Ringo Starr credits "workaholic" Paul McCartney for pushing The Beatles to create more albums

The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr praised his fellow bandmate Paul McCartney for pushing the band to make more records. In an interview clip posted on YouTube by AXS TV on May 11 of Ringo Starr's past talk with Dan Rather, the legendary drummer attributed the band's extended success to the bass guitarist's "workaholic" nature.

Starr also talked about how he was thankful that there were four members of The Beatles who all kept each other in check. Starr conceded earlier in the interview that he, McCartney, Geroge Harrison, and John Lennon often got into "rows" but no matter how bad it was, it never really affected their music.

Ringo Starr called Paul McCartney the "workaholic" of The Beatles (Image via Instagram/@ringostarrmusic)

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Ringo Starr says Paul McCartney helped 'The Beatles' make "a lot more records"

Sir Richard Starkey MBE, known professionally as Ringo Starr sat down with Dan Rather during a 2018 episode of his show The Big Interview on AXS TV and opened up about the conflicts between The Beatles and the importance of Paul McCartney in the band. When Rather mentioned the stories about The Beatles not getting along, the drummer replied:

"We didn’t get along. We were four guys, we had rows. It never got in the way of the music no matter how bad the row was. Once the count in, we all gave our best. And that was a little later, too, which I think it was a natural thing, you know,"

The drummer elaborated about the band all of a sudden having lives apart from their music and children so the effort they put in despite working really hard was starting to pale a bit. Ringo stated that to this day, they always thanked Paul McCartney. Starr explained:

"Because of Paul, who was the workaholic of our band, we made a lot more records than John and I would’ve made,"

He added:

"We liked to sit around a little more and then Paul would call ‘Alright lads’, and we’d go in."

Dan Rather talked about how many people who were at the top of their respective professions "lose their moorings" but how that wasn't the case with Ringo Starr and The Beatles. As to why that was the case, Starr attributed it to him being in a band with four other guys. He thought that it was all a part of where they came from. Ringo Starr told Rather:

"There were four of us, all from the same city and we would look at each other, you know if one of us would be freaking out or being a big shot, three other people would go ‘Excuse me’ and that kept us (straight)',"

Starr recalled meeting Elvis Presley and thinking about how sad it was that he was on his own despite being surrounded by a lot of people. Ringo had his "three great mates" alongside him.

The Beatles are regarded as one of the most successful and influential musical acts of all time. Led by the vocal and songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney the band still holds the record for the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, with a whopping 19 albums. The band from Liverpool sold over 600 million albums worldwide and 177 million in the U.S. alone.

Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, the two surviving members of the band, still make music to this day. Starr's last album What's My Name came out in 2019 while his latest EP Crooked Boy dropped only last month. Paul McCartney put out his latest and 18th studio album McCartney III in 2020. He also co-produced Blackbiird from Beyoncé's latest studio album, Cowboy Carter.