Original subtitles

[FOOTSTEPS]

[METAL SCRAPING]

RINGO STARR: I was born left-handed.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

But my grandmother thought that was not a good sign,

so she turned me right-handed.

So I write right-handed, but anything else I do

is left-handed.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

So I have a right-handed kit, but I lead with my left.

I need time to do a fill because it takes me

longer to get where I'm going.

This is what I do.

I work with what I've got, and that is what makes me me.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

My name is Ringo, and this is my MasterClass.

Welcome, everybody.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "IT DON'T COME EASY"]

The dream of being a drummer came when I was 13.

I was in hospital.

I had TB, tuberculosis.

While I was there, to keep us busy,

a music lady would come in with percussion things, maracas,

triangles.

She gave me a little teeny drum the first time she came in.

And something came over me that I

knew this is what I want to do.

It was like magic.

And I wouldn't be in the band if she

didn't give me a little drum.

[LAUGHS]

From that day, I wanted to be a drummer and that was my aim.

Of course, it didn't happen right away, went back home,

and I had to go to work in a factory.

And you know, I couldn't--

I didn't have a kit, couldn't afford one.

I made my first kit out of biscuit tins,

and the snare drum had little nails on it.

So it gave you like, sst, sst, sst.

My stepdad, Harry, he went down for the funeral of his uncle.

His uncle played drums, and there was

a kit of drums in the corner.

And he asked the guy's wife, do you want to sell them?

And he came home with a set of drums.

I mean, OK.

But you know, when you're 17, what do you know?

They were old drums.

I wanted new.

[LAUGHS] And so I saw in Liverpool, in the shop,

there was an Ajax kit.

And I walked in and thought, wow, this is great.

And it took two sticks, and I-- you know,

I couldn't really do it great, but I could

[DRUMS PLAYING]

Wow.

I asked my granddad to lend me the money.

And I paid him back from the factory I worked in a pound

a week.

So I paid my debt back.

That was great.

And that's how it started.

You know, I'm not going to tell you

that playing drums is easy because there

is a lot to learn.

Everything has to do its job.

But when it comes together, it's just great.

That's part of me now, you know.

It was part of me then, and even before then that--

there's a tempo.

You know, it's like there's a tempo to life.

There's a tempo to every song.

And if you get a load of musicians who are playing

the same tempo it really helps.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "IT DON'T COME EASY"]

(SINGING) --want your trust, then

you know it don't come easy.

In this class, I'm going to tell you about my journey,

about how I became me.

We're going to talk about playing with other musicians,

about writing songs.

I'm going to get behind the kit and show you my drums.

Oh, deep.

And I'm going to invite some of my friends to join me

for an All-Starr jam session.

I can't say I will teach you how to play exactly like me.

Well, I hope I can help you figure out

how to play like you.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

RINGO STARR: Yeah.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

My stepdad was the best man in the world.

He was loved by every kid in our neighborhood, every dog.

He was such a peaceful, great guy.

I loved him.

He was my dad.

My dad left when I was three.

He'd have his little record player,

and he'd have, you know, Glen Miller and everybody else.

And anyway, I'd have my stuff playing.

And it's just like one of those great memories.

He never said, get that shit off,

like fathers have been known to do.

He never put what I was playing down.

He always said, have you heard this?

He loved big bands, and he introduced me to Cozy Cole.

And he had this track on a 78.

I just loved the depth of the--

it was a lot of tom tom, and I loved that.

And as you can tell, today I love to hit the toms.

He introduced me to all of that.

But I feel today, because of the way I play,

that I can't play straight rock.

I hit it like straight rock, but it's sort of dit da-dit.

It always had like a 2% shuffle.

And I think that's because of him, because of all his tracks.

Even Little Richard in the early days was swing.

(SINGING) Gonna tell Aunt Mary about Uncle John, da-da, da-da,

da-da--

always swing.

As I got a little older, I started listening to the blues.

And I'm listening to country music.

I'm listening to rock, just listening to everything,

really.

Inspiration, it comes from where it comes from.

You know, Bo Diddley's got his own pattern--

bom, pa-dum bom, pa-dum bom.

It was his name and that drum pattern,

because he was the only one who really did it great.

So play Bo Diddley.

Play like Bo Diddley.

Bom, pa-dum, and it was the Bo Diddley beat I loved.

Yeah.

And, of course, it was on tom tom.

[CHUCKLES] It's on the floor tom.

Boom, I love the floor tom.

You know, music was starting to come in my life in a real way.

For some reason, Lightnin' Hopkins, he just got to me.

He was the first joy of my blues life.

My friend in Liverpool and I, we went down

to the American Consulate, because we were going

to emigrate to Houston, Texas.

Yeah, because that's where he lived.

And they gave us a list of factories

we could apply to for jobs, and we filled these forms in.

And we're 18.

And we take these forms back, and they give us more forms.

You know, at 18, [SOUND EFFECT] we ripped them up,

and we didn't get to Houston.

But that's like in life, you know, so many chances

of turning it right.

It's like that movie "Sliding Doors."

[MIMICS CLOSING DOOR] You make a decision.

It's that fast.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

When I got the opportunity to play

in the basement of the factory, that

was the first gigs I did with Eddie Clayton, whose real

name was Eddie Miles, [CHUCKLES] who lived next door,

and my friend Roy.

And we were in the same factory together.

Eddie was one of those players that can just play.

Give him a trumpet, he's got you in five minutes.

You know, a bit like Paul, he can play anything if he wants.

And my friend Roy made to teach us bass,

to teach us, a brush pole, and a piece of string, boom, boom,

boom, boom, boom.

We were playing Skiffle.

I don't know if you know what skiffle is,

but it's sort of house music from New Orleans,

or rent music, they could call it.

That was the big music of that time.

People would go down with their instrument, give them $1,

come in and party on down.

I loved it.

I loved it.

And, you know, we played weddings,

and we'd play for free for some people, play for free.

You might as well have played for free every goddamn gig.

You got nothing.

Here's $1.50 each, boys.

[CHUCKLES] I'm trying to translate it to America.

1.50, ooh, yeah.

One of the incredible things that came about--

I went to see the George Lewis Band,

and he was playing traditional-- when the saints,

doo-doo-loo-la-lu.

And the drummer was incredible because he

didn't know he was teaching me this great lesson.

He had the bass drum.

He had a snare drum.

He had a hi hat, a cymbal.

(SINGING) And when the saints [MIMICS DRUMS] go marching in.

When he got to the chorus, (SINGING) And when

the saints go marching in.

Oh, when the saints go-- and then he'd go,

pa-dum bom, bom, bom, pa-du-da bom on the bass drum.

Whoa, my heart floated out of me.

It was so great to see this guy.

And from then, I always had the idea

that you don't need a lot of drums.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

You know, less can really be more.

That's why we still use a kit that looks like this,

and it's enough.

I've always been the band guy.

You know, I just never wanted it to be like, okay, it's me.

I want to play with you.

That's-- drummers need to play with people,

because it's really boring playing on your own.

My main point when I play is I play with the singer.

You've got to listen to the song.

They don't need me, Yesterday ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba,

you know, they don't need any madness when they're singing.

Not any song.

You have to listen.

And it's something-- you know, it's not like I rehearse that.

It's like, just came to me.

That's what I do.

I play with the singer.

Anything else can be going on, of course.

You attack it with it sometime and you can go off with,

if we're coming up to the chorus.

But I just don't boogie all over the singer.

I listen to them, and I give them room.

This is how I am and how I've been,

that I only wanted to play.

To this day, I love to play.

I love to sit behind those buggers.

I'm at home and backtracking to one of those memories I have,

playing gigs and mom and Harry would come and visit.

They'd come and watch.

And she always said, you know, I always

feel you're at your happiest, son, when you're playing.

And I think that's a true thing.

I just feel good about playing.

I love making music with other people.

It fills a lot of my soul.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR - "COOCHY COOCHY"] I've traveled all

over,

I had been in a couple of other skiffle groups

and none of them really worked.

It was just what you did.

Playing was all it was about.

