Ringo Starr has insisted that there is no rivalry between him and Paul McCartney, even though they are both releasing albums within a week of each other.
The drummer’s new LP ‘Ringo 2012’ was officially released yesterday while McCartney’s latest effort, ‘Kisses On The Bottom’, will be available from next Monday (February 6).
However, in an interview with Spinner, Starr claimed that he didn’t feel as if he was in competition with his fellow former Beatles member. “In all honesty, we had dinner just after Christmas together and I didn’t know he had one coming out,” he said. “I didn’t know that it was going to come out within weeks of each other.”
He went on to add: “No, there’s no rivalry. Paul is Paul, Ringo is Ringo and this is what we do. We don’t phone each other and say, ‘You can’t you bring your record out because I’ve got one!’. We live our lives, we make our music and pick a release date. This was the date we picked and that’s just how it is.”
Starr also had some words of his encouragement The Rolling Stones and said he hoped they would tour this year to mark their 50th anniversary. Following reports last year that that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were set to put aside their differences to discuss the possibility of playing live together, he said: “I only advise everybody to get out there and play and I hope The Rolling Stones pull it together and I hope Keith and Mick pull it together and stop squabbling and get out there and do it – says Ringo!”