(cheering and applause)
(cheering and applause)
That's nice,
(cheering and applause)
It never gets old. Does it?
Never does.
(laughter)
You should at least pretend
it gets old sometimes.
It doesn't get old.
Doesn't get old?
I'm not gonna pretend
You walk into a pizza parlor
and everybody does that
They all stand up,
(laughter)
I've never eaten a pizza in me life.
You've never had a pizza?
Never had a pizza
We gotta get you a pizza
Big news!
Would you stop making noise over there,
He just hit his tambourine.
Anyway, good rocking, that was great
They did a good job. Didn't they?
A great band you're lucky.
Well, I think they're lucky
Well you would
To work with a man of
my talent and ability.
Okay. That was embarrassing.
First of all, I, we've talked before,
you know that I'm one of those
people that knows more about
you than you know about you.
I do.
Yeah. It's, I'm one of
those people that has the,
the books, and the bootlegs,
and the rare bootleg
unreleased of you guys
tuning your instruments,
and sleeping and making chili.
(laughter)
And you must, it must
be kind of weird to meet
people like me because it's like,
you've just lived your life
and you did these great things,
but it's just your life.
Yes, but I have to rely
on people like you now.
Why is that?
I have no memory.
You forgot everything.
Tell me everything
So I can tell you that On March 5th, 1968,
I was with you yes,
You had an amazing bagel
Yeah, no, there, there really
hasn't been, for example,
there were these, I think
there's one, isn't it this week,
Frank, that there's,
there's one of these Beatles
conventions where all the
people come together and
it borders on craziness.
I haven't gone to those,
but it borders on craziness
where they have soap
that's of your head, and
they're praying to it. I mean,
Let me tell you, I've
never been to one either.
You've never gone to a Beatles convention?
No but a lot of people who do go say
they have a good time.
Oh that's good.
The only problem I have with it,
that a lot of the stuff they're selling,
is sort of stuff from
now, and not from then
Its not like the old stuff, right
It's like they make a guitar and,
They do
Right, or they say this
is an actual, you know.
And they make my head out of soap.
(laughter)
Actually, I did that.
I'm curious. You have been
super, super famous now for,
for over 40 years,
Yup
You know, I think about
I've been famous longer than
you've been on this planet.
It's true. That's
actually a true statement.
Cause you're 35 now. Right?
I'm 28, actually, but you're very close
and I'm getting, next year
I'll be, I'll be 25, next year.
Nah, you're going down.
Looking forward to that,
No, I, you,
And you think about
it, I was thinking you,
can you even remember when
you weren't Ringo Starr,
when you were just Richard Starkey,
normal guy walking around,
do you remember being Richard
Starkey, a normal fella?
(laughter)
I'm thinking,
You're thinking? You always
nod your head like that
when you think?
yeah I do when I'm thinking
Cause that's a real problem.
I know
Hey don't point out my problems.
Okay. Lets talk about my problems
Anyway. Yeah, that was a long time ago.
And I lost my family. You
know, my children don't say,
Hey Ringo, do you want a cup of tea?
Right?
They say, hi, dad and darling.
I called you darling earlier
and you didn't like it.
I wasn't going to mention it
(laughter)
That's very nice of you.
You're, you once said to your mother,
I read this in an interview,
you once said to your mother,
all people over the age
of 60 should be shot.
Yes. I used to think as a teenager,
anyone at 60 should be shot.
They were just taking
up space on the planet.
Right, So I'm just curious.
How old are you now?
Time to be shot.
(laughter and applause)
Lets not have that,
Lets not have that,
But anyway, the other line,
My mother, when I was 40,
my mother who remembered
everything, as mothers do.
Said when I was 40, happy
birthday son, I don't suppose
you still think like you
used to, about 60 year olds.
And I said, no, not anymore, mom.
It was funny at the time.
(laughter)
How do we have proof!
Have to be there
We could look it up in a book
What do you think of, these days
there's this phenomenon
where pop stars don't come up
the way the Beatles came up where it was
a very organic experience,
there are pop groups that
are put together and
they're sort of packaged.
There are shows like
American idol, which began
in England and has come over
here and become a big success.
