Pete Best, the original drummer for the Beatles, has announced his retirement.
The news was confirmed on social media in a post made by Best’s younger brother, Roag.
“Well what an absolutely wonderful ride we’ve had,” Roag wrote. “However, everything comes to pass. My brother Pete Best has announced today he is retiring from personal appearances and performing with the group. His daughter has informed me it’s due to personal circumstances.”
Best, who recently performed a handful of U.S. concerts, added on to the post: “I had a blast. Thank you.”
How did Pete Best Join and Leave the Beatles
Like the other members of the Beatles, Best grew up in Liverpool, England. He was invited into the group via Paul McCartney in 1960, drumming for them during the band’s busy gigging days in Hamburg, Germany. In 1962, he was told by the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, that Ringo Starr would be replacing him.
“We were rockers, we were little hardies, we could handle ourselves. But when I got back home and I told my mother what happened, behind the sanctuary of the front door, I cried like a baby,” Best recalled to The Irish Times in 2020, explaining that he’s tried only to move forward in his life and career, instead of harboring resentment.
“You’re the Beatle who got kicked out because you were crap. So there’s always been a point where I’ve had to prove myself,” he explained. “I haven’t talked about it, people make their own impressions about what a drummer is about. So I’ll perform on stage and the audience can make their own mind up. I’m glad to say that the consensus of opinion is yeah, you’re a great drummer, Pete. I’m happy with that.”
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In 2024, Best and his family turned an early Beatles venue in Liverpool called the Casbah Coffee Club into a an Airbnb with rooms named for every member of the band except for Starr.
“I think if I’d kept reflecting about what happened yesterday, all the time, and it was like a nightmare to me, I would have ended up bitter and twisted,” he said in 2020. “But there came a period in my life when I was like, to hell with what happened yesterday it’s about today and tomorrow.”
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
