The Beatles’ Ringo Starr almost missed out on joining the band because he wanted to go to America.
He was working in a dead-end job in a factory as a teenager and decided he was going to emigrate to the US with his friend John.
But the sheer amount of paperwork put them off and they decided to stay in Liverpool.
Ringo told HELLO!:
“I love the blues and wanted to go and live in Houston because I wanted to be where Lightnin’ Hopkins was – my all-time favourite blues player.
“John and I went down to the embassy and we filled in all these forms – we were just teenagers filling in all these damned forms.
“So, we filled them in and took them back to the embassy and they gave us more paperwork, with even more questions – sheets and sheets of it.
“Well, we turned back into teenagers then.
“We just ripped them up and said, ‘Sod it’.
“I often look back on my life and think, ‘what if I’d gone and lived in America?
“Because who knows where I’d have been now.”
He also told HELLO!:
“Being an only child, all I ever wanted was a brother and I had three brothers in the band.
“And the Beatles were the best band then and they’re still relevant to the next generation – who, if they’re interested in music, listen to our stuff.
“People are still to this day holding up their babies for me to look at, saying to each other, ‘there’s one of them’.
“It’s far out.”