And playing with other people, I still

believe today, that's what it's about.

I did this audition for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

And they put me in the band.

Rory had a car, but the band, we were on the bus.

I didn't have a car in the early days.

And so I could only carry a snare.

And so there'd always be a drummer there

with the whole kit, and so you'd have to go around begging.

Hey man, can I play your kit?

You know, and sometimes they would and sometimes they

wouldn't.

So you just got on with it.

You know, we were doing gigs around,

but the next year, 1960 we got this big job

to play three months at a holiday camp in England.

Butlin's holiday camp.

And so I left the factory and I became a musician.

After we prayed Butlin's for three months

and then we had nothing, but we got a few local gigs and then

this guy, Koschmider from Hamburg,

Germany was coming over to Liverpool to look for bands.

And the first band to go over was Howie Casey.

Sax player with his band.

And the second band was the Beatles.

And the third band was Rory and the Hurricanes.

They showed us this dressing room in the Kaiserkeller, where

we played.

They said, oh, you live here.

What?

Live here?

We've got suits.

We're not going to live here on these dirt-riddled settees.

So we all went down to the German Sea Mission

and we shared a room.

While we were there, Koschmider decided

to put both bands on the Kaiserkeller, which

was so great.

You were on like, 30, 40 minutes then you kept changing.

The weekends we did 12 hours between two bands.

You'd finish, the Beatles were still on.

I would always watch them and shout requests.

So Hamburg was very important to all of us players.

Then it got crazy when a lot of bands came in.

The memories of those days where we really were playing

was great.

I always believe that's what really

helped me become a musician.

A lot of playing.

I got into the Beatles just by a phone call in 1962.

We're playing Butlin's holiday camp again for our third year,

and I got a call from Brian Epstein.

Hello Ringo, he spoke like that.

Well, Ringo, the boys would like you to join the Beatles.

What do you say?

I said, no, I'd love to.

When?

And he said, oh, tonight.

I said I can't.

This was Wednesday.

I can't come tonight.

I'm in a band, here.

I'll come Saturday.

So I came in two days.

And they got a drummer because there

was lots of them in Liverpool.

But before, that I'm backtracking a bit now,

I got a knock at the door in Liverpool when I was with Rory,

and Brian said, hey Ringo, do you

think you could come down to the Cavern,

and play a lunchtime session with the Beatles?

They had the 1 o'clock spot.

And I got out of bed.

He drove me there.

I got up with them and we played.

And it was really good.

And it happened again.

I'm in bed, he knocks on the door.

Could you come down to the Cavern,

they've got a lunchtime session.

And then we did a night gig, one of the spaces we'd play,

Litherland Town Hall or whatever.

So I played a couple of gigs that time.

So I think when they all had the discussion, that's

when it came down to I'm in the Beatles.

It was the best move I ever made.

And what was great in Liverpool, people were saying,

you're not leaving Rory, are you?

And I'm saying, yeah I love that band.

[DRUM BEAT PLAYING]

My first month in the Beatles we got

to do the gig at the Cavern, and only my cymbals were there.

But that didn't stop us.

We went on, I went on, just hit symbols.

And then as we were playing, Neil, Neil Aspinall,

who used to look after us, he got the drums

and he was bringing them on as we were playing.

It was a lot looser than it is now.

We had Mal and we had Neil looking after us.

Mal, because he could lift the amps

and he was a gentle giant, because it started

to get busy with the fans.

He'd just-- no pushing, just move them out the way.

We came in from Sweden to Heathrow

and there were thousands of kids.

We didn't know this at the time, but Ed Sullivan was there too.

He'd just flown in from New York.

He saw all this madness and he booked us

on The Ed Sullivan Show from the landing at Heathrow.

He said, oh, look at this.

So we have to thank Ed because he was the instigator that

got us to America.

Before that, George had been to America.

He had a sister here.

And he'd go into record stores and said,

have you got the Beatles?

And no one had ever heard of us and he came back to England

and said, it's going to be hard.

They don't know us.

But anyway by the time we got to America Thanks to Murray the K,

and many DJs of the time, we had the number one.

So we landed was the number one.

It couldn't have been better.

And that's how the Beatles were.

The light was shining on them.

Best band I ever was in.

It was like being psychic.

You knew it was going to go off a bit,

so you knew you had to bring it down, and everybody felt it.

I was left playing with the best bass player in the world.

Most melodic, beautiful player, and sometimes you

don't want to step on that.

But if it was a pulsing thing, we'd

get it together and support each other in that.

I can only remember like two or three

times when one of the songs, whatever the song was we

were doing, we actually got together.

Because.

he's be playing whatever the bass was--

[BASS LINE PLAYING]

You know, that's not kicking it.

Would be better if I just went--

[CLAPPING ALONG WITH BASELINE PLAYING]

Just kept it tick tocking.

We knew what to do and we loved to do it with each other.

You feel where it's going, and you play

to the best of your ability.

And you can lift the band and the band can lift you.

I'll lift you up if you--

okay, I'll bring them up, or I'll bring you down,

or it's the chorus, or another verse that

needs a different pattern.

Maybe, like tom, tom-tom for that one

because he's singing in a darker mood.

Just it just was incredible, the closeness

and the togetherness and the heart and for each other.

We had our rows, ups and downs, it's four guys.

That's just life.

But if you look at it overall, the eight years I was in it

there was very few days when it was bad.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

It seemed like after the Beatles,

everybody came to England to make their record.

And Leon was one of them.

And I was asked to play and I said, sure.

I think I'm on three tracks.

And he was great, and it was a lot of fun.

And even then, I didn't do a lot of takes.

So I did his first solo album.

And then Stephen came into town.

And I'd met him before.

Somebody got to me and asked me, Stephen's in town.

Would you play with Stephen?

I said, sure.

Because he was great.

And I can't say he was great, because he's still around.

He is great.

And his solo album, I'm on a couple of tracks of that.

And one of them was great because the basic track is just

him on guitar and me on drums.

B.B. King came to London to do his album, B.B. In London.

And B.B. King my God, I mean after the breakup

I was playing with all these great guys.

It was so beautiful.

And we get to play this track, and we're playing away,

it's like da da doe, da doe.

And I don't really look.

I've got the cans on, I mean listening.

And I'm looking--

I look up and B.B. Is right there

and he sort of does some sort of movement.

I think, oh shit, he wants me to finish it.

So I go bam bam bam dum dum dum da.

And he ends.

The whole band ended on it.

And then he goes, too good to lose.

ba-rum dik-a da.

And we all came back in.

It was such a great line.

Too good to lose.

I did a guy's track the other day

and I just did it once through, because I feel

that's where the emotion is.

And if you're doing it a lot of times, it tends to stiffen up.

Harry Nilsson was in London and I was the drummer for him,

and Richard Perry was producing it for him,

and he has this track, this song called Take 54.

And we did like six or seven takes, and okay,

and Richard ah oh oh, one more.

We did a lot more takes, and we got to 54 takes.

And we all thought, well, this is going to be the one.

And we played the same song.

54 times we've played it, and we have da da da bam.

Ah, ah, one more!

[LAUGHTER]

It was like, mad.

But that's the longest I've ever played takes.

55.

I loved the first take.

The creativity of the first is usually

more important than getting it stick right.

I'm not saying don't get it right, but I am saying,

don't overthink it.

Feel it.

[DRUM MUSIC]

Well, all you guys out there, or more

to the point, all you girls and guys.

A lot of girl drummers now, I'm glad to say.

This is my kit.

I finalized that this is enough drums for me many years ago.

Because if you remember anything about me,

I used to have two tom-toms.

This is my snare.

It's the center of the kit and the drum you use the most.

This is the top tom.

We call this the top tom because it's easy to get to.

And then the floor tom is here.

It's a lot deeper.

So you can make yourself sort of low deep or high deep,

you know.

It's like--

[DRUMMING]

--great.

Oh, and don't forget the bass drum.

[DRUMMING]

Where would we be without that?

And then I've got the hi-hat.

[DRUMMING]

[LAUGHING]

Then I've got this second hi-hat.

