The most successful individuals in any industry have often commented about the loneliness it entails. It’s impossible to grasp the fully-fledged reason as to why that is, because the only way you can understand it in its entirety is to be one of those individuals. Though on the surface, this emotional isolation transpires for ultimately one reason: When one is on top, everyone wants something from them. One group of people who are familiar with such a feeling is The Beatles.
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The Beatles were human beings whose fame turned them into an artistic attraction and a monetary opportunity. That being said, it seems a lot of people merely wanted to watch them or use them for their benefit. As a result, the only people they could trust wholeheartedly were each other and their families, and Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr attested to the fact on two separate instances.
The Beatles Didn’t Have a Lot of True Friends, but They Had Each Other
Paul McCartney’s comments regarding the relationship between fame and isolation are rather sad, yet incredibly honest. In a 1974 interview with Rolling Stone, McCartney stated, “I remember Ringo saying at the time, ‘How many friends have I got?’ and he couldn’t count them on one hand.”
“And that’s what it boils down to, really. You can have millions of friends, but when someone asks you how many friends you’ve got, it depends on how honestly you’re going to answer. Because I don’t think I have that many,” added Paul McCartney.
Ringo Starr voiced a similar perspective in his biography, Ringo: With a Little Help. For the book, Ringo told author, Michael Seth Starr, “Elvis went downhill because he seemed to have no friends, just a load of sycophants. Whereas with us, individually, we all went mad, but the other three always brought us back. That’s what saved us.” “I remember being totally bananas thinking, I am the one, and the other three would look at me and say, ‘Scuse me, what are you doing?’ I remember each of us getting into that state,” added Starr.
Per these comments, the age-old saying “It’s lonely at the top” directly applied to The Beatles, but luckily, they all had each other. If they didn’t, who knows what would have happened to The Beatles during their unprecedented fame? Because fame is a machine that chews people up and spits them out with no remorse.
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