Dino Danelli, drummer for The Rascals -- "I liked him. He had great style. I never saw anyone play the way he did. I liked his simplicity. (1984 interview for The Big Beat by Max Weinberg)
George Martin -- "I did quickly realize that Ringo was an excellent drummer for what was required. He's not a technical drummer. Men like Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa would run rings around him, but he is a good solid rock drummer with a steady beat, and he knows how to get the right sound out of his drums. Above all, he does have an individual sound. You can tell Ringo's drums from anyone else's and that character was a definite asset to the Beatles' early recordings." (All You Need Is Ears, 1979)
Mike McCartney -- "There were quite a few drummers around Liverpool and I used to go home and tell Paul about Ringo. I often saw him play with Rory Storm. ...With Rory he was a very inventive drummer. He goes around the drums like crazy. He doesn't just hit them -- he invents sounds." (1983 interview for The Beatles: A Celebration by Geoffrey Guilliano, 1992)
Max Weinberg -- "More than any other drummer, Ringo Starr changed my life. The impact and memory of that band on Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 will never leave me. I can still see Ringo in the back moving that beat with his whole body, his right hand swinging off his sock cymbal while his left hand pounds the snare. He was fantastic, but I think what got to me the most was his smile. I knew he was having the time of his life." (The Big Beat, 1984)
Lenny Kaye -- "He was always meant to be utilitarian, a drummer to provide feisty beat. He did this directly with wit imagination and the famous Ringo personality. And his Spartan Ludwig kit showed his ability to cut economically to the heart of the rhythm." (interview for The Compleat Beatles, 1985)
Martin Torgoff -- "As a drummer, he was a natural, purely intuitive, remarkably tasteful, spirited, but always basic, a proponent of less is more school of minimal drumming. ...He had an uncanny understanding of John's rhythm and Paul's base line. Time and again, the Beatles rode his backbeat to glory. Precisely because he never overstated a beat, or over accented a phrase (unless it was appropriate) he managed to get more mileage out of his licks than most drummers could ever dream of. The results were extraordinary." (The Compleat Beatles, 1985)
Don Was -- "Ringo's drums are one of the greatest things you can have on a record."
Dave Ballinger -- "Technically brilliant drummers do not necessary make good rock drummers. ...You don't have to be a technical Buddy Rich type drummer, you just need to be inventive. He (Ringo) did things I would never have thought of doing." (interview for Speaking Words of Wisdom)
Chris Whitten -- " I think I understand why he (Paul) loves Ringo, now after working with him. Paul loves 50s Rock 'n' Roll and Ringo is a great 50s Rock 'n' Roll drummer." (Rhythm magazine, 1990)
Hal Howland -- "It is fascinating to trace the drummer's stylistic development from rock-steady club veteran to studio innovator ... Ringo's command of an exhaustive list of arrangements and new originals is matched only by his versitility. (review for Modern Drummer magazine, June 1995)
Motorhead - Lemmy: "Ringo's the most underrated drummer in the history of rock and roll."
Yoko Ono: "Ringo is the most underrated drummer in the industry! His drumming is like life—it gives you the most solid beat. When he drummed on my Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band album, I was totally amazed that he had no difficulty in following the very complex improvisational vocals I did – again, no overdubs. I think his incredible drumming was what made so many great Beatles songs possible. We thank you, Ringo!" (Modern Drummer December 2009)
Don Was: ""He puts the fills in the same place a guitarist would. He's not sitting there counting. He's playing to the vocal."
"He's an underrated cat, really underrated as a drummer," says Dr. John, a.k.a. Mac Rebennac, a member of the All-Starr Band Ringo recruited for last summer's U.S. tour--his first ever and the first by a Beatle since Paul brought Wings to America in 1976. (1989 Interview)
Fellow All-Starr member Nils Lofgren, from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, echoes Dr. John's praise. "It's not often I can lend my heart and soul to someone else's thing," Nils says. "But if there's someone you hit it off with and have a good feeling about, you hang on to that. And Ringo's that type of guy." (1989 Interview)
Ringo "doesn't dazzle with flashy technique and pyrotechnics," says The Cars' lead guitarist, Elliot Easton. "What he does is so much more elusive and difficult: He plays songs on the drums. Anybody who has sat down behind a drum kit in the last 45 years owes him." (USA Today)
Paul McCartney (on Larry King Live, 2007): "We loved him. And we just thought he was the very best drummer we'd ever seen. And we wanted him in the group. We were big fans of his." (and 2008, on The View): "Ringo's a great drummer -- I love you Ringo!"
George Harrison (in 1974): "Ringo's got the best back beat I've ever heard and he can play great 24-hours a day."
“Ringo is Ringo, that’s all there is to it. And he’s every bloody bit as warm, unassuming, funny, and kind as he seems. He was quite simply the heart of the Beatles.” – John Lennon
"Playing without Ringo is like driving a car on three wheels.” - George Harrison
Paul McCartney
"Paul has been recently quoted as saying that Ringo Starr is still his favorite drummer, much to the amazement of the drumming community and the world at large. McCartney's worked with Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro- he can have the pick of anyone, just about, but he still loves Ringo." --- Deborah Parisi, writing for Rhythm magazine(1990)
Paul McCartney
"Ringo is right down the center, never overplays." -- from an interview in Musician magazine (Feb. 1988)
"Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. He was a professional drummer who sang and performed and had Ringo Star-time and he was in one of the top groups in Britain but especially in Liverpool before we even had a drummer. So Ringo's talent would have come out one way or the other as something or other. Ringo is a damn good drummer. He is not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way Paul's bass playing is underrated. I think Paul and Ringo stand up with any of the rock musicians. Not technically great -- none of us are technical musicians. None of us could read music. None of us can write it. But as pure musicians, as inspired humans to make the noise, they are as good as anybody." -John Lennon, Playboy 1980
Emmy winning writer Bill Stainton: Imagine you’re a drummer in the 60s. Most rock and roll drumming is simple, bubblegum stuff. Then somebody—say, John Lennon—starts shaking things up by bringing in songs like She Said, She Said; Strawberry Fields Forever; and A Day In The Life. Songs for which there is simply no precedent in rock history. You then, as the drummer, come up with drum parts that are not just good, but so astonishingly innovative that it’s all but impossible to imagine the songs played any other way! “Yes, but I can play anything Ringo played,” the detractors will say. To which I reply, “So can I. I can also sit down at my computer and retype Hamlet, but that doesn’t make me Shakespeare.” I mean, who’s the real artist here: the guy who can copy something note for note, or the guy who came up with it in the first place?