This is not on regular kits.

I put it in for me because I do this a lot.

And I can go--

[DRUMMING]

And as you can tell if you listen,

this one is like a little looser--

[DRUMMING]

--so it gives me more color to play.

It gives me different sort of sounds

depending on what I'm doing.

And this is the crash cymbal.

This of course, is the big guy.

[STRIKES CYMBAL]

Oh yeah.

This is the ride.

The ride cymbal is usually played

with a steady kind of pattern.

So that's the ride cymbal.

And this is just one I like to have around.

It's up to you if you have one.

[STRIKES CYMBAL]

It's a lot lighter so sometimes when

I have to like sort of crash the big one--

[STRIKES CYMBAL]

--that's a bit too heavy so--

[DRUMMING]

That's enough.

And that's it.

This is the kit.

And this is a brand new kit.

[LAUGHING]

If you know anything about me, I do play Ludwig drums.

I've always had Ludwig drums and I still love them to date.

This was the first snare drum I ever had.

[DRUMMING]

Oh, deep.

This is the actual drum I had.

It was Black Pearl and it came with the 20 inch bass drum.

And that was the first kit.

I mean, this is practically as big as the bass drum.

But you know, you play things a long time,

you want to keep them.

[DRUMMING]

One, two, one, two.

[DRUMMING]

REPORTER: Who does he look like, Ringo, you or your wife?

RINGO STARR: A bit of a each, actually.

REPORTER: Has he made any musical noises yet?

He really had it last night.

I mean, that was a bit annoying.

REPORTER: Have you decided what to call him yet?

RINGO STARR: Zak.

Z-A-K. So my son was nine years old

and he wanted to play drums.

So I said okay, well I'll give you a lesson.

And I've given a lot of kids this same lesson

because you have to get this if you want to play.

And it's just tapping the hi-hat, tapping the bass drum,

and tapping the snare.

So you've got a lot of things that are automatic now

but we all have to learn it.

[DRUMMING]

That's the first that you've got to--

[DRUMMING]

One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.

So I gave Zak this first lesson.

And then I said okay, go and do that.

And then like 10 days later, I said come on,

I'll give you another lesson.

[DRUMMING]

And he said, well, I can do that, Dad.

I said, you're on your own.

And he has been.

And he's turned into the most brilliant player.

You know, he's just magnificent at playing drums.

And I've given that lesson to a lot of kids.

That's the easiest thing we can do.

But it's really not easy.

It's coordination.

I mean, you've got to coordinate both legs and both arms

and work it all out in your brain.

If you can do that, this is for every kid

on the block who has decided he wants to be a drummer

and he's got some drums.

[DRUMMING]

Lesson number one.

[DRUMMING]

Lesson number two.

[SHAKES TAMBOURINE]

So on every record I ever made, we

had other things that were around in the studio.

One of them was maracas,

[SHAKES MARACAS]

Tambourine,

[SHAKES TAMBOURINE]

And the cowbell, which is so great.

You know, you put that on the beat.

[TAPS COWBELL]

Goes with anything.

That's the cowbell.

And you can hold it.

[TAPS COWBELL]

You can change the volume of the bell.

[TAPS COWBELL]

It's so great.

That's a simple way of playing it.

And then we're adding more to your groove, the tambourine.

I love the tambourine.

You've got to give it a good-- so you get them moving.

[SHAKES TAMBOURINE] They go side to side.

[SHAKES TAMBOURINE]

Yeah!

All for the rhythm, all for the feel, all for the--

it gives it more power.

And then there's the maracas.

[SHAKES MARACAS]

But I like to just go--

[SHAKES MARACAS]

So it's hitting, you know.

But many people

[SHAKES MARACAS DISCORDANTLY]

Next year we'll be doing the percussive school.

In the days I was around, I had this set of bongos

and they're on like at least 15 Beatles tracks because we had

the bongos and you put them on.

I have to hold them between my knees.

[TAPS BONGOS]

Anyway, the rhythm pattern I knew and used all the time was

[TAPS BONGOS]

That's not going to work.

[TAPS BONGOS]

We need Sheila E.

[LAUGHING]

If you look at any footage of the Beatles

especially, what you'd find is I had a set up like this.

I invented the back for the drum stool

because I would be on that stool ready.

If anybody started, I'm ready.

You don't-- oh, he's down there, he's having a coffee

or whatever.

I was always ready to play.

And I had a little table here with a little drink and a pack

of cigarettes and my lighter.

But I have not a cigarette in 30 years.

Thank you, Lord.

And I feel better.

And that's just how it was.

And you see them all chatting because they

have the overheads.

And I'm just, oh okay.

And this was where I lived and Paul

would just-- two, three, four.

[DRUMMING]

I was always ready.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

You know, drums are--

you've got to love them.

You got to hit them.

You got to like what they sound like.

And you've got to do it your way.

I was at the cabin, and George Lewis

came to play from New Orleans.

And I thought, I've got to go and see them,

not knowing that it would be one of those magical moments

in my life.

And they're playing.

He was clarinet, but the drummer did this most amazing thing.

He was going,

[CYMBALS PLAYING]

(SINGING) Oh, when the saints go marching in, all very quiet.

And

[BASS DRUM PLAYING]

[CYMBALS PLAYING] And he got back off.

[CHUCKLES] He went-- he had no toms.

He had a snare, a bass drum, and a cymbal, and a hi hat.

And he could get to it easier than I can because the floor

tom's in the way a it.

But I was like, what?

Look at that.

And it actually made me realize that you don't

need a lot of drums, you know.

I mean, this is plenty.

And it became plenty for me for many, many years now.

The other side of that story was George Harrison came to LA.

Hal Blaine was there, and he's a great, well-known drummer

from LA.

And he had the Hal Blaine kit, which was like, 16 drums.

It went from a small tom, to a bigger tom, to a bigger tom,

to a bigger tom, to a bigger tom, to a bigger tom.

It just was, like, huge.

So I have Mal set it up.

Set it up.

Let's see what we can do here.

And he set all these drums up.

And so whatever song we're doing--

[DRUMS PLAYING]

--I didn't know which one to hit.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

Mal, take them down, and I never saw them again.

[CHUCKLES] It was just too much, you know.

I mean, there's a lot of drummers

out there with lots of drums.

That's how they play.

You have to realize that I do this and other people do that.

You know, I'm strictly this is my stuff and my space and I'm--

[DRUMS PLAYING]

--and my life is good.

(SINGING) It's a love that had no past.

[MUSIC - BEATLES, "DON'T LET ME DOWN"]

BEATLES: (SINGING) Don't let me down.

Don't let me down.

Don't let me down.

Don't let me down.

RINGO STARR: So here's a trick I learned

when I was playing in the studio a lot,

and I wanted to get the sound of the tom sort of down.

By the time I was in the Beatles, I liked depth.

I like it to get down.

And I went into the tea parlor downstairs,

where we'd go for cups of tea.

If you look at pictures of the Beatles,

they're drinking tea like there's no tomorrow

because that's what we drank.

But on the side, we'd have something else.

[LAUGHING]

And I thought, I need to put something on them.

I tried it with a pack of cigarettes.

That didn't really work.

And anyway, I've just picked up, like, six tea

towels that the girls re-used it, washed the dishes,

and dry them off.

And I put them over all the drums.

And it really gave me a really unique sound,

in a way, because it took--

[BASS DRUM PLAYING]

--that highs off.

[BASS DRUM PLAYS]

You know the high is in all of them.

[CYMBAL PLAYS]

But for me, it was like, well, I've invented something.

[BASS DRUM PLAYING]

You can feel it's, like, deadened all the reverbs.

[BASS DRUM PLAYS]

And I love that, and that's why I became the tea toweler--

[CYMBALS PLAY]

--the tea towel guy.

[BASS DRUM PLAYING]

And you can hear that.

And then if you take it off,

[BASS DRUM PLAYING]

There's a lot of body in there, you know.

I like them.

[BASS DRUM PLAYING]

I love the tea towel thing.

And then I ended up, you know--

[SNARE PLAYING]

I ended up putting them on the snare.

