Only one instrument caught the eye of The Beatles‘ Ringo Starr, with the drummer saying he never had any interest in other musical groups.
The drummer and songwriter would make clear he had a first love in music and nothing else. Starr would explain drums were “the only thing” he wanted during an episode of The Beatles: Anthology. While Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and John Lennon all tooled around with instruments, it was a clear choice for an unwavering Starr. The drummer who replaced Pete Best in The Beatles would confirm he had no interest in brass, guitar, or anything outside of percussion when first getting his start. Though he “knew” where other instruments were in the shop, he was too busy becoming the solid hand behind The Beatles’ best songs to fawn over the guitars.
He said: “Drums were the only thing that I wanted. I came out and I used to look in shops and see them there, I knew where the guitars were and that.” It would take his bandmates a little more time to figure out their instrumental choice, with McCartney having to trade in a trumpet bought by his father to land his first guitar.
Harrison would also face a similar trouble, borrowing “a lot of money” from his mother at the time to buy his first musical instrument. It wouldn’t be an easy start to McCartney’s career either, with the Let It Be hitmaker wanting to give up shortly after his first-ever show.
He recalled: “When I got up on stage at the very first gig, I totally blew it. I had never experienced these things called nerves before… this was still with the Zenith, yeah. Might have got a pickup on it by then… yes, I did, I got a little pickup and a little wire, bought the pickup separately, tried to gash it on there.
“But I was playing Guitar Boogie and I knew it fine off-stage, like I say, but on stage, my fingers all went very stiff and then found themselves underneath the strings instead of on top of them.
“So I vowed that night that it was the end of my career as the lead guitar player. I just thought I’ll lean back. So me and John kind of both did that around that same time, both became rhythm guitarists.”
McCartney would go on to play predominantly bass for the band, but his mastery of other instruments, as heard on his at-home McCartney trilogy, is a step up from his first gig woes.
The performance came to be when McCartney saw Lennon perform with his band The Quarrymen at Woolton’s Parish Church in 1957. McCartney was impressed by Lennon “singing well” in the show.
