Ringo Starr Reveals 1 Long-Standing Rumor Is True

Beatles legend Ringo Starr has confirmed that one long-standing rumor about his life is actually true.

Starr, 84, dropped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday, January 28, to promote his new country and western album, Look Up, with host Jimmy Kimmel asking him to set the record straight since he’s been “famous for a very, very long time.”

With multiple Beatles biopics on the horizon, Starr was quizzed about whether the first time he ever “smoked weed” was with Bob Dylan (true!) and why he’s never eaten a slice of pizza.

“I’ve never had a pizza. There goes the people in the back going, ‘What?’” Starr joked.

The Jimmy Kimmel Live! audience gasped when Starr admitted that he’d never had curry either, though he had a good reason for his dietary restrictions.

“I’m allergic to several items,” Starr noted. “With pizza, you don’t know what they’re putting in it half the time. Or the curry. So, I’m pretty strict with myself because it makes me ill immediately.”

Starr was afflicted by a number of life-threatening illnesses during his childhood, when a bout of appendicitis led to him briefly falling into a coma after developing inflammation of his abdomen. He would later be confined to a hospital for two years due to contracting tuberculosis in 1953.

Starr told Kimmel that it’s true he learned to knit while hospitalized as a teenager, in addition to mastering a skill that would reshape his entire life.

“This lady came in [to the hospital] with maracas, tambourines … and a little drum,” he recalled. “She gave me a drum … and from that [point], I only ever wanted to be a drummer.”

Kimmel chatted with Starr – born Richard Starkey – about how he initially developed his stage name because of his penchant for wearing rings during his time in a Liverpool street gang.

“[The gang members] would say, ‘Hey Rings! What’s happening?’ That was the start of the changing of my name,” he clarified.

He would ultimately shorten his last name from ‘Starkey’ to ‘Starr’ just before he got his big break with the Beatles.

“I was in a band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and we got a three-month job and we all changed our names,” Starr explained to Kimmel. “I thought… ‘Ringo Starkey’ doesn’t really work. ‘Ringo Starr’ – fabulous!”

One tongue-in-cheek rumor that Starr wasn’t willing to corroborate is whether he “owned and operated” a yellow submarine, aside from the rocker quipping: “I can’t talk about that!”

Starr released his first album in five years, Look Up, earlier in January. The country and western record is co-produced by 12-time Grammy Award winner T Bone Burnett and features contributions from Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh and bluegrass singer Alison Krauss.

The former Beatle also filmed a tribute concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to air on CBS and Paramount+ as a benefit for the American Red Cross and those impacted by the California wildfires. Ringo & Friends at the Ryman will feature some of Starr’s most memorable hits performed alongside Sheryl Crow, Jack White and The War and Treaty, among others.

“It is always a thrill to play the Ryman and this time we are going country,” Ringo said of his CBS show. “T Bone has put together a great show. I’m excited to hear my songs done in a country vein and to play with this incredible group of musicians. It will be two nights of peace, love and country music.”

Ringo & Friends at the Ryman will air this spring on CBS and is set to stream on Paramount+.