[SNARE PLAYING]

See?

[SNARE PLAYING]

It just gives it like a whole new dimension,

or it actually takes away several dimensions.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

So even if it's rock, you can like--

[DRUMS PLAYING]

You don't get all that over noise.

And you may have noticed, every time

I'm trying to just do something here,

the bass drum is always playing something.

[BASS DRUM PLAYING]

Yeah!

[VOCALIZING]

Tea towels all go.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "EARLY 1970!"]

(SINGING) Lives on a farm, got plenty of charm.

Beep Beep.

What I'd like to do is two things.

One, I'd like to tell you why I sit like this.

And the other is what I did with the sticks.

As you can tell, I like to be a little high in the seat.

And the good sign is if the stick hits me in the thigh,

it's perfect.

I'm at the right height.

You know, I like to do snare shots.

That's where you hit the rim and the drum head at the same time.

You know, sometimes it's a mellow song

and you hit it softer in the middle of the snare drum.

And then, it's all about positioning yourself

to make the most of your kit.

You know, you can hit things harder.

You can hit them lighter.

Hit them with the brushes.

Some guys have [INAUDIBLE] around that gives you

like a timpani type of noise.

Some drummers, if they're playing

the role of a Latin thing or a rim shot,

they turn the stick this way.

[DRUMMING]

And I don't bother.

I just drop down.

[DRUMMING]

I mean, you can place it in certain places

and get it deeper and higher.

[DRUMMING]

So there's rhythm and everything, you know?

This is the grip.

I just held them because that's the only way I knew.

Just for fun, you know, like Charlie Watts holds them

like this.

A lot of drummers still do.

But for me, this was always for the marching band

cause the drum was so close to the body.

Anyway.

[DRUMMING]

That's the only marching stuff I know.

And here's something I did on a break

once, listening to playback on the film "Help."

and I just did it because I did it.

[DRUMMING]

Like a one-handed rule.

[DRUMMING]

Just things you do when you're sitting around.

But I just fitted myself around how I held them, you know?

You do have to keep them a bit further away from you.

You know, I'd love to say, oh, well,

that was because, you know, somebody said this or that.

It's the only way I knew and that's what I did,

and what I did did me good.

With the bass drum, once I've hit it, that's what I've done.

I've done the job.

And then the beta comes off it.

Some people like-- they deaden it.

They keep it on all day.

You know, they sort of let it off a little [INAUDIBLE]..

You know, the way I play is sort of a purposeful way.

And if I'm going--

[DRUMMING]

It's off.

The beater comes off as soon as it's finished.

Off, you know?

[BANGING]

Off.

[BANGING]

Off.

[BANGING]

Off.

[DRUMMING]

So while the right foot hits the bass drum,

the left foot controls the hi-hat.

Well, that was to get that.

This heel is keeping time, that's what it's doing.

The left leg is playing what the snare drum plays.

Then you can-- can you tell?

You can let your toll come off of your foot

and you can get that.

You know, I got a story about that.

I was at home in this apartment I

shared with George and Klaus Voormann.

If he ever came to London, he stayed with us.

We were playing records, you know, vinyl in those days, LPS.

And Al Green did a track, "I'm Around."

And it was so great because part of it,

the drummer solo went like part of the track.

When it's USUALLY like another instrument.

Not just--

[TAPPING]

[DRUMMING]

It was so great.

Anyway, that knocked me out.

And I saw it lift in the higher symbols

and separate them a bit.

You know, I would--

[DRUMMING]

And it wasn't like you were flashing the big one.

It just gave me more rhythm, like a train.

[DRUMMING]

I can't help-- I love to hit the buggers.

You know, and I think that came from that Al Green track.

I was listening for the whole record,

but that just shot out at me.

[MUSIC - AL GREEN, "I'M A RAM!"]

(SINGING) Drive on until I get there.

I think I'll drive on.

Going around the cymbals, this is the ride cymbal.

The ride, I do, I love the bell.

You know, so you--

[TAPPING]

And if I slow it down a bit.

[DRUMMING]

You know, you can put a little rhythm in it too.

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "HEY JUDE!"]

(SINGING) Hey, Jude, don't let me down.

You have found her, now go and get her.

And I just love the bell.

I always go to the bell.

If this is a lesson, when it gets to the chorus,

go to the bell.

I still do to this day because it raises it up.

And everybody loves playing the chorus.

You know, you got to work for the verses.

With the chorus, you can rock.

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "HEY JUDE!"]

[VOCALIZATION] Hey, Jude.

[DRUMMING]

[CYMBAL RATTLES]

I like to use my sticks to mute

the symbols from underneath, rather than just grabbing them

with my hands.

You know, it's like.

[DRUMMING]

And then, you know, we went to this restaurant,

we had such a great night.

It just calms them down, but it's not like--

[DRUMMING]

That's too fast.

[DRUMMING]

Still a bit there.

You're still in the rhythm, you know?

That's pretty good too.

I'm a left-handed player on a right-handed kit.

But sometimes, what seems like a limitation is actually

an opportunity to get creative.

What I mean by that is because I'm left handed, I can't go--

[DRUMMING]

That's too far.

I've got to bring the left hand in.

So you know, it's like.

[DRUMMING]

And that's why my fills, you know, a lot of them

talk about my fills when I do them, but it's a lot of like.

[DRUMMING]

There's a lot of space between each hit

because I've got to bring this in to lead, you know?

Where you, or most people, will go.

[DRUMMING]

I can't do that.

[DRUMMING]

Yes, I can.

I can do it, Lord.

But most of my fills, the shape of them,

come because I'm a left handed drummer

on the right handed kit.

[DRUMMING]

Single strokes and double strokes

are all you need for fills.

Maybe they are triplet.

This is how I play singles.

[DRUMMING]

Yeah.

If we're talking about doubles, they're right, right, left,

that I can't do.

I can't get fast enough.

[DRUMMING]

Confusion in a way.

[DRUMMING]

No, that's me pressing.

That's something else that you can learn either.

Or you can just press, you know?

And let the bounce of the six do the work

instead of your wrists.

Sounds like a roll to me.

And I'm holding it like this, just thumb and finger.

[DRUMMING]

So I can get to the reaction from the hitting, you know?

You can't do that holding them tight, you've got to--

[DRUMMING]

There are other basic things you should know, like the flam.

[TAPPING]

That's taking the two sticks, hitting the rim and the skin.

And it's powerful, you know?

The triplet.

[DRUMMING]

That's a triplet.

Groups of 3.

And you can find triplets all over my playing.

Sometimes it just comes out.

(SINGING) I saw Uncle John with bald-headed Sally.

He saw Mary comin' and he--

Yeah, out of the blue.

I mean, I don't know sometimes what possesses me.

And we did it live.

And Paul those "Long Tall Sally," and at the end of it,

have some fun tonight.

We're going to have some fun, and I go.

[DRUMMING]

I'm missing the cymbal.

[DRUMMING]

It just like rocks.

[DRUMMING]

(SINGING) Yeah.

Have some fun tonight.

Have some fun tonight.

Everything I want.

Have some fun tonight.

RINGO STARR: Feel comes with the body.

You know, I didn't train to have feel.

Just let the music move through you.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "COOCHY COOCHY"]

(SINGING) Waiting for you to come and see me.

I think any time I hit on it, it has a big swing going down

because my stepdad, he had all these big band records.

(SINGING) Oh, let me hear it!

Straight rock and roll, which came after the big bands,

and Little Richard, all playing swing,

they sort of straightened everything out to be--

[DRUMS PLAYING]

It's all straight, so but then I go--

[DRUMS PLAYING]

Now you may have to be a drummer to know the difference [LAUGHS]

because I'm doing it so it's like straight.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

Ringo.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

It all has a bit of that in it when I play, you know.

It's just how it is.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "IT DON'T COME EASY"]

(SINGING) It don't come easy.

You know it don't come easy.

You know, I have great feel because it just came with me.

I have great time.

And in all honesty, when I was just

out there skiffling with the Eddie Clayton group,

I didn't have any sense of time, and neither did they.

