Celebrity
Pete Best said he holds no resentment for Paul McCartney. Still, he said he hasn't spoken to his former bandmate in years, despite what McCartney said.
Published on July 10, 2023
2 min readIn 1962, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison decided they wanted to fire drummer Pete Best. They unceremoniously replaced him with Ringo Starr and, in many ways, forgot about Best. Years later, though, Best received some recognition when tracks he drummed on appeared on Anthology 1. While McCartney reportedly called Best to make amends, the one-time Beatles drummer said this never happened.
Pete Best said he hasn’t spoken to Paul McCartney in years
After The Beatles fired Best, they dropped all contact with him. Best briefly continued his music career before finding work elsewhere. He didn’t see money from the recordings he did with The Beatles until they released Anthology 1 in 1995. Best drummed on multiple songs on the album. According to writer Phillip Norman, McCartney called Best to let him know he would be receiving royalties.
“The first he knew about it was a phone call from the one who’d been so keen to get rid of him — the first time they’d spoken since it happened,” Norman wrote. “‘Some wrongs need to be righted,’ Paul told him. ‘There’s some money here that’s owing to you and you can take it or leave it.'”
Best took the money, but he said Apple Corps executive Neil Aspinall called him, not McCartney.
“Paul McCartney claims he called me but he didn’t,” Best told the Irish Times in 2020.
Pete Best said he would like to speak with Paul McCartney
Best felt unsteadied by his firing, but he said he no longer holds onto anger toward his former bandmates.
“I’ve nothing to forgive [McCartney] about … they made a decision as young men which was safeguarding their future,” he said. “Okay, it could have been handled better. I was the fall guy for it, I suffered, but I’m not holding them to task over it. If I’d have been in the same situation and I was another member of the band, maybe I’d have been one of the bad guys.”
He added that he still would like to actually sit down and speak with McCartney, the only surviving Beatle he worked with.
“We’re senior statesmen now,” Best told the Telegraph in 2018. “How many years we’ve got left on the planet is really predictable. Let’s talk about things in general. Stick a bottle of Scotch on the table and let’s have a good old bash.”
The drummer said he has no regrets about his time with The Beatles
Immediately after The Beatles fired him, Best wished he’d never even met his former bandmates. These days, though, he looks back on his past more fondly. He said he has no regrets about the way his life turned out.
“I’ve no regrets,” he said. “I think I’m a lucky guy. I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved as a person, of the examples I’ve set to people to get on with your life, to pick yourself up. I’ve been an inspiration. And I’m proud of that.”
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