Ringo Starr is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and actor with a net worth of around $450 million as of 2022. He is best known for being the drummer of the legendary British Rock band, The Beatles. He is also the richest drummer in the world.
After the Beatles, he also had a solo career and was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honors for services to music.
Prior to being in the Beatles, Ringo was in a few skiffle groups. The bands included Clayton Square, Texans and The Hurricanes. The Hurricanes were already one of the leading bands in Liverpool when Lennon asked Starr to join the Beatles.
On August 14, 1962, Starr accepted Lennon’s offer to join the band and form the lineup that would hold until their breakup in 1970. Together with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and John Lennon, the Beatles changed the course of popular music becoming the biggest band in history, selling over 800 million album units.
Ringo although primarily a drummer, sang in a few Beatles’ hit songs including “With a Little Help from My Friends”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Good Night” and their cover of “Act Naturally”.
The Beatles’ album details are given below:
Albums | Release Date | Sales |
Please Please Me | March 22, 1963 | 1.5 million |
With the Beatles | November 22, 1963 | 935 thousand |
A Hard Day’s Night | July 10, 1964 | 335 thousand |
Beatles For Sale | December 4, 1964 | 1.18 million |
Help! | August 6, 1965 | 3.5 million |
Rubber Soul | December 3, 1965 | 10 million |
Revolver | August 5, 1966 | 5.87 million |
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band | May 26, 1967 | 25 million |
The Beatles | November 22, 1968 | 14 million |
Yellow Submarine | January 13, 1969 | 1.15 million |
Abbey Road | September 26, 1969 | 16.3 million |
Let It Be | May 8, 1970 | 8.5 million |
His Beatles career was succeeded by his modest solo career with 19 solo studio albums. Some of them are:
Albums | Release Date | Sales |
Sentimental Journey | March 27, 1970 | n/a |
Ringo | November 2, 1973 | 1.5 million |
Bad Boy | April 21, 1978 | n/a |
I Wanna Be Santa Claus | October 19, 1999 | n/a |
Give More Love | September 13, 2017 | n/a |
He only sang in his solo albums and didn’t play drums. As of 2020, RIngo owns a net worth of $350 million.
Ringo owns a house in Surrey worth around $24 million to $32 million. The property spans a massive 18,322 square feet and consists of 8 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms.
The house is reminiscent of an ancient castle with large trees in the back and a massive yard. He owns another $3.25 million ranch in the Los Angeles area where he plans to settle, selling the one in Surrey.
Most of Ringo’s cars have been auctioned off to charity.
Ringo has his own charity, The Lotus Foundation, that supports the advancement of social welfare in diverse areas including:
Besides, he has personally auctioned off paintings, pictures, and cars for the charity that has raised $9 million for the charity.
In fact, he enjoys philanthropic activities and is constantly searching for a way to help people.
Ringo’s tax and financial details are unknown, however, he moved to Monte Carlo to escape taxes from his home country of Britain. However, he did return.
Ringo was born Richard Starkey on 7 July 1940 at Madryn Street, Liverpool to parents Richard Starkey and Elsie Gleave, both of whom were bakers. His father later developed a drinking habit after Ringo’s birth which caused their parents to separate.
As a child, Ringo was extremely weak and frequently ill. At age 6, he developed appendicitis whose treatment caused him to fall in a coma for days. His was illiterate and a poor kid in academics. He contracted tuberculosis in 1953 and was admitted to a sanitarium. He started beating cabinets in the place which grew to his love of drumming.
"I was in the hospital band ... That's where I really started playing. I never wanted anything else from there on ... My grandparents gave me a mandolin and a banjo, but I didn't want them. My grandfather gave me a harmonica ... we had a piano – nothing. Only the drums."
After he was released from the Sanitarium, he worked in a railway for “warm clothes”. In 1956, he finally acquired a stable job as a machine apprentice where he met Roy Trafford and with whom he formed his first band.
Starr’s first marriage was with Maureen Cox in 1965 with the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein as best man and George Harrison as the witness. He has three children from the marriage; Zak, Jason, and Lee.
The marriage ended in 1975 following Starr’s repeated infidelities. He later admitted to being “a drunk, a wife-beater, and an absent father”. Maureen died of Leukaemia in 1994 at the age of 48.
He then got married to actress Barbara Bach on 27 April 1981 after their first meeting on the set of the film Caveman. He also became a grandfather after the birth of his granddaughter Taita, from his first son, Zak.
Ringo Starr is 79 years old and stands 168 cm or 5 feet 6 inches.
Ringo was deeply affected by the fellow Beatles member's death and has not spoken to the public about his feelings.