And we play weddings and things, but you know we go--

[MUSIC - BEATLES, "MAGGIE MAE"]

(SINGING) Oh, Maggie, Maggie Mae, hey, hey, hey--

[DRUMS PLAYING FAST]

[SINGING QUICKLY]

And people who were trying to dance

would say, could you slow down?

Could you slow down?

[LAUGHING] Because we just were an express

train on every track.

So now we don't have to do that.

We can keep it straight.

[DRUM STICKS CLATTER]

But at the beginning, you may get a little speedy.

Just listen to yourself and see how you feel about that.

If you're sitting around with a guitar,

and there's the bass player--

I'm talking about my band, the band I was in, and most bands

now.

I played with a lot of different people,

and when it's brand new, I just keep it easy.

You know, whatever the song is, I keep it ea-- then

you get to feel all of it.

You get to feel it, and then you can put something in it.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

Yeah, let's go.

You've got to just melt into what's around you.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "IT DON'T COME EASY"]

(SINGING) I don't ask for much.

I only--

Do your best just to keep it sharp and in the groove.

Less is always more, especially when

you're first working it out.

I like to try to give the band space to come up

with new ideas, new parts.

You've got to be the one holding it all together.

And then once you find your groove,

you can add things to it then.

When I'm doing fills, I can never repeat the fill

because it's sort of the emotion of that moment on the track

where the singer is, or if there's a bass note,

or there's a guitar thing, all of that helps me go where I go.

But sometimes I go, and I'm in a fill, in like a blackout.

But I always come out on time, you know.

I don't really know where I'm going.

It's just like, oh, yeah, fine, woo, woo, woo, but--

[DRUMS PLAYING]

--got to get back.

[CHUCKLES] And that's another good song, "Get Back."

[MUSIC - BEATLES, "GET BACK"]

BEATLES: (SINGING) Get back--

RINGO STARR: You've got to listen to everybody else,

and you've got to feel the atmosphere around the band,

and what they're playing, where we're

trying to get to, and keep it in a good space.

BEATLES: (SINGING) --back to where you once belonged.

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "OCTOPUS'S GARDEN"]

(SINGING) I'd ask my friends to come and see

an octopus's garden with me.

Well, let's talk about songwriting.

It all comes together, the words and the melody.

And it can come from anywhere.

I've got notebooks full of one lines or three words, even.

I had this line, "How could I be so wrong for so long?"

I didn't say it.

I know the man who said it.

And it became a song, because we need

the top-line to get us into the emotion of where we're going.

And that was such a great line.

So, I think that was like three years ago.

We made that record.

Of course, I claim all credit.

[CHUCKLING]

There's not a lot of, like, getting ready.

I don't know how you can--

I'm not putting down people who do.

They get up, and that's what they do.

They're the writers, where I just

get lucky every couple of days.

But I can't, like, I'm getting ready to write a song.

There's no emotion in that for me.

It's like, oh, wow, who said that?

It's great!

Come on over.

I've got two lines.

There's not many songs I write by myself anymore.

I enjoy hanging out with writers, musicians,

and I'll call people over.

They may have a word or two.

They have lists, too.

We'll take one of theirs.

But if it's my record, I write it with other people.

But I always direct it.

And it's always like a peace and love direction.

I have a song I wrote, and it's called

"Three Ships in the Harbor."

And I've never recorded it, but it had 28 verses.

George was so great because I never knew how to end a song.

I just keep going on.

And he was great to, "We'll end it there."

Or he'd throw a few lines in, and he would produce it for me

as my first producer.

And so, to the writers, yeah, keep it short.

And I don't know if it's because I'm

from the '60s where every record was,

at the most, 2 and 1/2 minutes.

And we changed all of that by '68.

They were a little longer.

Give it the great structure.

And if you want it longer, don't fade for a while.

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "DON'T PASS ME BY"]

(SINGING) Don't pass me by.

Don't make me cry.

Don't make me blue.

INTERVIEWER: Has Ringo ever written a song

or does he plan to?

I've--

INTERVIEWER: [INAUDIBLE]

I've written one, but we never seem

to get around to recording it.

A lot of people know about it.

In 1962 and '3 mainly, when we started going into the studio

with The Beatles--

it's a Beatles story--

I would write songs.

And I'd present them.

I'd say, I've got this song.

And they would just roll over on the floor laughing,

because I hadn't noticed I'd just rewritten other songs.

I thought it was mine.

[CHUCKLING]

So, it took me another year or two before I

got the melody and the words.

But that's just one of those moments you'll never forget.

What?

Come on, man.

Well, you know, that's whatever.

So that was the first attempt.

But then I did start to love writing.

George got into writing.

He wrote some beautiful songs, a privilege to play on them.

John was great.

Paul was great.

It was a really good band, four guys

who looked out for each other, loved each other,

and played well together.

As long as you do your best, as long as you do what you can,

that's what it's all about, you know what I mean?

Yeah, it's work.

Nobody worked harder than the four, the fabs.

But it's work, and that's what we realized in the studio.

It's work.

The great news with The Beatles was that John would have songs,

Paul would have songs, and George would have songs.

I'd have an odd song.

And we all did our best for everybody.

We're all focused on your song.

Go-- What about this way?

Oh, my song or that.

We were four guys in the room.

And to put something on--

I'll put bongos on that.

And we'd clap in time together.

Or George would hit the cowbell.

I'd do the tambourine.

It was like what we did.

It's in the room.

We're going to use it.

Four lads with all of this-- wow, we can do this.

We can do that.

Let's use that.

Let's use this.

Not like, oh, hello, could you send in the bongo player

please?

I mean, one of the fun stories with the remastering

was the first thing they did was "Yellow Submarine."

And Paul and I ran over to EMI to listen

to what they had done with George Martin then and Giles.

And we're looking, and he says, who played that?

Who did that?

Because you'd never heard it for all of these years.

It was so buried.

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "OCTOPUS'S GARDEN"]

(SINGING) I'd like to be under the sea in an--

Well, "Octopus's Garden" is full of joy,

and it's full of sadness and all of those emotions

because I'd left the Beatles.

We were doing "The White Album."

I'd left The Beatles.

I couldn't take it anymore.

Maureen, God rest her soul, and the kids, Zak and Jason,

we went to Sardinia.

I just had to go somewhere, just get away.

And we're in Sardinia and Peter Sellers--

name dropping now, but this is just the fact--

had his boat there.

So, he wasn't using it and he lent me his yacht.

We ordered fish and chips.

And the guy brought octopus and chips,

and we don't eat octopus.

From Liverpool.

Anyway, you know, after a joint, in those days,

can't hide from it all your life.

I had a joint, and I went on deck,

and the captain was there.

And we started talking.

And he said, oh, you don't like octopus.

No, you can't eat octopus, man, look at it.

And he said, you know what octopuses do?

He says, they go out their cave and they find any shiny stone

or rock, and they put it in front of their cave

like it's a garden.

Well, stoned, that was like, what?

How great is that.

[CHUCKLES]

And that's how that song started.

So, I had a guitar though.

You know, I can play anything on a guitar, as long as it's in E.

But anyway, I had the guitar.

I finished the joint.

And for me, it usually all comes at the same time.

"I'd like to be."

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "OCTOPUS'S GARDEN"]

And you know, because of the--

the pain, and the joy, and the emotions of actually,

like, that's it, I'm out, it would be a great place

to be under the sea in an octopus's garden, in the shade.

[CHUCKLES]

And it just came really easy.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "BACK OFF BOOGALOO"]

(SINGING) Back off Boogaloo.

What d'yer think I'm going to do?

I got a flash right--

Now, Marc Bolan from T Rex, he was a friend of ours.

It was like Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, and I,

and Marc would come and chat with us.

[CHUCKLES]

And he was so great.

We loved him.

And we were these old 30-year-olds.

And he was this guy.

And he'd come in and he tell us, came in at number 10.

Next week, number one.

Yeah!

And we said, great, Marc.

We loved his enthusiasm.

Anyway, we became good friends.

And he came to dinner one night, and he talked like that.

