their 1976 Wings Over America tour and later that
same year when Lennon and Harrison were in town,
Ringo guessed that “only 2 percent of our time was
spent on nostalgia,” he told People. “We don’t back
off from it, but it’s not like those were the only days of
our lives.”
The bomb that was The Magic Christian didn’t keep
him from dabbling in the movies. Starr made several
more, including 1981’s prehistoric romp Caveman,
where he got to know his future wife Barbara Bach.
“They told me it was going to be a small Englishman
playing the part... then Ringo Starr arrived,” Bach
told People. The two married that year in Marylebone,
London, town hall with George and Olivia Harrison
and Paul and Linda McCartney, who were married by
the same registrar in 1969, in attendance.
In the post-Beatles years he would play on solo al-
bums by all three and they on his, including 2017’s Give
More Love, which features McCartney on a couple of
tracks. A near-constant touring presence with his All-
Starr Band, he was the last of the four Beatles to receive
a solo place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in 2015, at
age 74. “Millions of us wanted to be Ringo Starr,” said
E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg at the induc-
tion ceremony in Cleveland. “Ringo was the coolest
one,” added Questlove. Asked why, given that he had no
financial need to keep going, he kept at it, Starr said, “I
need to play.... I still love to play.”THE BEATLES 1969 PEOPLE 49
STARR POWER
Starr performed “I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends” at his 2015 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
ceremony. The drummer demurred, telling Ellen DeGeneres, “We’re doing it so Paul can have a day out.”