Ringo Starr Was 'Stoned' When He Had the Idea for The Beatles' 'Octopus's Garden'

Ringo Starr was "stoned" when he had the idea for The Beatles' "Octopus's Garden." He revealed he was on a famous comedian's boat when he thought up the track.

Ringo Starr said he was “stoned” when he had the idea for The Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden.” He revealed he was on a famous comedian’s boat when he thought up the track. In addition, Ringo felt the tune could just as easily have been about “happy-go-lucky sharks.”

During a 2023 interview with Vulture, Ringo discussed the origin of “Octopus’s Garden.” “I’d actually left the band and gone to Sardinia for a holiday in 1968, and Peter Sellers’ boat just happened to be there,” he recalled. For context, Sellers was a comic actor most known for portraying Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films from the 1960s and 1970s. “[Ringo’s then-wife] Maureen [Cox] and I and the kids went on his boat, and the captain was talking to me. I’m afraid we were smoking a bit of dope in those days — a bit of grass.

“So it was all so nice and beautiful, and he told me the story about how octopuses have their own special gardens under the sea,” he added. “When you’re stoned, how do you react? ‘Wow! Wow!'” Ringo was then asked if “Octopus’s Garden” was the best Beatles tune to listen to while stoned. He wasn’t sure, but listening to the song on drugs worked “fine” for him.

Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com

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