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Before Ringo Starr became a world-famous drummer for the British rock band The Beatles, a childhood illness changed his life and revealed his true passion. This experience showed him exactly what he was meant to do. In an interview with PEOPLE Magazine for his latest exhibit, Ringo Starr told them how he stumbled upon the art of drumming.
Ringo Starr, who is 84 years old, has just revealed his latest book titled Beats and Threads at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum, which was held in Nashville on February 19, 2025. He told PEOPLE the story behind how he found his love for drumming in a sanatorium. He was 13 years old when he first touched the drums, and he said,
"I hit the drum and I only wanted from that moment to be a drummer, and that was what my aim was."
Keep reading to know more details about Ringo Starr's time at the sanatorium that led him to his passion.
More details about Ringo Starr's childhood illness that led him to drumming
Ringo Starr is 84 years old today, but during an interview with PEOPLE Magazine, he told them about how he suffered from tuberculosis when he was just 13 years old. This was back in 1953, a few years after treatments for tuberculosis were found.
Back then, if you were infected with tuberculosis, you were sent to a sort of infirmary to stay and recover. Starr was "hospitalized" in such a place for two years till he finally got better.
In Starr's words, he recalls his stay at the sanitorium. He narrates,
"In those days, they just kept you in bed for months and they'd send in teachers... They sent this music lady in and [she had] old percussive tambourine triangles and little drums".
Starr describes the exact feeling he felt when he touched drums for the very first time. He explained,
"As she's just giving them out at random, I'm in bed ... she gives me this little drum and it was like a craziness... I hit the drum and I only wanted from that moment to be a drummer, and that was what my aim was."
Music was not the only skill they taught people who were at the facility. Ringo Starr also mentioned that he learned how to knit while staying here.
After Starr was cured of the illness, he went on to work in factories for a while but was insistent that drumming was the only thing he wanted to do. This passion and determination for art translated into his adulthood.
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Now, Ringo has been inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1999 and twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and 2015. He was also named the fifth-greatest drummer of all time by Rolling Stones.
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