The member Dave Grohl called “the foundation” of The Beatles
Paul, John, George, or Ringo? It’s the question every Beatles fan inevitably faces. You have to pick a camp and be ready to defend it—prepared to argue why your chosen member was the most vital, the true heart of the band. Dave Grohl picked his, and he’s got his argument locked and loaded.
“If The Beatles were the original rock’n’roll four-piece, then Ringo was the original rock’n’roll drummer,” the Nirvana drummer said in his opening argument. Standing up to face the metaphorical jury, this is his major point, and the evidence is decades of music since, as he added, “This was the template for the next 40 years of music.”
Ringo Starr often gets the short end of the stick. The infamous misquote—“Ringo wasn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles”—wrongly attributed to John Lennon, has only fueled the perception that Starr was somehow the least essential member of the band. Add to that his lack of songwriting credits in a group overflowing with legendary songwriters, and he’s often relegated to the background. Conversations about the Beatles usually go: Paul was doing this, John was doing that, George was off being quietly brilliant, and Ringo was… there. But Dave Grohl would argue that out of all four members, Starr was the glue that held it all together.
“Ringo seemed to be the foundation of The Beatles,” he said as his next argument and the evidence for it is stacked up. In fact, Starr’s addition to the lineup in 1962, replacing Pete Best, was the making of them. Before that, the band were having no luck. When their future producer George Martin met them, he was completely unconvinced, largely due to Best’s playing and the feeling that the band lacked a solid beat to pin them down. When Starr joined, he not only brought them that, helping them get that record deal, but he levelled it all up.
“His swing and backbeat carry so many of The Beatles’ songs. Back then, the recording depended on the feel of the song. There was no digital manipulation of drum tracks, so it was up to the drummer to dictate that feel. And Ringo had his own sound,” Grohl said, continuing his defence. The fact that Starr’s education in drumming often came down to jazz truly made all the difference to the band. After replacing Pete Best’s more typical, basic beats, Starr could add more texture and intrigue that Grohl sees as the power behind everything.
It’s so essential that it became part of his language as a musician. “It’s the Ringo Roll,” he said, coining that phrase as part of Foo Fighters’ own language as he explained, “When we’re in the studio and I want one of those, I tell Taylor: ‘Hey, do a Ringo in there’. And we all know what that means.” That unspoken understanding of Starr’s sound, style and impact is once again proof of his power.
But mostly, for Grohl, his love for Starr comes down to the absolute pinnacle he stands for. “Pull all the instruments out, and you’d still know it was a Beatles song. And that’s the sound of a signature drummer. It’s the kind of thing drummers strive for all career, but not all of them make it,” he said, seeing what Starr has pulled off as the ultimate goal for any musician.
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