Oh, back off, back off, Boogaloo.

Oh, Boogaloo, back off.

It was like part of his vocabulary.

And so, we sent him home and then went to bed.

As I'm just about to go asleep, you know,

you're in that sort of in and out mode, I hear.

(SINGING) Back off Boogaloo.

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "BACK OFF BOOGALOO"]

Was it.

(SINGING) Back off Boogaloo.

Come on.

Back off Boogaloo.

I've got a song.

I've got a song here.

I've got to get that down, because you know,

you go to sleep, you wake up, you've forgotten it.

And I ran downstairs and the kids' toys,

and no tape recorder would work, that I had at that time.

And I needed batteries.

And I'm searching the kids' toys,

ripping them up and trying to find batteries.

Anyway, I found batteries.

But while I'm searching, this song, "back off Boogaloo"

is turning into, when the knife.

It's turning into back of the knife.

And I'm, no, no, not back the knife.

Back off Boogaloo.

[LAUGHS]

Yes, this is the stuff you go through when you're writing,

everybody, just so you know.

I put it down on a tape used a reel-to-reel,

didn't even have cassettes then.

And when we moved, we found these tapes,

and we found the tape that said, "Back off Boogaloo."

And it's my demo that day.

And the guitar, and I'm sitting there,

this is like three years ago, I'm sitting there

and I'm saying, man, who was on guitar?

Who could that be?

It sounds so great.

And then I go, A E D.

[CHUCKLES]

And it was me on guitar, so, whoo, blew me away.

Just a side story for you drummers out there.

George produced it.

He wanted this drum pattern.

It was like bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom.

That is the pattern I was asked to do, which I couldn't do.

I just sort of faked it on the snare.

[VOCALIZING]

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "BACK OFF BOOGALOO"]

Which made the track.

So, you never know where it's coming from.

You can move it around a bit and change it.

And that was a great change that, you know, paid off.

You don't have to, like, go break your mind if you

can't do what someone's asking.

You can do something else to make them happy.

I love playing live.

I mean, that's what it's all about for me, you know.

It's-- that's the gig.

If you want to connect with an audience,

you've got to love them.

You've got to love what you do, and you've

got to love them because that's why you're there,

because they've come out to see you.

Bars, pubs, clubs, weddings, anywhere--

there's a magic moment when the band and the audience

are just on.

And that's a lot of peace and love.

You know, it's-- and so when I tour now, you know,

I love the audience.

They love me and we have certain gigs

where it's just heart filling.

The band is exactly right.

We're all yes, brother.

And the audience are, yeah!

You know, it's like--

it's that yeah, yeah time.

[CHUCKLES]

Yeah.

What you have to be in here also is you have to be able to play,

and you have to have hits, because we are the hit band.

From the first band in 1989, Joe Walsh, Billy Preston, Nils,

all the people in that band, I wanted to get this together.

So I just opened the phone book in those days,

and got Joe, called Joe.

He said, (MIMICS JOE WALSH) Yeah, sure.

But I was a bit insecure, yeah.

So I had Levon Helm, great drummer/singer.

And I thought, I want someone to nudge about on the stage

when I'm down because I'd never done this from the stage.

And I got Clarence Clemons.

I stole him from "The Boss."

And we had a lot of good times.

And everybody knew they gave everything.

That's what we did.

It was a great band, but I always blamed the fact

that I had Levon, me, and Jim, three drummers

because of my insecurity of the first time we did it.

Yeah.

I mean, it just reminds me, we played Colorado once

with the All Starrs, and the monitors went out.

And every man in the band to a man said, oh, we can't go on.

And I said, come on, because I come from not-- you know,

even the Beatles, we didn't have monitors and huge speakers.

We had the house PA at Shea Stadium.

And we did the gig, Howard Jones on keyboard.

We have to give him a name.

And we did the gig.

And to a man, everyone said, oh man, that was great.

[LAUGHS] You know, you go on.

I come from that world.

There's nothing that won't let me go on.

You know, believe it or not--

and I don't know why you wouldn't--

I still get nervous before I go on stage.

I'm fine in the dressing room.

I'm fine 10 steps to the stage.

Five steps to the stage, it's like a madness.

I'm like, oh god, it's been a while.

And then everyone around me gets me on that damn stage.

No, I have a minute--

not even a minute, seconds, and I just

have to suck it up and run out.

And I touch that mic, and everything is good.

You'd think by now, you know, I'd get over that.

But I-- it's part of me.

An hour, an hour and a half before the show,

I have a baked potato, and I have steamed veg,

and I have a glass of veg juice.

And in the baked potato, I put olive oil now and not butter,

and Bragg's aminos, and brewer's yeast.

I have that because it holds me down.

If I didn't settle down before I went on, I would float away.

I get so excited.

But the gap between having that dinner

and then getting to the mic, 10 feet back,

there's always a moment--

I can't do it.

They won't like it.

Loser.

What am I?

And then I have to run on.

I still have to run on.

And in my heart and my head--

I'm talking to myself now--

I want to be Frank Sinatra.

So Frank, he just walked down, hey, how you doing?

[CHUCKLES] And like, my aim is to be Frank Sinatra.

But once I run on and I grab that mic, we are together.

The audience and I and the band, we're together.

This is such a thrill for me to have Jim Keltner

right there.

On my right is my favorite drummer

and we're really good pals.

And my second friend over here, Gregg Bissonnette,

longtime member of the All Starr Band and the world-famous drum

teacher himself.

A long time ago, I did a track with The Beatles

called "Come Together."

And I decided, several years ago now,

that that was so special, that piece,

that I'm not going to play it for anything else now.

It's only on that record will you ever hear me playing it.

But because I have friends, we can separate the parts, whoever

played them, and that's one great one that everybody knows,

that it has three distinct parts.

And we're going to show you what it actually sounds like.

You ready, Jim?

JIM KELTNER: Yeah.

OK.

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, "COME TOGETHER"]

Isn't not great?

Now imagine one person doing that.

You got any questions?

GREGG BISSONNETTE: Well, I noticed

on the verse of "Come Together," you

played your kick drum alone for the whole--

(SINGING) He wear no shoeshine--

Yeah.

GREGG BISSONNETTE: What a great concept for the verse.

And then you played the floor tom--

[PLAYING NOTES]

--and the beat.

[PLAYING NOTES]

(SINGING) Come together.

Didn't even have a cymbal.

There's so many parts that identify that song.

It's so classic.

You've just played them all, so I don't have to.

[LAUGHS]

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "BACK OFF BOOGALOO"]

(SINGING) Back off, Boo-ga-loo.

I said, back off, Boo-ga-loo.

I said, back off, Boo-ga-loo.

Yeah, "Back Off Boogaloo" is a great story

because I wrote the song and gave it to George Harrison.

And he was producing me at the time.

And he had this idea that it should have this drum pattern.

[PLAYING NOTES]

I still find that difficult to play.

So to make him happy, I played a snare situation

with the same sort of feel, which--

[PLAYING NOTES]

And it just was one of those moments in the studio when

the other players and myself, we were doing this,

putting it down.

It was like, wow.

That really works.

So sometimes, I have to shift the track

to where I could be comfortable with it,

and that was a great example.

To this day, this is not the best thing for me.

[PLAYING NOTES]

I'm too busy trying to get that kick

drum to do the three that I don't do it anymore.

Now you can do it.

Do it.

[PLAYING NOTES]

Yeah, see?

That's what George wanted.

[LAUGHS] And I did--

[PLAYING NOTES]

And it worked.

You know, that's a perfect example of what

you did that changed the musical world, really, because--

no, I'm serious, because all the session

guys that I listened to coming up,

those guys were all pretty much told what to do

and they were expected to do it.

And that's how they made their living.

And it was brilliant, all the things that the Hal Blaines,

the Earl Palmer, all those guys.

But for you, you happened to be in a band with three geniuses.

You thought it was a liability that you

couldn't play that part like a session guy would?

Look what happened.

Well, that's that's on your record.

But I'm sure that happened countless times

with The Beatles.

And they knew that they had somebody special in you,

because they could have had anybody.

