The Surprising Jab at Paul McCartney That Ringo Starr Slipped Into a Post-Beatles Song

Ringo Starr is considered one of the most amicable Beatles. He was more or less left out of the three-way fight his former bandmates were entangled in towards the end of their career. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have opinions on the way things soured. One nasty conversation with Paul McCartney in the middle of their breakup had Starr throwing the gloves off. Though his bandmates said much worse to each other, learn more about the surprising jab Starr gave McCartney in one of his solo pursuits.

A Fight Between Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney Led to an Insult-Filled Song

Though Starr has a reputation for being sweet and sympathetic, that didn’t mean he was immune to the fighting. The end of the Beatles’ career was marked by numerous issues. That kind of thing would weigh on anyone, even the middleman.

While the band was in conversations to end things (the legal part of their partnership, anyway), Starr went to see McCartney, who had all but given up on the band’s future. McCartney, believing that Starr had been sent by the rest of his bandmates and label figureheads, let his anger get the better of him.

“Ringo came to see me,” McCartney once recalled. “He was sent, I believe – being mild-mannered, the nice guy – by the others, because of the dispute. So Ringo arrived at the house, and I must say I gave him a bit of verbal. I said: ‘You guys are just messing me around.’ He said: ‘No, well, on behalf of the board and on behalf of The Beatles and so and so, we think you should do this.’”

“I was just fed up with that,” he added. “It was the only time I ever told anyone to get out! It was fairly hostile. But things had got like that by this time. It hadn’t actually come to blows, but it was near enough.”

“I went to see Paul,” Starr added from his perspective. “To my dismay, he went completely out of control, shouting at me, prodding his fingers towards my face, saying: ‘I’ll finish you now’ and ‘you’ll pay.’ He told me to put my coat on and get out. I did so.”

“Early 1970”

This fight was enough for Starr to take a sonic swing at McCartney. His other bandmates were doing so. Why shouldn’t he get in on the action?

Lives on a farm, got plenty of charm, beep, beep / He’s got no cows but he’s sure got a whole lotta sheep / And brand new wife and a family / And when he comes to town / I wonder if he’ll play with me, Starr sings in his song about the end of the Beatles’ tenure, “Early 1970.”

It’s certainly not the rudest thing anyone said to McCartney during this time, but it might have stung a little more considering who delivered the insult. Starr, however, made up for the comment by expressing that he is willing to let bygones be bygones. “When I go to town, I wanna see all three,” he sings at the end of this song, forgiving McCartney for their fight.

(Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)