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Paul McCartney on Bonham, Moon and Ringo as drummers
Besides being one of the most successful and influential songwriters and bassists of all time, Paul McCartney plays many other instruments. He is also an excellent drummer and recorded the drum parts on many of his solo songs and with Wings over the decades.
Active in the music business since the early 1960s, McCartney had the opportunity to meet and work alongside some of the greatest drummers who ever lived, including, of course, Ringo Starr, as well as The Who’s Keith Moon and Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham. He has expressed particularly interesting views on each of them.
Paul McCartney on John Bonham, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr as drummers
Paul McCartney has already revealed that his top three favorite drummers are Ringo Starr, followed by John Bonham in second place and Keith Moon in third. He once explained why he believed they were so special and why Ringo was different from the others. “The best compliment I got from that was when I was out in L.A. in 1974 visiting John when he was doing his ‘Pussy Cats’ album with Nilsson. (…) But I remember Keith saying, ‘Say, who was that drummer on Band on the Run?’ (grinning). That was the biggest accolade I could get. I mean, my favorite drummers are Ringo, Bonham and Keith. Moony had more flash, and Bonham was a bit more flash, but Ringo is right down the center, never overplays.”
“We could never persuade Ringo to do a solo. The only thing we ever persuaded him to do was that rumble in ‘The End’ on Abbey Road. He said (sourly), ‘I hate solos.’ I agree with him. Those moments in a concert where everyone goes off for a drink. You’re left with this drummer going dabadubba dabadubba, with lights flashing, are a total yawn. A quarter-of-an hour later, the band return, out of their skulls (laughter) to play the last number. The poor drummer left sober as a judge,” Paul McCartney told Musician magazine in 1988.
Why Ringo Starr was so special according to Paul
As Paul said, Ringo was not a “flashy” drummer, which made a lot of people think of him as a player that wasn’t that good. However, he said that he was the perfect fit for The Beatles and called him a “powerhouse”.
“We just fell in love with Ringo’s drumming. Ringo was in another band and we used to go see this other band. We said: ‘God, that drummer is good’. One night, Pete (Best) couldn’t do it and Ringo sat in for him. We all just went: ‘Ooooh’, it was like ‘Oh my God! What is happening?”
“There is something funny going on’. Behind us was this powerhouse who was like taking care of the job. We went: ‘oh dear’. Even if you’re very ill, show up. Don’t let Ringo sit in for you,” (he joked) in an interview with Howard Stern. Ringo replaced Pete Best on drums in 1962 and was a fundamental part of the group’s sound.
Paul McCartney agreed that John Bonham’s drums sounded like cannons
John Bonham and Paul McCartney were friends and had the chance to record together. He played in the demo “Beware My Love” (1975) and in two tracks of the 1979 album “Back To The Egg”, that are called “Rockestra Theme” and “So Glad To See You Here”. McCartney thought he was a really powerful drummer and agreed that his drums sounded like cannons sometimes.
“John Bonham was a good friend of mine and I was a great admirer of his. I really liked the power of John. I remember (someone) asking him once ‘How do you want your tom-toms to sound?’ He said: ‘Like cannons!’ That is true. If you listen to something like ‘Kashmir’. There’s a power and he was a very powerful guy,” Paul McCartney said in an interview (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). The Beatle also said over the years that it was fantastic to play with Bonzo, that he was a great friend and a “ballsy drummer”.
Curiously, when asked by the Brazilian newspaper Estadão in 2019 to list the lineup of a dream band, his choice for the drums was Bonham. Besides the studio work, Bonham had the chance to perform live with Paul in 1979 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Also were part of that show were Pete Townshend and John Paul Jones.
Keith Moon asked Paul McCartney to join The Beatles
Curiously, although Moon and Ringo Starr were very good friends, according to The Who’s biographer Mark Blake in the book “Pretend You’re in a War”, Moon asked McCartney to join The Beatles in 1966. His relationship with his bandmates at the time was not good, but he later heard from Paul that they were “not looking for a drummer”. Thirty years later, Ringo’s son, Zak Starkey, would become The Who’s drummer.
