By Michaela Gordoni
Beatles legend Ringo Starr recently made a rare comment on his sobriety, thanking God for it.
“Well, I ended up in a rehab because I was not treating myself or anyone around me with any respect,” said the artist at his 85th birthday celebration on Monday. “It was all about me, and I came out, and I haven’t had a drink since. Thank the Lord.”
In 2015, Starr told the Times of London that he can’t really remember the ’70s and ’80s.
“I was drunk,” he affirmed. “Some of those years are absolutely gone.”
The Beatles’ breakup greatly affected his stability.
“I was mad,” he said. “For 20 years. I had breaks in between of not being.”
In 1989, both Starr and his wife, Barbara Bach, went into rehab for drug and alcohol abuse.
“Eight days in, I decided, ‘I’m here to get help because I know I’m sick,” he said. “I just did whatever they asked me and, thank God, it pulled me through.”
He said previously, “We would sit around for hours and talk about what we were going to do, and of course I’d get so bleeding drunk I couldn’t move. I got involved with a lot of different medications and you can listen to my records go downhill as the amount of medication went up.”
He once recalled that they used to spend a lot going on trips and stocking up on alcohol. They would then “hide and get deranged.”
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“I came to one Friday afternoon and was told by the staff that I’d trashed the house so badly they thought there had been burglars, and I’d trashed Barbara so badly they thought she was dead,” Starr said.
Their daughter, Francesca Gregorini, said, “It was their drugs heyday. Their troubles made me a better academic. I was always hidden away in a room reading because Mum and Dad were out of it.”
Now with the 37 years of sobriety under his belt, Starr loves his life.
“I live in the now,” he said. “I didn’t plan any of it. I love that life I’m allowed to live.”
He’s also amazed that he is as old as he is.
“It blows me away,” he said. “I look in the mirror and I’m 24. I never got older than 24.”
Starr and Bach celebrated 43 years of marriage this year. Starr first met Bach at LAX airport in 1980.
“I think I love Barbara as much [today] as I did at LAX — and I’m beyond blessed that she loves me and we’re still together,” he said in 2015.
Bach said in the same interview, “I love the man, and that’s it.”
With many years of sobriety and his love by his side, the legendary artist continues to find joy in life, despite his old age.
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