Ringo Starr Shared How Music Saved Him From Life in a Violent Gang

Ringo Starr has had an incredibly successful career with his music. Still, he admitted his life could have turned out much differently. Starr explained that when he was growing up in Liverpool, he, like many other people his age, joined a gang. He spoke about the shocking violence he witnessed while growing up and noted how lucky he felt that music came into his life when it did.

According to Starr, most people he knew growing up were in gangs. It was either join them or put a target on your back.

“We were by the docks in Liverpool and each and every area had its own gang,” he said in The Beatles Anthology. “It was like New York or Hamburg. I was a Teddy boy; you had to be. Where I lived, you had to associate with some gang, otherwise you were ‘open city’ for anybody. The choices were: you could either be beaten up by anybody in your neighbourhood, or by people in other neighbourhoods (which I was, several times).”

Starr adapted to this lifestyle. While he wasn’t good at fighting, he was good at running. Still, he saw shocking violence in his youth.

Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com