Everyone Loves You When You're Dead. Neil Strauss
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things that I used to regard as Roger’s negative points, I now view them in a kind of very positive way. Like he used to be quite dominating and threatening. I used to drink a bottle of whiskey and smoke forty joints at night listening to Jimmy Reed, and if he hadn’t come around and gotten me out of bed, I wouldn’t have done a gig or done anything. I think that in the early days, we needed that kind of discipline. He was a working man. He used to get up at 6:30 in the morning and go and do a job every day, and then at the end of the day, he’d come around and pick me up, pick Keith up, pick John [Entwistle, bassist] up and take us to the show.
When I talked to Roger, he said, “I don’t know where I stand with Pete,” which seemed like a strange comment.
TOWNSHEND: You know, I just hope nobody knows where they stand with me. That’s the way I like it.
Undiscouraged, Daltrey toured later that year playing Who songs with Simon Townshend—Pete’s brother—on guitar instead. After two more years, Pete Townshend relented and began touring with Daltrey again, eventually releasing the first new Who studio album in twenty-four years.
I asked your brother this same question: If your band was playing in the sixties, do you think you could compete with the Beatles?
LIAM GALLAGHER: I think we’d be the Beatles.
Then what would the Beatles be?
GALLAGHER: They’d be the Beatles, too. And if the Beatles were here now, they’d be Oasis.
[Continued . . .]
In the Los Angeles studio of producer Don Was, Ringo Starr didn’t sit down for an interview; he braced himself for one. Though he was affable and open, he also seemed tense, like a dog expecting at any minute to get hit by a stick. That stick is the Beatles. Everywhere Starr had gone that day, people treated him more like a museum piece in a Beatles exhibit than like a person. Modest by nature, he tended to brush off the attention and avoid the word Beatles, referring to the group simply as “we” whenever possible.
Add to this Starr’s desire to be taken as seriously as John Lennon but his inability to articulate and conceptualize as well, and you have an interview that, at every turn, grew increasingly awkward—especially when Starr was asked about his habit of flashing peace signs on both hands and saying, “Peace and love,” repeatedly.
What made you start using the “peace and love” catchphrase you always say?
RINGO STARR: Every record has some peace and love song on it.
I’m talking more about the way you say it.
STARR: Yeah, I say, “Peace and love. Hey, peace and love.” Well, I think it certainly came from the sixties and, you know, we31 were peace and love. You’ll find photos of us and it just became more and more, and I had this dream that one day everyone on the planet will go, “Peace and love,” and there will be a psychic shift.
For my birthday last year in Chicago, I had the twelve noon peace-and-love second. I told people, “Just stop wherever you are at noon and say, ‘Peace and love.’ ” And, you know, that’s a great vibe to put out. Really.
Do you know what a meme is? It’s an idea that spreads virally. Is that the point?
STARR: Well, I didn’t invent it, but I’m trying to spread it, like Maharishi and TM [transcendental meditation]. But I’ve been put down so badly for peace and loving. (Harshly:) “Oh, he’s peace and loving, you know what I mean.” Hey, I’m only saying “peace and love.” What’s there to be angry about?
You’ve gotten shit for it?
STARR: Yeah! People are like, “That’s all he does now.”
Well, you do say it a lot.
STARR: Yeah, some people can’t take it.
It’s better than saying “war and hate” all the time.
STARR: There’s a lot of that out there. And we have a track about that. Let’s get back to the record.
Okay. The last thing I was going to ask about, and this is such an asshole journalist question . . .
STARR: I hope you write it like that (laughs).
I will, because I wouldn’t know how to answer it. But what is love and how does one attain it?
STARR: Well, for me, love is to try and be kind and understanding. I mean, I am loved by many people and I love many people, but, you know . . .
In the case of fans, they say love, but they probably mean respect.32
STARR: Well, you cannot help but respect someone if you love them. But you can’t say, “Oh, there—that’s what it is.” It’s an emotion. It’s a feeling. It’s a state of being. Not a state of mind, because I don’t know about you, but there’s many states in my mind (laughs).
It’s easy for people to talk about love, but when it’s so vague like that, I think it’s hard for people to practice it because they don’t have the tools or know how to let go of ego and get there.
STARR: I think we all have the tools. I’d like to say I’ve looked at peace and love since I was born, but that’s not true. However, I’ve become more conscious of it and it’s become more and more part of my life. My grandchildren, as soon as they see me, they go, “Peace and love,” you know what I mean. It’s how they are.
Okay, let’s get back to the music. Your song “Peace Dream” has a lot of similarities to [John Lennon’s] “Imagine.” Was that something you were thinking consciously?
STARR: Well, I brought John into it, is that what you’re talking about? I brought John into it because, you know, you always try as a songwriter to express a moment, and I can always talk about John, Paul, and George. And just like John Lennon said in Amsterdam from his bed, and that was the first time he did that peace thing, so he was trying to move peace and love along, too. So it was a peace dream, you know. It was a natural thing to do. It would have been awkward if you’d have done it, you know what I’m saying. But it was easier for me because I knew the man and, you know, I did know that moment that he and Yoko were in Amsterdam.
And then you had Paul McCartney play bass on it?
STARR: Well, he was in for the Grammys, and we always hook up if we’re around. Of course I had to play him the track because of the John Lennon line, and he said “fine” and so he played bass on that.
When you say you had to play it for him, why is that?
STARR: Well, because it says “John.” Let’s not be silly.
You mention a lot of other people by name on the album that you probably didn’t check with anyone about.
STARR: I mean, you know, John was in the band, Paul and I were in the band. I just didn’t want it to be like we were Beatle-ing out, you know. So I played it to him for that reason. With respect.
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