has since shared the moment the group were the “closest” to getting back together, and why it never came to be. An interview given when both John Lennon and George Harrison were still alive had Starr hopeful that The Beatles would get back together, but it seemed unlikely in 1977. Though Starr would work with all three of his former bandmates on various projects, including his self-titled solo album, the four would never get together as The Beatles again. Starr noted the many moving parts which would have to fall into place for the group to have gotten back together, but said an impromptu performance, similar to their rooftop appearance at Apple Studios, would have been easier to pull off.

He said: “There’s too much involved to get together to make it possible. I would love for the four of us to play… don’t know if it’ll work. I don’t see why it shouldn’t because… I mean, I’m just going from the Ringo album. It was John [Lennon], George and I. It was the closest we ever got to a reunion. And it was fine.

“I mean, I would dig that. But until the four of us… I’ve talked to John about it and we’ve gone through it, and if there was a set-up on the lawn outside here and we just happened to be around, we could play, you know. Then I’d love it. I’d love it, it doesn’t matter where it was. But I mean, that would be easy. But to set up this thing takes a lot of craziness.”

The Beatles nearly did reunite on one occasion after a lucrative $50million offer. The band turned it down, however, after being informed their opening act would be a shark. Australian aquatic adventurer Wally Gibbins had been pitched as the opening act alongside the great white shark, which he was set to fight to the death. The Beatles were not keen on the idea.

Nor were they convinced by the lucrative offer presented to them by Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live. The show creator made a rare on-screen appearance after hearing Paul McCartney and Lennon were just a few blocks away from 30 Rockefeller Centre.

Michaels appeared on air with a cheque for $3,000 and said it could be given to The Beatles should they show up and play whatever they liked. McCartney and Lennon were reportedly tempted by the offer, but ultimately turned it down.

McCartney has since claimed the offer was bogus, and that he and Lennon had never actually considered the offer. He claimed: “As with all of these stories, it’s kind of true, but it’s not. I did visit John and Lorne didn’t actually come on the TV, Lorne was on the TV the week before, and John told me about it.

“He explained the thing to me, and John said: ‘We should go down there now, it’s live!’ and for five minutes we were like ‘Yeah, lets’ go down there, it’d be great, what a hoot!’ and then we went ‘No, let’s not’ and then we didn’t. So yeah, it’s kind of true, but facts have been mangled to protect the innocent.”