Credit: Rob ShanahanIn advance of his 80th birthday tomorrow, July 7, Ringo Starr has revealed that during the mid-1970s, The Beatles turned down an extremely lucrative offer to reunite because they weren’t happy that the event’s opening act was to involve a Great White shark.
Starr tells The Sunday Mirror that in 1975, pay-television impresario Bill Sargent had offered the Fab Four 50 million pounds — equivalent to about $250 million today — to reunite, but the rock legends decided not to do it after considering that the opening act was going to feature a man fighting an 18-foot shark.
“We did talk one time. There was a crazy offer out there,” Ringo tells the newspaper. “We called each other to see what we think. We decided not to do it because the opening act was a guy biting a shark. So we thought no.”
Having said that, Starr reveals that he thinks the Beatles likely would have eventually reunited had the late John Lennon and George Harrison lived longer than they did.
“If John and George had not died [in 1980 and 2002, respectively,] there was surely a possibility of that,” Ringo maintains. “Paul [McCartney] and I are still on the road. John would have still been on the road. I don’t know about George.”
He adds, “We’d still be doing what we love to do. Maybe separately, maybe together. Nobody knows.”
Ringo also points out that after The Beatles finished what became the final album they recorded, Abbey Road, “I did not walk away thinking that’s the last album. I thought, ‘We’ll be back in how many months and we’ll do another.'”
In addition, Starr says that after The Beatles finished their final tour, “I didn’t think it would be the last time we’d ever tour together either.”
By Matt Friedlander
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