They could have had any of the greatest studio guys.

It was all fortunate for everybody.

Yeah, but I feel the whole band could

move where they felt more comfortable,

not just the drums.

Paul's bass-- he was a great bass player.

And he'd fill those gaps and it was so melodic.

And John-- crazy rhythm section with lead stuff thrown in.

And George was just so beautiful with his lead playing.

But that's how it was.

We each brought something different to the table

and it just fitted together.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "HERE'S TO THE NIGHTS"]

(SINGING) Here's to falling on your face--

You know, good Phil is on about hey, look at me,

at about supporting the song.

On my track, "Here's To The Nights,"

when the song is lifting up, this is the most showy I get.

But it's just on the snare.

(SINGING) Here's to the--

[HUMS]

[PLAYING NOTES]

At time.

[PLAYING NOTES]

You ready?

GREGG BISSONNETTE: Yeah.

[APPLAUSE]

Yeah, there you go.

GREGG BISSONNETTE: What a musical way

to just really play those [BLOWS RASPBERRIES] little bam,

because those are singles.

[BLOWS RASPBERRIES] But on songs like "Help," like "Ticket

To Ride," he does, Jim, those double

stops with both hands at the same time.

(SINGING) She's got a ticket to ride.

And then all of a sudden, bah, bah, bah, bah, bsh.

[PLAYING NOTES]

RINGO STARR: Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good example.

It's simple, but it moves the song forward.

[PLAYING NOTES]

Yeah.

So it's like a man--

It's in his wrists.

GREGG BISSONNETTE: What's that, Jim?

It's in his wrists.

GREGG BISSONNETTE: It's the wrists, yeah.

Yeah.

It's also holding like this, light.

JIM KELTNER: Yeah.

So it gives them time to get their own bounce.

[PLAYING NOTES]

They're just loose and relaxed and comfortable.

Loose as a goose.

I don't use really anything besides my wrist

and my shoulder.

It's relaxed.

GREGG BISSONNETTE: Another thing that you do a lot--

and I can't figure out how to do this.

We'll be playing a shuffle at sound checks, like--

[PLAYING NOTES]

Yeah.

You're doing it, brother.

I have no idea what that is.

[PLAYING NOTES]

Whoa.

He's showing off now.

That's actually like a fake roll and a crash.

[PLAYING NOTES]

JIM KELTNER: Fake roll.

[LAUGHS]

[MUSIC - COZY COLE, "TOPSY PART 1"]

I love this record.

And my stepdad, Harry, played it to me

because he was the guy in big bands.

It was just a tom, tom, thrill.

The first couple of verses, they play straight.

But then it just rocks out on the top.

I said wow.

You don't even have to hit the snare, really.

Just play that big floor Tom.

And you play one straight and then

I'll come in on the second one, on the floor tom.

You got it.

Here we go.

[MUSIC - COZY COLE, "TOPSY PART 1 AND 2"]

[LAUGHTER]

So that's "Topsy Part 1 and 2," our version.

It was a very important record in my life,

because it sort of changed just changed the way--

you don't have to be doing this all the time.

You can just rock on the tom or make patterns up.

And it really helped.

We've talked about the George Lewis Trad Band,

where he played the whole section on his bass drum.

It was like, I was 18 and 17, 18.

Wow.

As long as you've got a snare and a bass drum,

you've got enough, really.

That's what I think.

You know hearing you talk about that,

that I believe was probably the very beginning of what became

your future feel, what you felt music as, which is always just

a slight bit of swing in it.

RINGO STARR: Yeah.

Yeah.

JIM KELTNER: I never knew that before.

I mean, I have to thank all those guys,

from Cozy to the drummer in Little Richard's band,

and my stepdad, because he had all these big band records.

And one day, he came up to me and I'm playing my stuff.

He said, have you heard this?

I said, who is it?

It's this girl called Sarah Vaughan.

[LAUGHS] And she was great.

The good taste of that man, to have Sarah Vaughn.

But all the big bands he was listening to, all swing.

There was no rock then.

Everything was swing, and we turned it into shuffle a bit.

The first time we were doing a sound check,

and I thought I was going to play "Tomorrow Never

Knows" for fun, I was playing it the wrong way, like this.

[PLAYING NOTES]

And then Ringo casually comes up and plays

it like I can't do-- because he's

got a much stronger left hand-- with his left hand on the top.

[PLAYING NOTES]

And I'm like, I got to work on my left hand.

I said, you do both of those with your left hand?

He said, why wouldn't I?

You're taking your hand off the cymbal for a minute--

[PLAYING NOTES]

--so it's so natural.

Well, yeah, but that's where being left-handed had its good

points, as well.

Only a madman who's playing a right-hand good kit who's

left-handed would think of that.

And I just love your thing, once you--

[PLAYING NOTE]

He's doing a crash with his left hand

because everybody crosses over.

(SINGING) You don't call me that.

You know, Bangladesh, playing with Ringo, for me,

was one of the highlights of my playing.

And I told Gregg earlier, I tried to get out of that.

I told George-- I said, man, you don't want to mess that up.

You got Ringo.

And he said, yeah, but Ringo wants you to do it, too.

Yeah.

JIM KELTNER: So I said, all right.

OK.

I remember thinking that the only way this was really

going to work is if I let him play the high hat

and I tried to avoid the high hat.

That way, I could just be with him on the back beat

and so forth.

And it worked great because I've always

felt, amongst all the things that Ringo brings

to the music, the high hat, and the way

he starts and goes through a song with his high hat

is the magic.

So then when we played and I heard it back--

I heard the first thing back, I realized, wow.

I can't hear two drums.

And so then the next thing that I realized

was that our heartbeats were very, very similar

for backbeat on the snare drum.

And I thought, well, that is obvious

because who did I listen to most when I was coming up?

Who did everybody listen to in those days?

It was on the radio 24/7 all the time.

So whether you were studying it or not,

you were influenced by Ringo Starr.

I was.

And so from that time on, I always played this side--

just this side of the beat, just a little bit late on the beat.

And that's pretty much where Ringo has always played.

Man, Jim is my all-time favorite drummer because when

we played together--

and I've played with several drummers.

And they're all doing drum boogie when it's a ballad

or it's slow.

Jim and I have this thing.

So it didn't matter what the song is.

I'm playing up.

[IMITATES DRUMS]

I relax now because he'll take the next one.

He'll take the next fill.

He knows where it's going to go.

And he'll stop, too.

I've been playing with someone and I go--

[PLAYING NOTES]

I just get started, and this other person's

playing like you.

[GROWLS]

[LAUGHS]

No.

But he's busy.

And I don't feel there's any real need for business

in drumming.

It's being part of it.

And I'm going to show you something now

that I think you'll all enjoy.

We're going to just play a straight four pattern.

And I'm going to do a fill.

Then you're going to do a fill.

And then you're going to do a fill.

GREGG BISSONNETTE: OK.

RINGO STARR: And the reason I'm doing this is we

are three different people and we play certain things

differently.

So I'm going to start.

[PLAYING NOTES]

And I want to end with that.

Quiet, Jim.

I want to end with that, because for all you guys starting out,

there's many roads you can take as a drummer.

And this is just three of them I've just shown you.

And whatever you feel good doing--

if you want to be heavy metal, if you want to be country,

if you want to be rock, there's all these roads you can take.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "PHOTOGRAPH"]

RINGO STARR: Being open-minded and trying new things

is the only way you're going to grow as an artist.

I love the Roland.

There's a plug for you.

I needed a new model.

[CHUCKLES]

But you know what is incredible is that I

play the kit, the organic kit.

Looks like that, and it's this guy.

Then I get on the Roland, and it's like someone

else completely.

[DRUMS PLAYING]

It's me, but it's like you can do crazier stuff or whatever.

You know, I do stuff I wouldn't attempt on the organic kits.

You know, it's not like you're mine.

You know, I can't have it sounding

like a xylophone on this kit.

You know, if you hit that cymbal at the right time,

it turns into an orchestra.

You know, so we go, moo dow, dow, dow, dow, ponk, donk,

donk-a-donk.

