Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey recently made a huge admission regarding his relationship with the Beatles’ music via Rock Celebrities.
He shared his thoughts in an interview with Q104.3 New York. The drummer noted that he intentionally evaded listening to his father’s iconic band during his youth. He explained how the Beatles’ fame affected his own musical career.
He said that as a young musician, he resented The Beatles due to their fame which he believes overshadowed his own early bands, drawing attention only to him and not his bandmates, which led him to distance himself from The Beatles for many years.
“I’ll be honest. When I was a kid, The Beatles were in my way, if you see what I mean,” Starkey said. “I was in groups from a young really young age, and I was getting press attention, but they were only paying me attention and they weren’t paying the rest of the band attention. And I got bit resentful of this, and that sort of got me into a place where I sort of shunned The Beatles for a long time.”
Starkey’s perspective changed dramatically when he finally gave the band’s music a proper listen despite this initial resistance.
“A few people have said that’s why I have an identity of my own, you know,” he continued. “But at the end of the day, when I did listen to The Beatles, when I was about 25, it was like, ‘Wow, these guys are amazing! … I should have been listening to this forever.’ I’m glad I didn’t, you know, because I got into other things.”
Zak Starkey, who had been part of The Who since 1996, was recently fired by the band in April, before being reinstated just a few days later.
However, the following month, he was out once again, just weeks after the band had announced a North American farewell tour which wrapped up in September.
