"I had a blast. Thank you" - OG Beatles drummer Pete Best announces retirement

Original The Beatles drummer Pete Best seems to have announced his retirement. According to NME, the musician’s brother, Roag Best, shared an X post declaring his sibling’s retirement. The post, written by “@best_roag,” stated:

“Well what an absolutely wonderful ride we’ve had. However, everything comes to pass. My brother Pete Best has announced today he is retiring from personal appearances and performing with the group. His daughter has informed me it’s due to personal circumstances.”

The drummer reshared the post, writing:

“I had a blast. Thank you.”

Pete was first signed on with the three members who remained with The Fab Four for a long time: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. The Casbah Coffee Club was a place where The Fab Four played music more than forty times when they were just starting out.

The place first opened in 1956. According to Billboard, in the 2002 book The Beatles: The True Beginnings, Pete Best looked back on his time with the band as a positive experience.

He said he never saw being in the Beatles as a bad thing and felt those two years were full of excitement. During that time, the group improved as musicians and achieved a lot, and he felt lucky to have been a part of it. Social media users shared their best wishes for Pete following the announcement.

“Pete, you are a good man who got shortchanged but handled it with unbelievable grace! Good on you,” a social media user wrote.

“Wishing you all good things and the best possible outcomes, sir,” a netizen commented.

“Enjoy your retirement Pete. You’ve played your part in the greatest band that ever existed,” an X user shared.

Pete Best thought The Beatles would be successful in the UK

During an interview with Ireland AM in 2022, Pete Best was asked whether he knew The Beatles would be a hit someday. He said that while they always believed they would become successful in the UK music scene, something he described as maybe a bit of Liverpool confidence, they never imagined becoming global icons.

The massive success that followed the release of Love Me Do took them by surprise. He recalled:

“I had a pretty big drum sound which was led to them being the savage young Beatles. You know, so it was the atom beaters. Bill Harry from the Mersey Beat paper, he nicknamed it the atom beat not stuck with me. So, you know a lot of people, a lot of drums in Liverpool copy that sound.”

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Pete Best shared that every drummer has a unique style, including himself and Ringo Starr. He said it's up to the audience to decide what they prefer. While he wasn’t part of the Beatles during their rise to worldwide fame, he’s still proud of his time with the band. He looked back on those two years with good memories and no regrets.

When asked if he stayed in touch with the other Beatles members after leaving the band, Pete Best said he didn’t have any contact with them.

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