Dow, dow, dow, dow, dow, donk, donk.

You know, you can just have a great time.

But I do put it down in a serious fashion sometimes.

But it's still no wonder to me what you can get.

I love it.

Being creative is simply who I am.

It's what I do.

You can be a musician and do other things as well.

I mean, I love to paint.

I started painting, actually, in Monaco.

I lived in Monaco.

I had an apartment there for 30-odd years.

And it's only rock and roll.

All those painters that came here because of the light,

wow, I can see that light.

And I went and bought canvases, paints, an easel, brushes,

and I just started.

And it was so beautiful.

I was having so much fun.

But I did have to get over wanting

to paint like Rembrandt.

You just put your own brush on your own canvas and off you go.

And you can make your own rules.

Like this one time, I had all these half-empty tubes

of paint.

So I just put a canvas on the floor.

I pressed the tubes, whatever was it, and wherever it went.

Just did that, and then I put it up,

and I took a Polaroid shot I'd taken of something,

but that became the brush.

And I just sort of was sweeping it across.

And my heart was beating.

I mean, it was like, what?

And now it looks underwater.

All this sort of stuff is growing underwater

but it acts like a sweep to it.

It's like what?

Yeah, I love that painting.

That was a great moment for me.

That's why I keep talking about that painting.

But I've got other paintings.

You know, I can't paint you looking like you.

I can put a head on a body, but--

[LAUGHING]

--that's my painting.

It just keeps me going, you know.

And I do computer art.

I like that too, because the program I

use has a bucket so you can put a lot of paint over everything

quick.

And I was doing it before, and on the road.

And then I forgot all about drumming,

and I forgot all about art, or anything else.

And then in '88, I started to lighten up and get back

on track, and put the first All-Starr Band together.

And, you know, you're on the road.

What do you do?

So then there's the computer then.

Oh, my.

Good, I can do it on that.

You know, it's not like something I think out a lot.

It's just another creative outlet for me.

You can have as many as you want.

You know, I'm blessed.

I have the time.

I have the space.

And I can-- you know what I'll do?

I'll paint today.

If you want to stay inspired, open your eyes.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "PHOTOGRAPH"]

(SINGING) Every time I see your face, it reminds me of the--

All the proceeds from my half go to supporting the Lotus

Foundation.

That's the foundation Barbara and I started a long time ago.

Maybe she can tell me the year.

BARBARA BACH: '98.

[LAUGHING] It's something I started in '98.

[LAUGHING]

Barbara and I started it in 1998.

It's a charity foundation that supports

a lot of different causes, like substance abuse, cancer,

homelessness, WaterAid, and Black Lives Matter.

A lot of when I'm working, like the drum dealers for the Lotus

Foundation, there's the stick deal, the T-shirts,

and all of that.

So we support it that way.

And it's still going strong, and we're doing the best we can.

We, you know--

WaterAid has always been a big one for me.

I think everybody, if nothing else, should have water.

But it's not all big.

You know, we did a bench for the people in Cranleigh in England,

where we lived so they could sit in the park.

We had this kid who was so bad with cerebral palsy,

he couldn't do it on a chair.

He needed a bed.

So we got him a BMX-type bed.

And he was in school and he just loved it.

And that makes your heart sing.

So that's another way I stay inspired, and stay

involved in the world.

And I think we all now should be focusing on climate change.

I mean, what-- you know, it's so silly

that these countries say no.

I think every petrol-driven car should be burned tomorrow,

and everyone has to go electric.

[LAUGHS] That would help.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "PHOTOGRAPH"]

(SINGING) I thought I'd make it the day you went away.

It's so important for me to spread

the message of peace and love because peace and love

is contagious.

It came in the '60s out of America,

and then all the hippie movements.

It was a beautiful moment, and we jumped right in.

You can see pictures of the Beatles in the '60s,

and one of us is doing this.

John was doing it.

Now Paul's doing it.

I'm doing it, or we're all doing it.

We came right into peace and love.

And the music changed.

All the music changed, and the festivals were playing.

And they were like, peace and love.

And it was such a great new attitude.

But we have to thank Timothy Leary for that.

And now, children, you'll have to look that up

in your encyclopedia.

[LAUGHS] Timothy Leary, [CHUCKLES]

that's where it started, and we kept it up.

The force of peace and love is still with me.

I still believe in it, and I can't demand you

peace and love.

I can only do it myself.

And I go peace and love, and someone else does it too.

There's two seconds of peace and love.

It all adds up in the world.

And you can do it in the morning, in the afternoon,

in the evening.

You know, there's no special time, peace and love.

We were playing a gig, and this guy was late.

I mean, usually I pick on them anyway.

Oh, you're late.

You want us to start again?

You know, we have fun.

And he came late, and I said, and I

suppose you think that shirt looks good.

And the whole audience went boo!

[LAUGHS] So I said, I mean that with peace and love.

[CHUCKLES] I got away with it.

But yeah, we have fun.

I was in New York and doing interviews for the tour,

and it was my birthday coming up.

And one of the interviewers says,

what would you like the fans to get you,

to do for you, to give you?

And I said, I don't know where it came from.

And I said, I'd love them all at noon to go, peace and love,

wherever you are, on a bus, down a mine, in a club,

in the street, wherever, peace and love.

If I'm on tour and it's my birthday,

we do the peace and love moment.

You know, that's what we do.

[MUSIC - RINGO STARR, "PHOTOGRAPH"]

If I can give you anything to take away

after you've seen this MasterClass,

it's just love what you're doing.

And, you know, it doesn't mean you all have to be musicians.

I know a lot of you are looking at me

right now because you are musicians,

because that's what I am.

And I've loved it.

And the players I've played with, so many of them

just love it.

And it doesn't matter if there's 40,000 or 40 people, like when

we played these places.

You know, we started in clubs, and you've just

got to get yourself some friends and play.

The more you play, the better life is.

If you want to be a musician, or if you want to be a scientist,

go for it, and enjoy going for it, because that's the battle.

And, yeah, I mean, I can only tell you, I--

still, my heart is filled with drums today.

And I hope yours is too.

Peace and love, everybody.

Thank you.

Good night.

OK no, no, no, don't worry.

RINGO STARR: I love to jam.

You know, it's such a great moment for a lot of guys

just to play.

Not all musicians can jam.

I'm blessed.

With all the people in the All Starrs,

we do a sound check and we end up jamming

[UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]

Just let me check if we're on.

Did you get any of that?

Are we on?

STEVE LUKATHER: That's what happens when a bunch of guys

walk around the stage, and go, what do you want to play?

RINGO STARR: Give me a bit more piano, Bruce.

I've known these guys for a long time

and the connection just gets deeper.

Jamming is so great because we're just

five, six, 10 musicians let loose,

following whoever's leading.

Say the guitar moves it, or the bass

gives the line, or the drummer changes

it from a waltz to rock.

I just love the openness of it.

All right, stop everybody, stop!

Two, three.

No!

I've got a call!

Stop!

God's sakes!

Hi out there, young musicians.

I'd like to tell you something great,

that I made a few phone calls and Nathan East on bass

said he's coming over.

Joe Walsh on guitar said, yeah I'm coming.

Steve Lukather says, I'm coming too,

and Jim Cox on piano over there said,

I'm coming, too and Gregg Bissonnette on drums,

Jim Keltner on drums.

My name is Ringo and I'm on drums.

We're just going to jam, just so you

know that you can just hang out with your pals and rock!

STEVE LUKATHER: I like that New Orleans thing, man.

Come on.

[JAZZY ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]

[APPLAUSE]

We rehearsed a long time for that.

Well that was fucking fun, okay!

That's all I got to say.

When's the last time you had fun?

It really was.

I'm trying to get through just to say MasterClass,

we love you!

And I want to thank you for putting all this together

for us, and ending up on stage with these boys is

just fabulous.

And I hope you like the jam, that's just

for you who are watching it.

Ringo's MasterClass.

The jam.

Okay, you've got it, brothers and sisters.

Peace and love, peace and love, peace and love!

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]