For more than half a century, Beatles fans have wondered about the reunion that never happened.
Now Ringo Starr has offered an answer that makes that lost possibility feel even more painful.
The drummer believes The Beatles could have found their way back into a studio together if John Lennon and George Harrison had lived.
“I do think we possibly would have got together sometime,” Starr told Page Six, reflecting on the decades since the band went its separate ways.
For Ringo, the thought isn’t simply about four legendary musicians making another record.
At 86, what he remembers most isn’t the fame or the screaming crowds.
It’s having three brothers.
‘I Miss George’
The Beatles officially existed for only a relatively small portion of Starr’s life, yet those years permanently changed all four men.
Looking back, Ringo believes time might eventually have brought John, Paul, George and himself together again.
“I do think we possibly would have got together sometime from, you know, John leaving us to now, if we were all still around,” he said.
His thoughts quickly turned to Harrison.
“And George, you know, I miss George.”
Lennon died in 1980 at the age of 40 after being shot outside his New York City apartment.
Harrison died from cancer in 2001. He was 58.
Their deaths permanently closed the door on a complete Beatles reunion, leaving Starr and Paul McCartney as the group’s two surviving members.
‘I Had Three Brothers’
Asked what he misses most about being a Beatle, Starr didn’t choose the records, the stadiums or even the extraordinary cultural phenomenon surrounding the group.
He chose the friendship.
“The friendship, the togetherness, the support of each other,” Starr said.
That bond held particular meaning for him because of his childhood.
“I’m an only child. I had three brothers.”
Like real brothers, the Beatles didn’t always get along.
There were arguments and periods of separation, something Starr now describes as part of the relationship.
There were “little get-togethers” and “little get-aparts.”
But underneath it was something he still remembers fondly.
“For me, it was great,” he said.
And when those four musicians played together, Ringo believes the chemistry spoke for itself.
“Musically it was dynamite, which it still is out there.”
Perhaps most extraordinary is how quickly everything happened.
As Starr pointed out, the Beatles’ extraordinary journey unfolded in just eight years.
Ringo And Paul Never Lost Their Friendship
The four can never reunite, but the surviving Beatles have remained part of each other’s lives.
Starr revealed that he and McCartney still speak “a couple of times a month.”
When circumstances allow, the relationship becomes even more ordinary — and perhaps more touching because of it.
If Ringo is visiting England to see family and McCartney is there, they’ll arrange dinner or simply spend time together.
Music has also continued connecting them.
Starr said he appears on McCartney’s latest record, while McCartney has contributed to numerous Ringo projects over the years.
Paul would arrive with his bass and play.
After everything that happened — Beatlemania, the breakup, decades of separate careers and the loss of Lennon and Harrison — Starr can describe their relationship with remarkable simplicity.
“We’re still pals.”
Four Beatles Stories Are Heading To The Screen
Interest in the Beatles has hardly faded, and another enormous project is now preparing to tell their story to a new generation.
Director Sam Mendes is working on four biographical movies, with each film focusing on a different Beatle.
Harris Dickinson is set to portray John Lennon, Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn will portray George Harrison and Barry Keoghan will take on Ringo Starr.
The four films are scheduled to arrive simultaneously in 2028.
Starr called the idea “amazing,” although he acknowledged the unusual challenge involved in turning four interconnected lives into separate movies.
The surviving Beatles have also had to accept that these films aren’t documentaries.
“It’s a story of four stories,” Starr explained.
Each Beatle will have his own perspective, while their lives inevitably intersect.
Ultimately, Starr and McCartney had to loosen their grip on precisely how everything would be depicted.
“We just said, ‘Okay, it’s a movie.’”
Ringo Is Still Making New Music At 86
Starr isn’t spending his life simply looking backward.
Earlier this year, he released Long Long Road, his 22nd solo album and his second co-written and produced by T Bone Burnett.
The record includes collaborations with Sheryl Crow and St. Vincent.
Its title also reflects the way Starr now views his extraordinary journey.
He said he had been thinking about the road he has traveled — beginning in Liverpool, moving through several bands and eventually becoming one of The Beatles.
“All those stops on your walk of life,” he said. “It’s so far out.”
That road hasn’t ended.
Starr continues touring with his All Starr Band.
On October 1, he is scheduled to return to Forest Hills Stadium for the first time since The Beatles played two sold-out shows there in 1964, the group’s first-ever stadium concerts.
‘No, It’s Not’
Even at 86, Starr hasn’t convinced himself to stop.
Sometimes he thinks about it.
“Sometimes mentally I say, ‘Oh, that’s enough,’” he admitted.
The feeling apparently doesn’t last very long.
“A week later I say, ‘No, it’s not.’”
He even has a characteristically simple explanation for maintaining his youthful appearance.
“That’s all the blueberries and broccoli.”
Yet behind the humor is the reality of a man who has lived long enough to see an extraordinary amount of his own history become legend.
Fans remember The Beatles as four figures on album covers, stages and grainy footage.
Ringo remembers something more intimate.
He remembers the friends who stood beside him.
He remembers the support.
He remembers being an only child who suddenly found himself with three brothers.
Paul is still there, still a friend, still occasionally making music with him.
John and George are not.
And perhaps that is what makes Ringo’s belief about a possible reunion so poignant.
The Beatles didn’t necessarily need to remain frozen forever in their breakup.
Given enough time, Starr believes the four men might have found their way back to one another.
Not merely for nostalgia.
Not just for one more photograph.
But to make music again.