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Ringo: A Fab Life (2026, ECW Press) by music journalist Tom Doyle

Were we needing a new biography about Ringo Starr? Although I doubt many people would say yes, I found the book not relying too heavily on ground already traveled by many Beatles biographers. Doyle interviewed Starr several times for the book along with others in the Ring’s orbit. His publisher explains the unusual writing format as an episodic, mosaic format. Loosely following a timeline, Doyle with take an event or part of Starr’s life and briefly follow it through instead of interrupting that subject and coming back to it a hundred pages later. For example, The Who drummer Kenny Jones presents young Zak Starkey with his first drum kit and tudors him on playing. Skip ahead to Zak becoming a professional drummer, his work with his dad, and then onward to replacing Jones as The Who drummer, and the fallout of being fired. All of that explained in a short chapter before moving onward with dad Ringo’s story.

I was particularly interested in the period after the Beatles, which is worthy of a book by itself. Ringo got off to a slow start, but he soared high (briefly), then did a steady descent before some major life and career repair.

The early years and the Beatle period was fun, but familiar reading. Doyle does summarize, doesn’t dwell on the music, and tries to capture the Ringo some fresh perspective, but what on Earth have we not heard about Ringo already. Well, there are more than a few things.

After the Beatles, Ringo actively sought to find his path, and a lot of doors were open to him. He didn’t feel compelled to immediately make big selling pop records. While he released several successful singles (with help from George Harrison), his first two albums were: a set of standards and big band era songs, orchestrated by various producers; and an album of country songs recorded in Nashville. These were not albums that fans or radio embraced, but it scratched an itch he had.

The high point of that early period was the Ringo album, which sold well and had several chart hits, and involved the other ex-Beatles as well. After that, until the latter years of the millennium, his albums were of declining quality and interest. Doyle does not spend much time on any of his albums, but does note that as his drinking, drug use and lack of career focus increased, his music, acting and popularity declined. In the 1980s, he was circling the drain.

Ringo-world was a big party that never ended. It wasn’t until he hit bottom in the 1980s, pretty much all aspects of his life and career, that he and wife Barbara Bach went to rehab that he got his life turned around. He’s darn lucky.

His revival is definitely worth reading. At age 86, Ringo seems right where he wants to be. A couple things are clear. One, Ringo never stopped being that affable, funny character. Go back to his Beatle days and he’s retained a lot of the charm and humor through the years. Second, he never seemed to take life too seriously, which I guess you can when you’re an ex-Beatle. And, despite all the negativity over his drumming, he’s greatly respected by opinions that count.

A great summer read.