As the former man who put the beat for one of the most celebrated rock bands of all time, and pretty sure you know the man already. Real name Richard Starkey who earned the real name of Ringo for having a habit of wearing a lot of rings.
We may know him as the former drummer, but there are still plenty of things to learn about the legendary drummer.
1. He had never eaten pizza, curry, or onions.
Ringo, as a child, was a sickly child, dealing with various types of illness after illness. At the age of 6, he had fallen into a coma due to appendicitis that given him a raging infection, and at 13, he bout with tuberculosis for a year. When he was a kid, Ringo had discovered that he suffers from a host of allergies. “I’m highly allergic to onions and garlic and spices,” he has said. “I’ve never had a pizza, never had a curry.”
However, Ringo’s allergies didn’t stop him from accepting to shoot a pizza commercial in 1995, because it’s all about the dough. Watch the commercial below:
2. He never shook anyone’s hands
The result of all his childhood sickness – led him to become a germaphobe. The legendary drummer much prefers to bump elbows, that shake anyone’s hands. Maybe the other Fab Four was referring to him on the song “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
3. The man was a lefty but instead played with a right-handed drum kit
Ringo was a lefty, but, a child, he was told by his grandma that a dominant left hand was incorrect – it’s not a new story as children born as left-handed were told the same story. His grandmother taught him to write righty — but for most tasks, he preferred using his left hand. As a drummer, being able to adapt to right-handed drum kits, and various instruments made him such a unique drummer. “I have a right-handed kit, but I lead with my left,” he explained to Conan O’Brien in 2012.
4. A drummer that hates doing drum solos
He frequently did drum solos in songs such as “The End” which makes you think, why he didn’t love showing off his skills. “I never met a drummer who more hated the drum solos,” Paul McCartney once recalled. “We had to beg him to do it. The point where ‘Carry That Weight’ goes into ‘The End,’ I told him it’s a dramatic change in energy and tempo—we need just a few seconds. And he finally agreed to do it. And Ringo was great.”
When he was asked about repeating what he did on famous fill from “The End.” “I’ve got no idea how to do it,” he told Rolling Stone. “I could never do it again. Can’t do it!”