Are you comfortable with that phenomenon?
I don't take much of an interest in it.
I mean, I come from, as
you said, I come from,
first of all, get your instrument,
then playing with
friends, playing in clubs,
playing in theaters, playing,
in our case, stadiums.
Right,
Well, you know, I play
for the joy of playing.
My dream was to play drums, which I do
and to play with good players,
and then play with great
players, which I still am.
So, you know, my dreams
are still coming to,
and I'm still playing. So that's good.
The ones they put together,
I don't understand it
really because you put like
five strangers in a room,
you tell them what to
sing, some producer will
take a line from that
one, a line from this one,
they'll go on stage
pretending they had something
to do with this,
Right,
And then the minute it's not working,
they just get dumped.
Right,
They also do a strange thing,
which is they tell people
what their personality is.
Yeah.
You're the tough one, you're
the cuddly one, whereas
Conan's the tall one,
I was going to go for sexy,
but you went for tall,
(laughter)
Tall and sexy,
Thank you. That'll be,
I like it when you say it.
Sexy
Yeah, people just tuning
in, Oh, there we are, Hi!
(laughter)
But its funny because one
of the things that was
so great about the experience
you went through was
that it was all organic and real.
Everyone had their own identity
and that came through and
today I think they would
be saying, 'Okay, John,
we're going to make you
this one, and we're going
to make Paul this one,
and Ringo that one,'
And it seems like a very odd way,
If they ever do that I'd
like them to make me taller,
(laughter)
I have a lot of pull with these people,
Ill see what I can do.
I know I can tell,
Don't be sarcastic, now,
(laughter)
now you're playing a song tonight for us,
which is called never without you.
Yes.
This is a tribute to George Harrison.
Exactly.
And first of all, my condolences that,
that this season is necessary to do,
Well, you know, the song, you know,
George has gone physically,
but spiritually,
he's still with us through
his friendship with me,
and his music. So the song is about that,
He's still, he's still with us anyway.
Right. Right. And this is a,
that's gotta be a powerful
thing to perform for people.
It is, I mean, You know,
though we've been on this role now
promoting the record Ringo Rama,
and mainly playing this song,
It's still an emotional moment,
especially when I've put in,
in the song words that George has written.
You know, from never with,
I'm having a moment.
You don't even know who I am right now.
Yes I do. Yes I do Ted Koppel
It's coming back, its coming
back, within you without.
Right
Some of his lines have
been put in the song.
So all things must pass,
Right.
So, you know, it was, for me,
it was a nice way to
say, you know, I know,
I knew George loved me. I loved George.
And this is a song for him.
What's also nice is that you got Clapton,
is to play on it.
It was the only guitarist
I would have on this track
because they, George and
Eric, had a great relationship
and Eric and I, and George knows,
So I wanted him to play on the
record and we called him up
and he said, okay.
What was nice is there, was
this amazing tribute at the,
was it the Royal Albert Hall?
Royal Albert Hall
for George, And I think this
is just a few months ago.
It was last November, the 29th.
Yeah. And it was, I, I
didn't, wasn't able to go,
but everyone told me that it
had the spirit of a party,
which was probably what he
would have wanted something and
all these great musicians
who knew and loved him coming
together and playing his music.
That's the point, everybody
on stage knew George,
He knew them. It wasn't
like, we're doing a charity,
let's call Conan, You know.
(laughter)
I waited by the phone Ringo.
Yeah. But you know,
I sat by that phone for hours waiting,
call never came. I play a mean Moraccas,
But you know what I mean?
It was all the people that
loved him, He loved them,
He knew them, So it was great
that we all played together.
Right.
And then we all hung
out together was great.
We all had our George
stories, and our moments.
Sure.
It was really a cool thing to do.
Well, we're thrilled that you're here,
We're also thrilled that you're gonna play
this song for you.
It's just, it's a real joy for me,
when you come on the
program and it's really,
I'm also really happy
that you're out there,
and you're making good music,
and you're doing your thing.
And don't forget this summer. I'm on tour.
He's on tour and he's also
got an album Ringo Rama,
which is out there Ringo Starr.
He'll be back at the end of the show.
We'll be right back with Eddie.
