John Lennon named The Beatles member he feared would ‘end up poor’

The Beatles’ member John Lennon names the one member of his band he was worried for after the iconic group went their separate ways.

Ringo Starr, who was a remarkable drummer and was also an “anchoring” factor to the Hey Jude hitmakers and their dynamics, often putting out the fire of conflicts that arose between the members, Lennon was concerned for Starr’s musical prospects.

In an exclusive conversation with Bob Harris on The Old Grey Whistle Test he spoke of all the band members, saying, “I’m pleased that everyone is doing well, I’m more pleased that Ringo is doing well and that he’s got himself a good niche because I knew Paul would be alright.”

Additionally in his conversation with Playboy, the last interview he gave to the outlet before his assassination in 1980, “It’s the Muhammad Ali line, you know. I couldn’t sing it, but it was perfect for Ringo. He could say ‘I’m the greatest’ and people wouldn’t get upset. Whereas if I said ‘I’m the greatest,’ they’d all take it so seriously,” he remarked of Starr’s masterpiece, I’m The Greatest.

“I don’t want Ringo to end up poor, having to play the northern nightclubs…because the worst thing in the world for an ex-pop star in England is to end up playing Bradford or Darlington, the northern nightclubs because they are really awful places … The people eating chips and scampi while you’re trying to be heard,” Lennon further mentioned to journalist Ray Connolly.