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Interview with Ringo Starr, London, December 1968
Interviewer: Last week was kind of a controversial week for The Beatles, how close are you? We've heard reports that you're not as close as you use to be, and that The Beatles aren’t as rich as everyone thought they were…
Ringo: Yeah, that’s true…
Interviewer: And that you might have to close down Apple…
Ringo: Well, yes, that’s true…
Interviewer: How true is this, Ringo?
Ringo: Well, should we take one at a time?
Interviewer: Yes.
Ringo: Alright, what was the first one? *laughs*
Interviewer: Are you as close…
Ringo: Yes. You know there’s that famous old saying of ‘You always hurt the one you love’, and we all love each other and we all know that, but we still sort of hurt each other occasionally or we just misunderstand each other. We go off, you know, it builds up to something bigger than whatever it was, then we have to come down with it, then get it over with, you know, and sort it out. And so we’re still very close people. What was the second one?
Interviewer: Do you see The Beatles going on like they are at the moment, along time in the future or do you see a split very soon?
Ringo: It depends on what you mean on a split, I mean we split…
Interviewer: I mean go split your own ways and not…
Ringo: Completely no, we’ll never go… oh, I can’t say never, but we won’t go our separate ways after this album and we’ll always be tied up with each other in some way, you know because we signed a lot of papers that says we stay together for twenty years or something. And Apple closing is, you know, is silly. We have spent a lot of money in it, because we don’t earn as much as people think because if we earn a million, then the government gets ninety percent and we get ten thousand. And we didn’t sort of realize how much we were spending, you know, like someone finding out to spend ten thousand you have to make hundred and twenty, but we just spent hundred and twenty. So, what we’re doing now is tightening up on our own personal money and on the company’s money, you know, we’re not just giving as much away and hand outs and things like that, you know, as many projects… we’re going to cut down of it to we sort it out together and do it properly as a business.
Interviewer: Do you feel like you have been careless with the money?
Ringo: Yes, I think we have, but it’s not that we’re broke. On paper we’re very wealthy people, just when it gets down to pound notes we are only half wealthy. *laughs*
Interviewer: Are you considered about public opinion because there is a suggestion that your popularity isn’t strong as it use to be?
Ringo: No, it isn’t. It’s because when we first started we were the nice clean mop tops and every mother’s son and everyone loved us. Then, suddenly, you know, there’s a few things that they don’t understand and that they don’t get and then, you know, they don’t like. So, it turns them off of a bit, you know, I still think we’re very popular. It’s just that, you know, we’re men now, you know, and a bit older than those lads that started out, and we’ve got a lot of things to do, you know, and you got to do a few of them it doesn’t matter what people say. You can’t live all your life by what they want, you know, we can’t go on forever as four clean mop tops playing “She Loves You”.
Interviewer: You seem to be the more industrialist Beatle.
Ringo: No, I’m the laziest Beatle, actually.
Interviewer: Are you?
Ringo: Yes. See that’s just my image. *laughs* you know, I’m quite happy to finish an LP and go and sit back or I can just enjoy myself just sitting back and playing around with all the toys, and the kids and the wife. I enjoy playing with the wife. *laughs*
End of Interview
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